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Surplice
A full white vestment with wide sleeves. It has an opening for the head at the top and typically reaches to the knees or beyond. The term is from the Latin superpelliceum, meaning "over a fur garment." It was an oversized alb that was worn as a choir vestment over a fur coat in the drafty and cold churches of northern Europe. It is usually worn over a cassock by clergy at non-eucharistic services such as the Daily Office. It may also be worn by lay people with particular liturgical ministries at worship such as lectors or choir members. Acolytes often wear a shorter version of the surplice, a cotta, which reaches to the hips and has narrower sleeves than the surplice. The academic dress of clergy may include cassock, surplice, and tippet, with or without an academic hood. The surplice may be worn with a stole by a member of the clergy assisting at the eucharist or by a member of the clergy who preaches. Surplice and stole may also be worn by a member of the clergy who presides at a eucharist or baptism. However, eucharistic vestments are typically worn by the celebrant at the eucharist instead of surplice and stole. Use of the surplice was a cause of dispute during the nineteenth-century controversies over ritual in the United States and in England. It came to be widely accepted as the standard vestment for Daily Office.
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Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from "An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians," Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors. |
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