HATS OFF IN CHURCH.

Shannon News, 12 February 1929, Page 4

HATS OFF IN CHURCH.

Girls and women may, if they wish, remove their hats during service at St. Matthew's Church, New ; Kent Road, London.-

“If anyone is shocked," says the vicar, the Rev. T. P. Stevens, “I shqll just smile. Let us be liberal about all such things," he writes in his parish magazine. • “The hats that people quite rightly wear just now make it most difficult for the clergyman when he has to give Holy Communion. “There are two ways out of the difficulty. Either the communicant can take the chalice into her hands very carefully, or she may take her hat off. “This will shock my High Church friends most dreadfully. They will be most distressed until I tell them .that it is only in the British Isles that women are so very particular about, hats in church.

“In the Tyrol there are many Gatjholic ‘ viMagips where |he tivomleii wear flat little bowler hats on Sundays and festivals. These they take off the moment they arrive in church. In all Continental cities women go into churches and say prayers without bothering about a covering." The vicar points out that with the Jews —on the other hand—it is a mark of reverence to wear one’s hat in church.