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Paul.

Paul wrote a whole lot of letters and sermons and some of them are a little difficult. I'm pretty sure that if I sat down with Paul today, he would have quite a few things to say to me and I don't know if they would start with "I give thanks for you". I'm currently watching a series of lectures from Yale on New Testament history and literature and I'm hoping to get to know the historical Paul a bit better so that I can understand why he says some of the things he says. But I digress.

This is what Paul says about head covering.

1 Corinthians 11

I think that I've already explained that my choice to cover has more to do with it being a physical expression of faith than because I think that it is a necessity passed down from scripture. I don't think that this passage tells us that all women should cover today. I don't think that you (readers who identify as female) have to go cover, unless you want to.

Why? Well Paul is speaking to a group of people living in Corinth (Greece) in the first century. In that time and place, women wore head coverings or long hair as a sign of submission to men and to show that they behaved 'properly'. Paul places a lot of importance on female submission in this passage and the head covering is a symbol of submission for married women in that culture. Head covering does not carry the same symbolism in our culture (it really just seems to confuse people) so it is not considered necessary to most Western Christians today.

There is also some evidence that women who worked as temple prostitutes may have had short hair as did some Jewish women who were in mourning. A woman covering her head (with long cloth or long hair) was set-apart from these groups. 'In' but not 'of' the world, if you will. Again, with the change of culture (we don't assume that every woman with short hair has sex at a temple or that every woman with a shaved head is Jewish and in mourning), this is no longer seen as necessary.

So I'm not covering my head because Paul says to. But that doesn't mean that I think there is no value in this passage. There is always value.

What is timeless in this passage? Many things. One of which is the reference to praying and prophesying. Praying and prophesying didn't end with the first century church. There are prophets among us today and each of us may be called at any time to open ourselves to receive from the Holy Spirit.

One of the reasons that I have chosen to cover for most of my waking hours (and not just in church or worship) is because I don't think there is ever a time when we are cut off from God. Therefor my covering is a constant reminder to bless God, to commune with God and to witness God in all aspects of my life.

There is also the line; "because of the angels". But we'll save that for another time.