Do Anabaptists "own" the women's headcovering?

[steve-in-kville]

We haven't had a proper headcovering thread in a while and this subject has been on my mind as of late.

Do we as Anabaptists feel like the concept of the woman's headcovering is exclusive to us and us alone? Like if another woman who professes to be a Christian, yet not among our circles, but chooses to wear a covering for corporate worship, what is our attitude toward her? Is she not "doing it right"?

I have no agenda here. Just trying to encourage some discussion.

[Ernie]

I think many conservative Anabaptists believe that a distinctive color or design of headcovering is important. I do not feel that way.

For many years we were part of a GoogleGroup of hundreds of ladies who were beginning to cover. The last number of years we have taken an interest in https://www.headcoveringmovement.com/ and followed the discussions on https://www.facebook.com/headcovering/ . There are now thousands of people who read these testimonials and messages.

Here is a poll that indicates why these ladies cover. www.facebook.com/groups/covermovement/p ... 6828610241

[steve-in-kville]

That may be the same group that has a series on Youtube that my wife and I enjoyed watching. The photo on the opening page looks really familiar.

[Ken]

Whether or not Anabaptists think they "own" women's head coverings is one question. One I don't know the answer to.

Whether they actually do in real life is an entirely different question. It is a tradition in many Christian cultures.

Baptists in Detroit



Ethiopian Orthodox church women in Seattle



Little Sisters of the Poor Catholic order



Anglican women in Nigeria



Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth



Russian Old Believer Church in Woodburn Oregon



Catholic church in Spain



Ghanian Methodist church in New Jersey

[Sudsy]

We haven't had a proper headcovering thread in a while and this subject has been on my mind as of late.

Do we as Anabaptists feel like the concept of the woman's headcovering is exclusive to us and us alone? Like if another woman who professes to be a Christian, yet not among our circles, but chooses to wear a covering for corporate worship, what is our attitude toward her? Is she not "doing it right"?

I have no agenda here. Just trying to encourage some discussion.

A considerable number of Anabaptists do not wear a head covering for corporate worship. Actually in the MB church I attended women minister, wear jeans, no head covering and some young men wear ball styled hats during corporate worship. The attitude was not against wearing something on your head and some parents from other Mennonite backgrounds did wear something on their head. It certainly wasn't a head covering as it usually covered very little of the head. Just saying not all Anabaptist 'circles' adhere to any type of head attire.

[Josh]

I don't think most people think Anabaptists "own" the headcovering.

A large fraction of Anabaptists think head-covering is a sign of faithful obedience to scripture and Christian traditions, and thus view any group that head-covers as closer to practicing biblical Christianity.

The same attitude would prevail if you asked the question "Do Anabaptists 'own' not going to war?" Anabaptists used to feel a certain kinship with 7th-day Adventists, and to this day can feel a certain affinity with a group that is otherwise very different, like Jehovah's Witnesses - they also don't vote, serve on juries, or go to war, which gives us a certain commonality.

[Ken]

We haven't had a proper headcovering thread in a while and this subject has been on my mind as of late.

Do we as Anabaptists feel like the concept of the woman's headcovering is exclusive to us and us alone? Like if another woman who professes to be a Christian, yet not among our circles, but chooses to wear a covering for corporate worship, what is our attitude toward her? Is she not "doing it right"?

I have no agenda here. Just trying to encourage some discussion.

A considerable number of Anabaptists do not wear a head covering for corporate worship. Actually in the MB church I attended women minister, wear jeans, no head covering and some young men wear ball styled hats during corporate worship. The attitude was not against wearing something on your head and some parents from other Mennonite backgrounds did wear something on their head. It certainly wasn't a head covering as it usually covered very little of the head. Just saying not all Anabaptist 'circles' adhere to any type of head attire.

So what do you think is the percentage of Anabaptists who practice head covering? 50%? More?

"Plain" and "Anabaptist" have not been synonymous for decades and there are many Anabaptist and Mennonite-related denominations who don't much do head covering anymore. Or maybe just some elderly women do it.

[steve-in-kville]

So what do you think is the percentage of Anabaptists who practice head covering? 50%? More?

That is gonna largely depend on the area. Obviously the "mennonite hotspots" like Holmes Co. and the Lancaster/Lebanon areas will be a lot thicker than other parts of the nation or world. And even then, what about groups that may only wear them for church services? Or don't wear their hair in a bun?

There too much gray area to pin a number down.

[Ken]

So what do you think is the percentage of Anabaptists who practice head covering? 50%? More?

That is gonna largely depend on the area. Obviously the "mennonite hotspots" like Holmes Co. and the Lancaster/Lebanon areas will be a lot thicker than other parts of the nation or world. And even then, what about groups that may only wear them for church services? Or don't wear their hair in a bun?

There too much gray area to pin a number down.

Sure, but one can add up the membership estimates for the various Anabaptist church groups in North America and come up with a rough estimate based on the norms for each group. So, for example, MCUSA, Mennonite Brethren, CMC, Lancaster Mennonite Conference, and others I'm forgetting mostly do not practice head covering except perhaps for a few seniors. What percentage of the Anabaptist or Menno world do they represent? I don't honestly know.

[Ernie]

So what do you think is the percentage of Anabaptists who practice head covering? 50%? More?

In North America, there are more plain Anabaptists than non-plain Anabaptists.

You can get the info from these people. https://www.etown.edu/centers/young-center/