If your husband is an Orthodox priest, he should look and dress like this.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/sas/image/100426/42679.p.jpg?0.13374127902817373

Unless he is an older man, in which case, this is appropriate.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-ash1/v355/237/29/577747586/n577747586_1376170_7374.jpg

Slavipodvishnik, you have me in tears of laughter! My dear husband is an Orthodox priest but somehow he missed this message when he was ordained!

In this country, it all depends on which jurisdiction he was ordained in. Some jurisdictions take the traditions of the Church more seriously than some of the others.

I will, almost always, vote for Tradition over convention.

Now let's see, if we were in 18th century Colonial America some people might have wanted Orthodox priests to wear makeup, powdered wigs and lace! You know, to "fit in" and be respectable. It was, after all, the typical dress of male members of the establishment at the time. Think about that one for a minute.

Only needed a few seconds. Typical? "Those who could afford wigs represented 5 percent of the total population of Virginia." (link)

Wigs were going out of fashion by the middle of the 18th century. They had only become popular in the reign of Louis XIV, who thinning pate was covered by elaborate perukes. Powdering the wigs was a necessity to keep down the vermin that infested them. But by the reign of Louis XVI in France and George III in England, a new simplicity began to dominate fashion. Benjamin Franklin more or less killed of the wig for men when he decided that the proper persona to project in the French court was that of simple, homespun Bonhomme Richard (Poor Richard, of Almanac fame). Franklin (who had worn wigs when representing the colonies at the Court of St. James) was a huge hit, and the French, ever slaves to the latest fad, tossed their wigs into the trash. The English soon followed suit, except for ceremonial positions, thereby allowing them to have the best of both worlds.

I'm with you Pani! I've got to say once again that clothes don't make the man - or the woman.

Rasputin looked like the pictures - that didn't make him a Saintly man. Likewise, the same may be said for any number of clean shaven clerics.

My lifelong problem with the certain members of the more 'traditionalist' faction of Orthodoxy has been their never-ending insistence that the internalization of faith can only best be expressed through the most rigorous of outward, external expressions - from clothes, to liturgics, to iconography and so on. (Particularly when practiced in what appears to be a romanticized Western recreation of mid-19th century Russian rural lifestyles.)

I respect those like Slavipodvishnik who are sincere in their beliefs and who truly practice the virtues of our shared faith, but I have known far too many clean shaven men of faith who honestly ministered to their flocks for decades as kind, hard-working and humble Orthodox priests to take him too seriously on this subject.

He wasn't talking about Russian hermits, but in one lecture I heard him criticize those who went overboard in clerical garb and fashion as decking themselves in "Byzantine drag".

Also note a Metropolitan of one Old Calendar jurisdiction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilarion_Alfeyev

Father Vasily Vasilievich casts a long shadow. Is outrage!

If being faithful to "that which has been handed down to us", earns me the title of a foaming at the mouth, reactionary traditionalist, well, I will wear that badge with honor. Now I am speaking only of the Church here in America, but if people think that what goes on in this country is the norm for Orthodoxy, they are sadly mistaken. But don't take my word for it. Look at the local Orthodox Churches in your town. Check out their schedule of services. If a Church routinely has a full vigil service Saturdays and the eve of Feast days, Divine Liturgy of at least 90 minutes on Sundays and Feast days, routinely has Akafist and Paraklesis services, encourages fasting, has adult education courses during the week, supports and visits their local monastery, (If they belong to a jurisdiction that even HAS monasteries!), supports mission parishes, arranges for visiting miraculous icons and visiting hierarchs to speak at heir churches, well, it has been my experience, and I have visited hundreds of Orthodox Churches in the US and Canada, that the priest at these Churches will look and dress like a priest. If the Church in question only has Liturgy for 45 minutes on Sunday morning, and the only activity at the Church other than Sunday Liturgy is bingo, well, take a guess at what the priest will usually look like. Now I am speaking of cradle Orthodox here. Within the recent past, i.e., less than 100 years, there have been groups that came into Orthodoxy from Protestant or other backgrounds that have not yet fully been acclimatized into Orthopraxy, and we must be patient with them, allowing them the time and teaching them to shed their westernizations.

