Which do you think is worse when blessing/passing the sacrament: a long-sleeved, coloured shirt and tie, or a short-sleeved white shirt and tie.
Fashion and administering the sacrament
82 thoughts on “Fashion and administering the sacrament”
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“George is gettin’ upset!”
(One of my favorite lines from seinfeld).
George, do you mean just in blessings that take place during sacrament meeting? I’d hate to think that you need to get out of your pajamas and dress up at 3:00 in the morning to give one of your sick children a blessing!
Kim, probably the same reason it doesn’t matter what color pants the men wear. It has nothing to do with a priesthood ordinance. I’ve brought non-members to church and they only had a nice pair of jeans and a golf shirt to wear. I dressed the same so they wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable. There was no restriction on what we were able to wear.
I think some things are just tacky, like when the 12th graders wear their grad (prom) tuxedos or dresses to church. But there’s nobody saying they are restricted from doing so.
There has been an expectation in wards I have attended that men should always wear a white shirt, even from the pulpit.
JM said George, do you mean just in blessings that take place during sacrament meeting? I’d hate to think that you need to get out of your pajamas and dress up at 3:00 in the morning to give one of your sick children a blessing!
The answer is yes. We are supposed to wear a white shirt whenever we do anything that deals with the Priesthood. Home Teaching, blessing the sick, etc.
George.. I am one of those women who drink bottled water during Sacrament meetings and the rest of my meetings. I take medication that turns my mouth into the equivalent of the Sahara Desert. I also need to take medication throughout the day that needs a lot of water to flush it through my system and when you are at church for a 5 hour period it makes it a long time to go without water.
Why would women drinking water bug you so much?
Do you mean every day of the week, all the time?
George, does your ward also have rules about how many steps you are allowed to walk on the sabbath?
I mean to church on Sunday (well, actually to all meetings really).
I don’t see why anyone drinking anything or eating anything is a bother. Sometimes it is needed. My brother (who is not active) is a diabetic. If he were to go to church, there are times when he would need to eat or he could end up with some serious trouble. Flip flops don’t bother me either. They bother my mum (not my mum Sally, here, she is my mum in law) apparently. Actually the only thing that bothers me is when people dress immodestly. Otherwise, I personally have no problem with what people wear to church, at all. I think the most important thing is, that they are there.
Sally – if you truly have a problem where you cannot go an hour without drinking water, then my all means do what you need to do to stay alive. Almost all of the church building I have been in have several water fountains with cold water available for those who are thirsty.
My Ward follows a large Ward in the Block and 2 or 3 of us will spend up to 40 minutes prepping the chapel to make it clean. The food and stuff that is consumed is amazing. I do not think all those people eating and drinking have a medical problem.
We should get a cart and fill it with chips, soda and bottled water and then go down the asile of the other Wards selling refreshments for our Scout Fund Raiser. Some people act like they are at the movies with all the food and drink they consume.
Really do you consume food and drink every hour of the day?
Flip flops, no make up, granny dress and a bottle of water. Typical older LDS female these days.
When you Sacrament meetingis over, stay behind and help prep the Chapel for the next meeting. You will be amazed at how messy members leave it. Cookies and crumbs everywhere.
George
Boy it sounds like your ward has a huge problem with this. I have never been in a ward with such a problem.
No, mum does need to keep a bottle of water with her. Fountain or no fountain, it isn’t easy when you have certain health concerns, to get to one.
I rarely see people eating or drinking at the level you say.
“Flip flops, no make up, granny dress and a bottle of water. Typical older LDS female these days.”
Uh, yeah ok. Is it? Not where I live, or have ever lived. By the way what is wrong with no make up if one so desires?
I have never seen my mother in law in a granny dress, flip flops or without make-up at church.
For the record, although I have no problems with flip flops, I don’t ever wear them as I find them very uncomfortable. For myself though, I do not wear make-up and I don’t see what the problem is with that. Please explain what the deal is.
And besides that, what’s more important, how someone is dressed, or that they are actually AT Church?
George: Unless you are a full-time missionary there is no uniform. Any priesthood holder who tells you differently needs to spend extra time with the final verses of Section 121.
My priesthood authority was given to me at ordination and is not stored in my white shirt nor in my tie. Nor is it driven away by flip-flops.
I don’t recall seeing any pictures of the Savior in white shirt and Florsheims. Perhaps that woman who touched his hem wasn’t really healed after all. Perhaps she and the lepers were just deceived because, after all, He wasn’t wearing the uniform.
Feh. and shame on any priesthood leader so Pharasical as to promote such a perversion.
Aside from some priesthood authorities opinions about the importance of white shirts, which I disagree with, put will follow if asked to – this thread has been really revealing.
First thought…we all need much more water than most of us are consuming on a daily basis. I would rather people use a water bottle in meetings than get up to go to the water fountains.
And, let’s try and leave our fashion views at the chapel doors. Members of our church are diverse in cultural background, income, fashion sense, etc. Church is no place to find fault in such petty ways. BTW, my wife has not worn makeup since I met her and she’s gorgeous.
Totally relate on that last point, Dustin.
