Surplices?

Should Papuan Pastors Wear Surplices?

By Rev. Harold Short, F.R.G.S.

IF there came into an Australian Church assembly a man with an uncovered chest, he would cause consternation.

In a Papuan primitive congregation, one garbed above the belt would excite cupidity. We Papuans see a lot of our preachers—from the waist up, and from the knees down. There is much to be said for this fashion.

Singers of Israel chant that “the Lord taketh not pleasure in the legs of man’’.

Yet, this morning, as I “sat under” a brown pastor of splendid physique, I was impressed with the tremendous power of emphasis in legs. Their gestures seem more spontaneous than those of the average preacher’s arms.

I think that Jesus would have taken pleasure in the legs of this man. Their

muscles were vibrant with accord as the preacher denounced Dances for the Dead, The fee £ appeared almost to be making personal application to every Death- Dancer in the parish. Some of the con gregatioh looked as though they felt this even more intensely. And none questioned such dictatorship over the action of lesser legs. Many orators, I am sure, lose weight being too covered up. Of course, some not.

But « 1 ene( * the utterance of that sermon, Some cultured colleagues, hidden in cities, might learn much by watching this son of the wilderness preach.

His strange words go out like Lewis Gun bullets—and hit the enemy! His diaphragm moves delightfully evenly, his massive chest is restful, his neck straight, his lips elastic. His hair, rising to almost eighty inches from his feet, shivers with the joy of his job.

Yesterday, amid rushing wind and

spray, I clung to the mast of that preacher’s big canoe. He stood with toes gripping the deck planks, five long fin gers controlling the steering paddle, the other hand directing his responsive crew.

His glance awaited the intentions of wind and waves, and signs from surfspread reefs. I admired him then, as a Captain who needed no insignia of rank; but more, this morning, as spokesman of the Pilot Who is saving Papua.

Surplices really do not matter much.

Spiritual impulses cannot be covered by them. But I feel that one on this friend of mine would conceal something infinitely more impressive than the art of seamstresses.

Yet, if it be suggested again that Papuan pastors wear surplices I shall advocate stronelv that <?ome should advocate strongly that some should. —Reprint fr-am “Australian Christian World , 1931. The pastor referred to was Taureka, who died in July, 1941.