Russian Church is not against attractive women and makeup

30 September 2011, 13:52

 Moscow, September 30, Interfax - Woman should look in tune with the times, but dress decently, the Moscow Patriarchate official believes.

"The Church has never said that a woman should wear grey long dress and cover her head with grey scarf. There's a certain dress code in churches, but it exists not to distract men coming to church to pray with women's beauty," head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said answering the questions in Church and the World TV-program on Rossija 24 channel.

In all other cases, "a woman can dress as she wants: it should be decent cloths, but it can be beautiful and attractive," he said.

As to makeup, according to the Metropolitan, there is no strict ban on it in Christian tradition. He said that holy fathers starting from Apostle Paul have always reminded that women and people in general "should adorn themselves not with braided hair but rather by inner spiritual beauty."

"However, I think that moderate use of cosmetics doesn't do any harm to woman. Church has never said that woman shouldn't be modern and beautiful," the Metropolitan stressed.