Thanks Kim…you calling me Dustin instead of Duncan makes me feel better about my many typos and grammatical errors…no matter how many times I think I’ve read a post over, there’s always something.
D’oh!
I can’t believe I didn’t call you Duncan. My excuse is that we were talking about a Dustin in the PPI I held tonight.
My Bishop also requires PH holders to wear white shirts when they use the PH. I guess in Canada they have a different dress code.
Drinking water during Church meetings – Maybe larger Sacrament cups are needed. What about if the trays have bottles in them instead of cups? The teachers could open the bottles and place them in the tray, the Priest could still bless and the Deacons could pass a bottle to each person. I dont remember reading where it the water needed to be a fraction of an ounce. 16 or 20 oz should be enough.
The bread could also have bacon lettuce and tomatoes on it. Toasted would be better.
This bottle water thing could be a great change.
Any thoughts? It’s still water.
well as long as we are giving requests I would like this point brought forward that whoever is in charge of so called bread that they:
1. Check for molds
2. NOT use homemade whole wheat bread
Very few people know how to make nice WW bread from scratch and the stupid pieces are dry and stick in your throat!!
The Prophet wears a White Shirt, a Tie and a Dark Suit.
Sometimes he takes his jacket off if he’s really hat.
I’ve never seen him with a bottle of water. Or a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread. Or flip flops.
I, personally, like to look to the Prophet for guidance and emulate him whenever possible.
Well, are you saying we should all wear white shirts, dark suits and ties then? Women as well?
My mother in law has celiac disease, she can’t eat wheat bread.
The Prohpet also lives in Utah, should we all move there? No thanks.
Do you use a cane, Dallas?
I am trying ti emulate the Saviour. ( I fail miserably at times, but hey I am trying,) However, not in fashion. My idea of fashion is comfort and modesty. Period.
I wonder if the P rides a Harley. I can see it now. White Shirt, Tie, Cane and a leather jacket with boots.
“My idea of fashion is comfort and modesty”
My idea of Sunday Best is Sunday Best. You think a suit is comfortable? C’mon… comfort and modesty can include velour leisure suits.
“You think a suit is comfortable?”
Yes.
“You think a suit is comfortable?â€
My response would be “a suit of what?”.
I imagine a suit of Richardson ground squirrels could be quite uncomfortable, whereas a suit of goose down would be a nice place to have a nap. =)
sigh
That’ll teach me to stick my nose into other people’s blogs….
One of the major faults with what the LDS church has become is that we have strayed from Jospeh Smith’s “I teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves” philosophy.
We are so caught up in the details of programs that we can’t discern the principle that it is trying to teach.
If our church leaders (at all levels) spent more time focusing on the principles and the doctrine, we wouldn’t even be having this thread.
Leaders get so focused on what the proper priesthood uniform is, and they interpret that as being the doctrine. This happens with many other things as well.
Instead of teaching our stake about the doctrinal principles involved with member missionary work, our stake feels the need to come up with stupid things like “We need to hand out 2006 books of Mormon in the year 2006”.
I asked one of the High council about this stake goal after it came out. I asked if the purpose of the goal was to teach members the principle of sharing the gospel, or were they just out to meet the statistic?
He answered that they were after the statistic.
I asked what good was that, since when the goal was dropped next year for something new, most members would no longer attempt to share the scriptures with anyone else.
He answered that it wasn’t a concern since the new goal would be the focus.
It amazes me that we have such short sighted leadership who are too busy building “Program Monuments” to themselves, and trying to force the entire stake into following their current “flavor of the month” make busy project. Little do they realize that once they are released, they (along with their stupid programs) will be easily forgotten.
I used to live in a Stake where the SP was so proud of a card he made with scriptures on it. The whole stake had to study his list of scriptures and all talks where to be based on the scriptures written on the card. The cards where passed out at Stake Conference with the new list of cards. I was really amazed the number of folks who thought the cards were their route to heaven.
When a blessing is given to the ill, do you think the spirit works better if you are wearing a white shirt or a blue shirt or a pink shirt? Does the color of your shirt really matters?
Do you think the spirit works better if you use virgin olive oil, or extra virgin olive oil or no oil? What about using fish oil? Does the oil make a difference or is it your belief that makes the differnce?
I think the oil does matter. To what degree, or why I’m not sure. I’ve never really looked into it. It’s just one of those things I’ve been taught that I’ve always accepted. Although, it’s not necessary. I’ve given blessings without the oil. That’s something I just might look into one day.
As for the clothes… Personally, that means nothing to me. I have been called at a moments notice to give blessings and I was wearing nothing but a T-shirt and jeans. There was no time to change and my attire did not affect the outcome at all.
Jesus annointed with clay made from his spit and some dirt… I guess we could do the same in a pinch?
“Do you think the spirit works better if you use virgin olive oil, or extra virgin olive oil”
Current policy does not specify grades of oil.
There was a time when you had to use a certain kind of olive oil to give blessings.
Does oil have anything to do with the quality of the blessing or the healing of the sick person?
What is the purpose of using oil if there is no benefit to the person receiving the blessing?