Another Good One From The Comments

Sometimes this blog writes itself with little or no help from me - with words from my virtual friends and visitors. To understand this post, you may want to do a little homework by refreshing your memory of My Conversation With Bishop Katharine and the comments to that post. Or, again, you may not.

mary clara said...

Mimi, thanks for performing this vital public service. You really put yourself on the line for all of us.

I bet Padre Mickey wears pants every day just so he won't have to shave his legs. 'Cause that would take up valuable time and he gots so many people to minister to and and care for in his wonderful parroquia, plus the Friday Night Red Mister Peanut Bank and Gallito Mescalito show and his daily blogging responsibilities to keep up with.

Maybe if I quit shaving my legs I would have time to start my own blog. But I confess I love the feeling of my smooth legs.

The playful interest in our PB’s wardrobe is a reflection of our soul speculating on deeper matters and longing for wholeness. I mentioned the two cosmological principles of changelessness and change, which we associate with masculine and feminine respectively. There is also the old idea that the soul has two aspects, one that changes and one that remains ever the same. One is like the sun, the other like the moon. Traditionally, male priests and bishops (in their uniforms) followed the solar model of the God who is 'the same yesterday, today and tomorrow'. That leaves the lunar principle of change and variation without a human embodiment; it is expressed instead in the beautiful vestments and the liturgy and in the turning of the liturgical year (which combines elements of the old lunar calendar with the solar).

The Church has long been a refuge for men who love lace and parades and beautiful table services. In other words, androgyny has been there all along. But now we have a tall, confident female person heading our Church, wearing the (male)uniform. It is natural for us to wonder whether she is allowed, without reservation, to bring 'the feminine' with her. To me she seems very much a woman and quite at home with herself in her role. There's a dame inside that uniform (hence MadPriest's nickname for her, Katharine Zeta Schori!). She is not an imitation male. Our fantasies of seeing her in silks and laces (or at least a tailored skirt), our wonderings about these little details of her bodily and aesthetic life, show our own love of the feminine and our wish that it be given its true dignity and included in the blessing. Ultimately, I don't think it is overstating the matter to say that the question about skirts has to do with the possibility of the union of opposites in the soul -- and in the Church.

Isn't it funny that this clothes business matters enuf even to joke about. But the fact is, I think PB Katharine is a good-looking woman and would enjoy seeing her in a pretty dress or a well-tailored skirt suit, just for the sheer variety of it. I think the secret is that women have been given beauty and variety as part of our turf. We have a long cultural history of being the ones who display for the benefit of the human race the whole spectrum of color, pattern, shape, movement, texture, aroma, and so on, not just as personal expression or a statement of family dignity, respectability or wealth (consumerism), but because we all need the soul-nourishment of seeing and smelling beauty. It's accepted that men may (and even should) look virtually the same from day to day, but we want women to embody variation and change -- the two cosmic principles. Bishops, however, are like military officers: they wear uniforms while on duty. Which means we have to endure the frustration of not getting to see PB Katharine Zeta Schori in glam duds. This is one of the little conundrums of change in the church. We finally got women priests and bishops, but the uniform (which was built on masculine principles) is still the same except for minor alterations in proportions. Thank goodness for vestments, which give clergy of both genders a chance to take part in the ceremonies of beauty!

I personally love clothes and shoes, but it's gotta be comfortable, and that mostly means pants, or skirts that work with comfortable sandals or boots. So I wouldn't wish the pantyhose obligation on anybody, especially my PB. Maybe what we could do is develop a PBKJS paper doll that could be dressed up in her bishop uniform but also in civvies! She is tall and could really wear designer clothes, I would think. Or, why not a Presiding Bishop Barbie, with a complete wardrobe from mitres to nighties? Now there is a project to keep some of us out of trouble for awhile, take our minds off schism and apostasy, etc.

Anyhow, put me down as a charter member of the We Wear the Pants Club. And PBKJS should be the Number One Honorary Member.

I am humbled and awed by Mary Clara's contribution because she widens the discussion beyond Bishop Katharine's clothes, like the effects of a water drop in a pond, to encompass weighty and serious matters of attitudes and traditions in the church. See how she waxes on the soul, cosmic principles, androgyny, aesthetics, and the like. And I learned that discussion of skirts is, indeed, not trivia, but vital to the polity of our church life.

At Mary Clara's suggestion, we combined two comments of hers to very good effect, I believe.

Excellent, Mary Clara, excellent. Thank you.