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Some footwear doesn't go with clerical robes, German pastors told
2002-180-7
7/18/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
High heels, cowboy boots, trainers, slippers and sandals have no place with pastors' robes during worship, according to a new book of Protestant liturgy for German clergy.
The fashion proscription is among the strongly worded advice found in the recently published 590-page Evangelisches Gottesdienstbuch - Ergaenzungsband, (or Supplement to the Book of Protestant Liturgy) meant to complement an earlier liturgy book published in 1999.
The advice is found in a chapter on clergy liturgical deportment, which the author sees as integral to the worship experience: 'Not only preaching, singing and music are essential to the service but [also] how the liturgists talk and present themselves,' said Dr. Hans Christian Knuth, bishop of Schleswig and chair of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany, in a foreword to the book. Pastors are asked to conduct services in a 'credible' way.
'Services are not stage plays or private theatres for pastors,' Guy W. Rammenzweig, author of the chapter on liturgical deportment, told Ecumenical News International. 'Services are at the center of parish life, and God as well as church members are the subjects of it.' Rammenzweig also advises pastors on a variety of other subjects: how to walk and sit in church, how to turn from the altar to face the congregation (be led by the heart, he says), how to present the Lord's Supper, how to sing or give a blessing.
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