Curious about the "rules"

[macwilkin]

Todd, my point was never about the clergy wearing robes , they all do to make them different from the congregation,precisely to show separation from them and to indicate of the roles that they have , ie, the priest is attired differently from the servers and so on.The reason why many of the robes of the servers are attired in robes is to cover up the individual, but why are there so many different roles for deacons/subdeacons/readers etc if everyone is of the same standing

I'm not sure why you raised this though as the general point of the thread was that wearing white tie to formal events( for example) was one of social levelling and the fact that a priest would often wear expensive embroidered robes is precisely the opposite of social levelling.

sorry to the OP but this does seem to have drifted a little

I was reminded of the OSV statement because of this post by Jeff:

Well put, Scott. It is often a difficult concept to grasp and convey but you did it well. Too often I think people believe that dress "codes" for events are somewhow meant to separate the haves from the have nots, when in fact they are, as you said, more designed to put everyone on equal social footing, at least for the duration of the event, regardless of percieved overall social standing.

Emphasis on "...more designed to put everyone on equal social footing", which is another reason why altar servers, especially children and young adults, who may come from different socio-economic backgrounds, wear liturgical garb.

And my priest would disagree with you regarding his standing; he frequently reminds us of the laity who serve at the Altar that he is "first among equals". Yes, he is authorized to do things that we cannot do, such as perform the Mass, but that doesn't mean he is "better" than us.

I didn't realize that we were so stricly limited in our observations. I'll do better to remember that in the future.

T.