Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Changing rules

Unless i read it wrong, the most recent version of the church’s administrative handbook* says that the wearing of white shirts and ties should be encouraged among those who are asked to conduct the administration of the sacrament, but that—and this is the interesting part—white shirts and ties aren’t to be required of those who administer the ordinance.

I wonder if the widespread local de jure rules on white shirts and ties while administering the sacrament will actually go away, or if they’ll simply be replaced by de facto versions of the rule.

* Now called just Handbook, though it’ll always be the GHI to me!

2 comments:

Heather the Mama Duk said...

I noticed on Sunday that of the 7 people involved in blessing and passing the Sacrament that 3 were wearing white shirts. One did not have a tie. One was wearing a suit that the ward provided (he keeps it at church and changes into it each Sunday; he cannot afford that sort of clothes himself but he had a desire to wear them at church). Really, if wards insist on white shirts and ties then they ought to provide them. Clearly our ward is not fussed with white shirts and ties.

David B said...

@Heather: Your ward does not match the vast majority of Mormon practice i’ve seen (primarily in Utah, Florida, and Alaska, though there are a few others sprinkled in here and there) over the past decade.

Of course, i’d argue that your ward gets it right, but so it goes.