SHE’S dark-haired and vivacious with a penchant for leather trousers, biker jackets and Louboutin heels. She listens to Radio head, reads Jane Austen and watches The West Wing. And no, we’re not talking about a starlet taking over Hollywood but a woman who is an ordained priest. Step forward the Reverend Sally Hitchiner.Sally looks spiffy to me, quite stylish and attractive, but not everyone agrees.
The world now appears to be divided between those who are hailing 32-year-old Rev Hitchiner for being a welcome burst of fresh air and for refusing to conform to the frumpy stereotype of a priest and those who are aghast at her sartorial choices and believe she is dragging the Church of England into disrepute.
....
“This is the sort of spectacle traditional Anglicans feared when they allowed the ordination of women. We wouldn’t expect a policewoman to accessorise her uniform like this – nor do her hair up like she’s off to a ball. She seems too vain to hold office, which requires quiet dignity.”
The clothes Sally wears in the fashion shoot are borrowed, as she cannot afford Prada and other designer brands on a chaplain's wage.
Brave Bishop Alan Wilson jumps into the fray or goes out on a limb - choose your metaphor:
“I think Sally is both smart and sassy and that obviously causes some people problems but that’s their issue not hers.Is it just me, or does anyone else note that Alan spends a good deal of time out there on a limb? Thank God for an Anglican bishop who breathes fresh air into the stuffy atmosphere.
....
“It’s insane and it’s something that doesn’t happen to men. I think there is institutionalised sexism in the Church of England and the only way to root it out is to name it for what it is. I admire the fact that Sally has the personal confidence to go out there and be the person she is rather than being cowed by a lot of silly old men who doubtless feel she should be something else.”
Sally says:
“I’ve always been struck by the stories of Jesus going to people where they are. No group was off limits He just was himself and met people where they are,” she says.As for the young chaplain, along with her fashion statements and how she lives her life, she is another breath of fresh air in the church. My words to her are, "Geaux Sally!"
“That’s how I’m trying to live my life.”
H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead.
Swap the impractical high heels for a pair of Doc Martens and you're hot to trot!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, this isn't news (the fact that it comes from the Daily Express - a right-wing crypto-racist newspaper which still prints conspiracy theories about the late Diana Princess of Wales - tells you that). There have been any number of modern, forward-looking female priests over the last decade who had similar media interests (one was curate at the church I used to go to). I suspect some were comfortable wearing leather too.
That the Daily Express can still find old buffers to reminisce about the days when the memsahibs knew their place is sad. But it is they who are out on a limb in the UK, not Bishop Alan.
James, even today the memsahibs are forced to know their place is not the episcopacy. The Times had the story, too, but it was behind their pay wall. I doubt it would be difficult for any newspaper to find old buffers who take a critical view of Sally's fashions.
DeleteAs for my words about Bishop Alan...irony alert.
Love this story. Good for her.
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteThe picture of the Pope and the Archbishop was great, but how about a replay of some of your bad vestments greatest hits? They make Sally look like she's Amish...not that there's anything wrong with that. Just think, if she ever meets the Pope they can talk shoes.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Bex. That would be Cardinal Raymond Burke in his array of splendiferous vestments. I wanted an example from the English church to do the compare and contrast.
DeleteWouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall if the pope and Sally talked shoes? She might even request the pontiff to have his personal cobbler cobble together a pair for her.
They'd be sole mates.
DeleteGroan... :-)
DeleteI remember being at Holy Apostles in NYC one Sunday when one could glimpse fishnet stockings under the the female priest's alb. I was delighted.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have lately been listening to Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber's sermons online. She is a young Lutheran pastor at House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, heavily tattooed and quite traditional at the same time. Here's a link to her site:
http://www.sarcasticlutheran.com/
I admire her preaching very much.
Ah yes, fishnet... :-)
DeleteQuite a while back, I remember reading a post or two on a blog by a woman who was a pastor in the Lutheran church (I think) and was also heavily tattooed, but I will check out Nadia's sermons at your link.
Laurel, Nadia is the pastor whose blog I have read in the past. Thanks for the link.
Delete"...requires quiet dignity..." ? What? Oh give me strength! You go, Sally!
ReplyDeleteThe irony writes itself. As the dear, departed Molly Ivins would say, "You can't make this stuff up."
DeleteLove Nadia. Here is a YouTube of her talk at an ELCA youth gathering in New Orleans.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM9Y553UYi8
The video is not available at the link, Bex. I'll look for it tomorrow.
DeleteI disagree with you on this one, Mimi. Modesty is always called for in a priest; if you want to wear 6-inch heels, whether boy or girl, you need to pick another career. More than that, women (as usual) have the double burden of avoiding clothing that is consciously designed to be sexually provacative and enticing to men - as so many items of women's clothing are. Or do you really want to see a male priest at the altar in a low tank top showing his chest and skintight spandex showing the precise outline of his ******? It's not that either sex can't resist temptation - it's simply that a priest is a bridgemaker, when you look at a priest you should be looking through him/her to God, not at him/her.
ReplyDeleteOf course this, you will say, is an entirely retrograde opinion in the modern world. And you would, of course, be entirely correct. That is the point.
Russ, if Sally was male, the commentary on her attire would simply not be happening. The designer shoes are from a photo shoot spread in a magazine and do not belong to her, but if she chooses to wear six-inch heels, I don't have a problem with that. As for wearing what some think of as a sexually provocative outfit which is enticing to men, give me a break. Sally's clothing in the picture is hardly revealing. A knee-length skirt is quite common today, and the rest of the outfit provides coverage. As to your comparison to a man at the altar in a low tank top, I'd wager that Sally wears proper vestments when she officiates at services, except perhaps in informal situations.
DeleteIf one calls oneself a Christian, one should try to see Jesus in everyone, not just clergy. Clergy are human, like you and me, men and women who are assigned particular offices and duties in the church. We do not need clergy as bridges to God; we can approach God directly, on our own.
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ReplyDeleteI've known loads of Church of England priests who like to dress like this. They've all been men, of course.
ReplyDeleteExactly...up to and including shoes with six-inch heels. :-) Still, I don't know how anyone walks in heels that high. Four inches was about the highest I could wear, even when I was young.
Delete