For Altar and For Hearth Lutheran Wisdom for Church and Home

Head Coverings: A Laudable Custom

It is a laudable custom, based upon a Scriptural injunction, for women to wear an appropriate head covering in Church, especially at the time of divine service.

1965 Arthur Carl Piepkorn Concordia Seminary Print Shop

From the General Rubrics of the Lutheran Liturgy with commentary by Arthur Carl Piepkorn in The Conduct of the Service. The underlined portion is the rubric from The Lutheran Liturgy, pp. 417-419, 425-427, published by Concordia Publishing House, representing the official position of the Lutheran Church—Missouri and Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church as members of the Synodical Conference. The full book may be purchase from Emmanuel Press or viewed online for free (this quotation may be found on p. 10).

  1. It is a laudable custom, based upon a Scriptural injunction (I Cor. 11:3-15), for women to wear an appropriate head covering in Church, especially at the time of divine service. "Appropriate head covering" includes a hat, a veil, a handkerchief, or a head-band. This custom is not only an ecclesiastical one, but also one that is dictated by good social usage.

  2. On and after Easter Day, 1955, in any case of a contradiction between these General Rubrics as they are here printed and other rubrics published elsewhere in the official service books of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, these General Rubrics shall govern.