Purpose
The simple yet dignified gown is meant to convey the authority and solemn duty of the ordained ministry as called by God to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and preach the biblical Word of God, the bearer being a learned minister of the Word and teaching elder (presbyter) over the Church faithful.
Worn over street clothes, traditionally a cassock but today more commonly a business suit with or without clerical collar, the gown eschews ostentation, obscuring individual grooming and concealing fashion preferences, and instead draws attention to the wearer's office and not the person.
Read more about this topic: Geneva Gown
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“God sent children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race—to enlarge our hears; and to make us unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections; to give our souls higher aims; to call out all our faculties to extended enterprise and exertion; and to bring round our firesides bright faces, happy smiles, and loving, tender hearts.”
—Mary Botham Howitt (20th century)
“The purpose of punishment is to improve those who do the punishing—that is the final recourse of those who support punishment.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)