By the same token, as DMD cautioned, I am leery of those that take it too far. Just because a priest has long hair and a beard, does not excuse him from washing and combing it. One can be hirsute without looking like a hippie or a Rastafarian. For a priest to wear a riassa whilst teaching or appearing in public events is proper, wearing it to Kennywood is not. And as our beloved Administrator John once so succinctly put it, "I'd prefer to see Eastern clergy dress as Eastern clergy. But, to be blunt, if it is the middle of August with temps pushing 100 and I drive past the priest's house and see him cutting his grass in a cassock rather than in a t-shirt and shorts I'm going to wonder about him."

Alexandr

To continue my line of thought. This just came to my attention, and it illustrates how some Orthodox in this country are woefully ignorant of their own faith.

http://gotruthreform.org/gay-parishioner-denied-communion/

What can be said of a person's understanding of Orthodoxy if denying a practicing homosexual of communion is now a form of "extreme fundamentalism"? Since when is communion a right that priests must give us regardless of what sins we commit? Since when is receiving communion considered a "good thing" regardless of the state of our souls and our way of life?
It is not "extreme Orthodox fundamentalism" but rather it is the Orthodox tradition, the Scriptures, and basic morality that is being challenged by some who have supposedly been raised in the Orthodox Church.

Gospodi Pomilui!

Alexandr

I am not sure how we got from long hair and beards to homosexuality but I want to comment on something specific that Slavipodvizhik mentioned in the prior post. He made a comment about forty-five minute liturgies and bingo while at the same time mentioning his frustrations at how others might perceive him through stereotypes based upon his choice of appearance.

First, I do not regard him as a 'foaming at the mouth, reactionary traditionalist' and if I came across as expressing a stereotype-based opinion, I apologize as that was never my intent.

Stereotypes are to some extent based upon subjective observations made by groups of people over time. They exist to allow us to fit our prejudices neatly into a box so that when someone or something in a stereotyped group surprises our preconceptions, it gives us an excuse to not to think about our own preconceived notions on life we can retreat into a 'group-think' approach and not confront the challenge to our world-view such behavior can cause.

Now, back in the 1940's and 1950's it is true that in many parishes of ACROD and even the Metropolia many 'time honored' Latinizations in the Rubrics were continued and a 45 minute Liturgy might have been a basis for making an assumption or two. Likewise Bingo or other forms of fund raising not really common to Orthodoxy were used to keep parishes going or pay the mortgage. Many in the more 'traditionalist' mind set of Orthodoxy simply discounted 'those' folks as not being "Orthodox enough" for them.

Today few of our Orthodox parishes rely on bingo and none still utilize the heavily Latinized rubrics which were prevalent in the Uniate times. For goodness sake, my Eastern Catholic brothers have set most of those innovations aside as well, seeking a more traditional Eastern praxis.

If you go to my parish on a typical Sunday for Liturgy, you will be there for about an hour and forty-five minutes or more, depending on the Sunday, the Sermon and the attendance. The same holds true at our two OCA parishes and the other ACROD parish in town. (Likewise at the BCC parish down the street.)

The UGCC priest has longer hair, a beard and wears his cassock even when being interviewed on the TV morning show about his annual picnic.

Enough said in my opinion as we all, myself included, venture into dangerous territory by judging the quality of a man or woman based on how they look.

As a foaming at the mouth, reactionary traditionalist myself (albeit of a different tradition) I took my Russian friend to be using that phrase in a most complimentary way.

I have a beard and I don't sing bass. I'm more of a cross between a baritone and a tenor.

(One week, I was too lazy to shave and the Missus remarked "Are you growing a beard?" in a very happy tone. I thought to myself "Apparently I am." That was almost 3 years ago. It's definitely less maintenance than shaving every day.)