Wearing a clerical collar, ever inappropriate?

[Episcopalian]

For full-time priests and deacons: is there ever a time where you are discouraged from wearing the clerical collar in public?

For part-time deacons, more specifically, could you wear your collar at work, if you work in an office or something?

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

For part-time deacons, more specifically, could you wear your collar at work, if you work in an office or something?

The permanent deacons I know have said that wearing a collar when you’re not actually doing diaconate stuff is highly discouraged, if not outright prohibited. A deacon wearing a collar at his secular job would be viewed as very weird at best.

 

[StudentMI]

A deacon wearing a collar at his secular job would be viewed as very weird at best.

Would also be awkward!

 

[Episcopalian]

I meant not being obligated to celebrate the Mass each Sunday and have a secular job during the week.

I meant full time deacon as in not having a secular job, or holding only a part time secular job.

 

[StudentMI]

That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Episcopalian]

Potato potato… I’m glad my meaning was well understood

 

[edward_george1]

I’ve always thought that was a bit of an overreach, since A) bishops can’t actually legislate on that since it’s above their pay grade, legally speaking; and B) deacons are clerics and should wear clerical attire. In my Diocese, deacons dress like clerics. I know some who even, gasp, wear the cassock.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[F_Marturana]

I saw one of the permanent deacons at my parish recently. He was doing grandpa duty, and had Bermuda shorts and a polo shirt.

 

[StudentMI]

I know some who even, gasp , wear the cassock.

This might sound like a silly question but are cassocks discouraged in some dioceses? I’ve never seen a priest in one let alone a deacon.

 

[StudentMI]

I’ve only ever seen them in movies and old pictures.

 

[Minks]

My priest always wears a cassock in the oresence of others, whether on church grounds or within the community.

 

[edward_george1]

Maybe not actively discouraged as a matter of precept, but there are some Dioceses where it’s a cultural no-no. In our Diocese it isn’t a big deal. It does tend to be the younger, more conservative priests wearing it, but this isn’t universal. I don’t wear it to make a statement about my ecclesial politics. I wear it mostly for convenience. I can wear shorts to work.

 

[edward_george1]

I’ve heard this argument before and I don’t think it’s a good one, to be honest. It’s not as though you’re surrounded by dozens upon dozens of men in collars and it’s a constant source of confusion. In general you’re coming into contact with a very few members of the clergy at a time. If you’re not sure, just ask. We have people ask our deacon to do priest things in front of me, and he points them my way. It’s honestly not a big deal. And no, I don’t think they should wear different colored shirts or something. A cleric is a cleric is a cleric. Let them wear black.

 

[do_justly_love_mercy]

Not sure about discouraged, but there were many clergy faculty members when I was at university in the UK. I observed that Dominicans and Jesuits wore jacket and tie for teaching, Benedictines and Franciscans wore the habit. I know a Benedictine who wears secular clothes to travel in order not to look ostentatiously monastic. I’ve met a Rosminian priest who is also a professor, and he wears a jacket and tie, often a dark suit with white shirt and a white tie. In the university context, I’ve known Anglicans and Baptists who also wore secular clothes more or less all the time.

I’ve known clergy who wear secular clothes when semi off-duty, e.g. taking kids from the choir to a theme park.

I’ve also known clergy to wear secular clothes where they think it may be more sensitive to the occasion, mostly when meeting someone who is a survivor of clergy/religious abuse, for whom meeting somebody wearing a clerical collar would be potentially distressing or even, as people now say, triggering.

Oh, also, when attending a wedding or funeral at which they have no official role, in order not to upstage the minister, so to speak.

I am not a priest, obviously. These are my observations though.

 

[whatistrue]

In the Diocese where I live, Permanent Deacons are prohibited from wearing the collar, but Seminarians and Transitional Deacons normally do. That is even more confusing to me, but I am not the Bishop, so it isn’t my call.

 

[babochka]

I’ve known quite a few priests from other counties who regularly wear light blue or grey shirts and a few Eastern Catholic priests who wear grey cassocks.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

In the university context, I’ve known Anglicans and Baptists who also wore secular clothes more or less all the time.

It’s been my experience that Baptist preachers always wear secular clothes. Ministers in some of the black evangelical churches may wear stylized Catholic-like clericals (usually some kind of pastel) with Roman collars (or similar) and are also fond of the term “bishop”. But aside from that, wearing anything distinctive would be seen as kind of “Romanist” or “Romish”. They wear the same dress clothes that anyone else would wear. There may be exceptions.

I’ve also known clergy to wear secular clothes where they think it may be more sensitive to the occasion, mostly when meeting someone who is a survivor of clergy/religious abuse, for whom meeting somebody wearing a clerical collar would be potentially distressing or even, as people now say, triggering.

This would just be the pastoral thing to do. I find nothing more comforting or edifying than to see a priest in a Roman collar and full cassock, but that’s just me, obviously I would. Not everyone has the same reaction.

I’m reminded of the retired pastor of our parish, of whom I was very fond. I ran into him in the grocery store one day, and I was gently ribbing him about wearing civilian clothes, told him I would have hardly known him. He died suddenly a couple of days later. I’m comforted to know that my last encounter with him was lighthearted and jovial.

 

[do_justly_love_mercy]

It’s been my experience that Baptist preachers always wear secular clothes.

I was thinking of British Baptists (the original Baptists!), rather than American Baptists, most of whom are not affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. If you are from the southern US I think your impression of Baptists will be even more informed by a certain kind of Baptist.

I think among British Baptists the norm is for ministers for wear clerical dress when serving as pastor of a church. Most of the ones I’ve met have been academics without a regular congregation, so they just wear secular dress.

Ministers in some of the black evangelical churches may wear stylized Catholic-like clericals (usually some kind of pastel) with Roman collars (or similar)

Yes, I have observed that some of those black ministers have very fine vestments.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

If you are from the southern US I think your impression of Baptists will be even more informed by a certain kind of Baptist.

I am thinking of American Baptists in general, but the Baptist movement does tend to skew Southern.

HomeschoolDad:

Ministers in some of the black evangelical churches may wear stylized Catholic-like clericals (usually some kind of pastel) with Roman collars (or similar)

Yes, I have observed that some of those black ministers have very fine vestments.

The whole “black church culture” has, as one of its hallmarks, sharp, attractive dress for both men and women. Black American Christians would have a really hard time getting their heads around some of the casual dress (not to mention sloppy and/or positively immodest dress) preferred by American Catholics, the vast majority of whom are not black. I do have to note that Hispanic Catholics, while not as “dressy” as black churchgoers, are very neat, clean, and attractive in their dress at mass. I always enjoy going to Spanish Mass and seeing them dressed the way people are supposed to for Mass.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’ve seen some deacons who wear Roman collars or the occasional cassock too. While it doesn’t particularly bother me, I find it important in the case of a permanent deacon, i.e. not a seminarian hopefully on the path to ordination, that I know somehow he’s a deacon and not a priest. Often deacons will make this clear in some way, for example by being popularly known around the parish as “Deacon Jim” or whatever, but I’ve known a couple who seemed to want to be more priestly than the priests, if you know what I mean, and it made me uncomfortable.