www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Look at this Vestment!

Please follow the link:

http://flickr.com/photos/mariagwyn/217871071/in/set-72157594241004604/

I never thought that even Orthodoxy will have "chasubles" like this (courtesy of New Skete, in this case.)

I wonder what Met. Herman thought when he saw this one!

Hmm - the word is phelonion


Since I know no more I will comment no further

Did somebody lose a bet?

My hunch is that a youth group somewhere made it for him...

Gotta give him credit for bravery - he wore it in public!

God bless,

Gordo

New Skete is known for a certain amount of openess to innovation in some sense. The layout of their chapel including the templon style (quite different from the icon screens more commonly found, but rooted in historical research)shows this a bit.

That isn't my taste in artwork, but I am all for colorful variations. He certainly does stand out!

I think this does go to show that the idea that all Orthodox everywhere are have the same "Gold Robes & brocade" taste is not 100% accurate... Tastes do vary.

He does stand out [flickr.com]

and is hard to miss [flickr.com]

very colorful [flickr.com]

another [flickr.com]

another [flickr.com]

Closeups of the back:

back [flickr.com]

back [flickr.com]

back [flickr.com]

Front

Front full [flickr.com]

Personally, the vestments I have seen that I like the best include embroidered iconography.

Didn't Saint John Maximovitch wear a miter with pictures glued on?

It really looks like a Mexican print of the Nativity of Christ. But, it is most likely an imbrodered vestment. Maybe someone made it especailly for him with a lot of love.

When I was a kid, I had a skirt from Mexico, that had a story of sorts on it.

Maybe someone from his church will see this and let us know about it.

With all of his troubles, this could be something to send him over the edge!

Dn. Robert

P.S. Reputedly, this is the place from where our liturgical translators obtained the "always and everywhere" formula in the elevation of the gifts.I confirmed with one of the monks at New Skete that, in fact, they formerly used that formulation, but do not presently do so, because it is seen as "problematic".

Silence assumes assent in this instance, I would think. Being that he was there, and he is the boss, he could have told the priest to borrow something else from the monks at New Skete.

Either way, while it is not my taste, if the worst thing a hierarch ever had to deal with was the questionable taste of styles of folk art in a vestment, he would be a lucky, lucky bishop.

Plus, as Alice notes, it was probably made with a lot of love and no small amount of effort. I can't take barbs at him for that. (Plus I am starting to half like it, the more I look at it.)

Mila Mina [stthomasbcc.org] (mother of one of our priests) who is an iconographer. She is so prolific we used to joke "lock her in your church before you go to sleep with paint and coffee, by the time you wake up there will not be an inch unpainted!" (That is only half a joke!) She is very clever and the longer you examine her work, the more you see that and her sense of humor. (pay special attention to the faces of the bishops who are falling off the ladder in her "Ladder of Divine Ascent"!!! Then look for the lay woman on the ladder.) I met her once, her humor was just as her icons.

This icon she did of the synaxis of all-saints (it used to be at BCS) was rather clever in its presentation - saints and founders of orders appeared in the order in which they lived... It was just marvelous.

If you looked closely you also noted some clever interplay between the orders, the monastics, the kings, etc. Behind monastic founders stood saints of their orders. Behind Saint Bruno, who was the founder of the Cartusians, if you looked closely you would notice only the tops of heads and halos. It was a hat tip to all the unkown, uncanonized Carthusians as that order actively dissuades canonization proceedings for their members.

I would prize having a copy of that icon and I would jump at the chance to work with anyone who had a four-head embroidery machine to replicate it on the back of a phelonion.

That is my taste, and of course it would not appeal to many who would hate it or criticize. I could already imagine the comments. So be it.

Really, I am soooooo over "ugly vestment spotting" in the blogosphere and various fora which seems to be a type of a sport for some. That is soooooooo 1990s (let alone questions of charity or the propriety of allowing for the occasion of smugness).

Besides, in the process of inculturation as Eastern Chrsitianity in the US adopts a distinctive identity some experimentation will occur... Not everything tried will be a hit... Part of the process.

So I say, Father, wear the heck out of it! No one will ever forget you!

The priest in question is not from New Skete. He is a parish priest somewhere in New York. The vestments were designed for him by his Matushka using artwork done by the children of his parish. I wouldn't want to look at it every week, but I understand how and why it was made and have no problem with it.

The services at New Skete are beautiful and prayerfully carried out. They differ significantly from parish usage, but that is true of most monasteries.

SHOWS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ASSUME.

Dn. Robert

I didn't mean to imply I thought he was. My point was that, given the location, if the bishop really had had a problem with them, it would have been easy enough to demand he high-tale it to the sacristy and borrow another set.

I don't have a strong opinion one way or another about the services at NS, except to say, by all acounts I hear, they are indeed as you say - beautiful and prayerfully carried out.

Why des this suddenly remind me of a certain Andrew Lloyd Webber production?

I love it!

Shalom,
Memo

Thank you! I figured there was a special history behind the vestment. What a special gift to him from a lovely wife and the children. Can't one just imagine the excitment they have when he wears it. I agree, I don't think it would be an everyday vestment, but on special occassions, wow, I bet the kids are really drawn into the understanding of worship. The lifting up on their hands is so very important and they see the labor of their hands on this vestment.

It looks like a quilt my grandmother made for me. I am picturing myself rolled up in it with my cat, eating popcorn and watching a movie at home on a cold winter night.

I find it distracting when see with the other vestments.

I am not sure I find it tasteful, but I do not know what is considered proper for vestments.