YOU AND YOUR WORSHIP
Instruction from the Diocesan Liturgy Commission
(DECENT DRESSING AT LITURGY)

Two recent incidents will serve well as preface to our consideration of decency in dressing either generally or when we go to worship. In the early days of January 2008, the National House of Representatives was reported to have banned a certain American film being before then transmitted on the television. The film, according to an internet article is Big Brother Africa. But before this, the director of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was said to have already directed that the film be withdrawn from the scene after people who watched it complained for its nudity and sexual acts. That is for us a good sign of hope. These things have to respect the sensibility of our people.

Again, France knew no politics from November 2007 till some months latter. The only discussion was the new girlfriend of the president; would he marry her or not? The French president Nicolas Zarchozy had divorced the wife of his second marriage in October 2007 and quickly in November found a new girlfriend Italian top-model and singer Carla Bruni, who he met at a dinner (that is to say he had married and divorced two already). They began to romance about as everybody watched, made a Christmas holiday together to Egypt. In early January 2008, the president declared his intention to wed Carla in February this same year.

However, some days ahead of the president's scheduled trip to visit the King of Saudi Arabia, the secretary to the Saudi government sent out a message to him, warning him never to come on his visit with his girlfriend. Reason: that Islamic Law (Sharia) forbids a man to live with a woman he is not married to and who is not his relative. Well, this is an Arab nation receiving a president from the Christian world! But for us Christians, everything goes: politics does not concern religion. This is wrong. Our appearance should always portray our faith.

Should we allow ourselves to come before our God appearing any how we like? Surely not! We should dress ourselves properly as is becoming of both Igbo and Christian moral. We should be decently dressed. But what is the mark and measure of decency and indecency in question? We shall go by our cultural and human values.
From our value of the sacredness of human life, our Igbo people like to cover delicately and jealously, those parts of the body associated with the bringing to existence and nurturing of the young human life. It is against our sensibility to expose these inner parts of the body, or even know the shape, design or colour of what is used to cover them. We don't like clothes to be open beyond where the inner wears should reach. Any transgression of this feeling is for our people considered to be immodest and indecent. In this wise then, we will consider as indecent dressing and therefore condemned for coming to liturgical worship, even if acceptable for other occasions, any of these materials or patterns of dressing.

- Any perforated cloth material that would reveal the inner or under wears
- Any material so transparent as to reveal the under wears or their colour
- Any material so light that the wind could blow it up exposing the inner body
- Any short trouser of a man that goes above the knee
- Any short or mini gown of a woman above the knee
- Any T-shirt of a man with narrow sleeves over the shoulders
- Any T-shirt of a woman with narrow sleeves over the shoulders
- Any clothe of a woman with narrow shoulder straps showing the body from the neck and throat down to the shoulders
- Any dress of a woman with sleeves dropping below the shoulders or on the upper arm
- Any clothe of a woman coming so low at the back neck as to reveal the upper back
- Any gown or skirt cut open between the legs, in front or at the back or at the side, in such a way that it exposes the thighs
- Any clothe of a man or a woman so tight as to show the whole inner contour of the body.

This distinction and clarification will help parish priests and church wardens to resolve the problem that has existed until now, of what is the measure of indecency that will qualify a person to be denied access into the church. Let priests remember to give instruction on this during the great feasts when many people come back home from the city. Let the one preparing couples for marriage remind them of this against their day of wedding; for themselves and for those assisting them as bride's maid and “ashebi girls”. Our God is to be honour always in his holy place.

9. TELEPHONE AT MASS
Telephone for everybody in Nigeria is comparatively a new culture, thanks to the Obasanjo administration. But our people use to say that “Uri (egwu) ?h?r? p?ta, mkp?r?h?h?a ?h?r? ap?ta” for any new music, arises a new whistling rhythm accordingly. We needed to learn also and get used to the handling of the new telephone culture. How would one not distract other people around with the phone its ringing tone and volume, the raised voice in taking a call and even by hand, leg and body gesticulations while speaking on the phone? How would one not be a nuisance to his or her host by phone call, e.g. by making or receiving mid-night calls? How would one prove to be disciplined by having the phone not disturb at the some very important public and social gatherings? And how would one carry the phone so that it would not be an obstruction and a distraction in a religious gathering? This, added to telephone courtesy would be a new form of learning as we began to use the telephone.

We are becoming old in the use of the phone and so are fast getting over its initial inconveniences; what some artists called “GSM wahala”. But is it altogether no more an issue that one hears a telephone ringing during the Mass or other liturgical gatherings? This could happen some times by accident; but that it does, and somebody runs out of the Mass to answer a call; is that also an accident? May be not, but some stupidity some times, and sign of immaturity also! A Christian who goes to worship his God should go with a certain sense of the sacred and devotion. We are not there just because of the other people around for the same motive. The issue of the telephone ringing then is not just question of distracting people. It is also a dishonour to God who owns all times, and a distraction of oneself in his communion and interaction with God.

It could happen sometimes that one expects a very important message, but does not know when it comes, and it is time for Mass. There are a number of things one can do. One can leave the phone switched on at home, have it on vibration in the handbag or the pocket, or in the car. It is enough for one to know afterwards that there was a call, and so call back the number. (This is however, against the background of the knowledge that not many who handle the handset know the mechanism of setting the vibration and so on. Many, we know, will only make and receive calls, and never put it off). However, to have such urgency in mind while going to Mass could leave one mentally divided or absent the whole time. Or is it not better to keep our troubles at home while going to church and commit them to prayer, or still, to stay at home with the troubles, instead of bringing only the body to God at church? It is a sign of devotion and maturity to simply switch off the phone during Mass, and put it on again immediately we leave the church house at the end of Mass; the heavens may not fall before the Mass ends! Let us learn to glorify God with all the good things we have received from him.