June 28, 2006
Bling!
A moment ago, just outside SMC, I gave directions to a priest looking for the main library here at Knox. That would be unusual enough, if perhaps not worthy of special comment. But after he'd gone, I thought about the fact that he was wearing a big blingy cross on a chain around his neck, which I think is an episcopal privilege. (Wikipedia confirms, and says Anglican practice is the same; though if he were an Episcopalian bishop he'd be wearing a purple shirt instead of black.)
All of which leaves me wondering why a bishop would be on Knox's campus looking for the main library. The pectoral cross could always be a red herring, of course. Still, not an everyday occurrence.
"Many of the adjectives that come immediately to mind begin with the
letters 'sl.'" --Eric Zorn
Posted
by blahedo
at 12:00pm
on 28 Jun 2006
A few ideas--
First, lots of bishops, Anglican and Catholic, wear black shirts at times. So it could very well have been +Ackerman or maybe the Episcopalian bishop from Davenport.
In Orthodoxy, a pectoral cross can be given to (whatever they call) an archpriest, so I wonder if it might be a privilege of certain RCC monsignors, too.
Also, it might just be a Lutheran pastor. Lots of them wear collars, and many of them also wear pectoral crosses, since the LCMS doesn't have bishops and in the ELCA the episcopacy just doesn't have a strong history and the perquisites aren't exclusive to them (except the purple shirt and ring, which some of them don't wear).
There's also the outside chance it was an Independent Catholic/Independent Anglican/Independent Orthodox bishop, but that strikes me as a pretty slight chance.
I will add that virtually every Lutheran minister I have ever met wore a pectoral cross at almost every opportunity.
