What would you do if your new pastor imposed a uniform for lay liturgical ministers?

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Duesenberg

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You are a member of a Catholic parish. Lay liturgical ministers (readers, EMsHC, cantors, psalmists, servers, etc.) have often worn inappropriate (e.g. overly provocative and/or casual) garb to Masses where they minister. Pleas from previous pastors to dress appropriately for Mass have long fallen on deaf ears. A new pastor begins and his renewed pleas are also ignored. Finally he sets a dress code, defining a required uniform as:
  • Simple, modest white top with sleeves and a collar (e.g. all-white dress shirt or blouse, all-white polo/golf shirt, all-white sweater, all-white camp shirt, all-white guayabera, etc.) Neckties optional.
  • Simple black pants in good repair (black dress slacks, chinos, khakis, jeans, etc.) or a modest black skirt, or alternately, a simple, modest all-black dress. No shorts, capris, culottes, leggings, yoga tights, etc.
  • Simple all-black shoes – no flip-flops, sandals or kicks emblazoned with swooshes or stripes.
  • Simple black socks or hosiery.
Plenty of latitude in choices that would allow easy and inexpensive compliance for anyone. You are either already a liturgical minister or you are considering becoming one. What is your most probable reaction to this new requirement?
    • Thanks, praise and willful compliance.
    • Quiet (but perhaps not too happy) compliance.
    • Quiet resignation from all liturgical ministries requiring a dress code.
    • Angry/loud resignation from all liturgical ministries requiring a dress code.
    • Publicly angry, but I would hang in there.
    • Anger and I would connive/agitate to try and overturn the dress code.
    • I would find a new parish.
    • I would leave the Catholic Church.
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Really? That’s interesting.

Even if altar servers are wearing their albs or cassocks/surplices/cottas, they can look terrible if they are wearing shorts or short skirts and/or inappropriate footwear.

It’s nice that your parish already has such a dress code for readers.
 
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I would find a new parish.
I do not want to be part of a parish that is micro-managed to the point that I am told what color socks & shoes I must wear to proclaim the word of God.
 
I would have no problem with a dress code such as this one except that I think women should be allowed to wear pants, especially on very cold days in a church with iffy heating.
 
You describe the present state of affairs in the (hypothetical) parish as pretty extreme, with shorts and flipflops having long been accepted as suitable wear for readers, ministers of Holy Communion and others. In that situation, in my view the pastor would be right to enforce a dress code of some kind, though I don’t see why he would have to go to the other extreme of banning all colors other than black and white.
 
billsannie said:
I would have no problem with a dress code such as this one except that I think women should be allowed to wear pants, especially on very cold days in a church with iffy heating.
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As written, they would be. The dress would simply be an option.
 
BartholomewB said:
You describe the present state of affairs in the (hypothetical) parish as pretty extreme, with shorts and flipflops having long been accepted as suitable wear for readers, ministers of Holy Communion and others.
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Not “accepted” by clergy or even the laity as a whole, but nevertheless I still see it in my parish on a regular basis. This last summer (it was not hot in church) a seminarian routinely wore an untucked shirt (the sort with tails that are designed to be tucked in), cargo shorts and flip-flops. It did not reflect well on him. (Yes, he did have other garb.)
BartholomewB said:
In that situation, in my view the pastor would be right to enforce a dress code of some kind, though I don’t see why he would have to go to the other extreme of banning all colors other than black and white.
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That’s a fair point. There are a few reasons for that. First, to make it easy and cheap to comply. Second, to make it easy to enforce. Third, if you’re going to have a dress code, why not have one mandating very plain garb that will not detract from the Mass?
 
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We use albs and they always seem to be of “academic length.” Not too far below the knee. It looks horrible when a server is wearing shorts or a skirt and/or flip flops while vested in this manner.
 
“Different” albs would be more like it I suppose. The only servers who look bad are the youth. To get the albs to otherwise fit, they end up wearing ones that are too short.

Either way, I would want to see servers follow the same dress code as everyone else.
 
There is certainly something to be said about people in liturgical functions looking like they belong.

But this really sounds like a uniform, instead of just a dress code- with specifications of black pants and white shirts.

I don’t see why other dark colored dress pants, light blue or striped dress shirts along with a dark or striped necktie shouldn’t be acceptable.

White shirts and black pants really aren’t a uniform, different shades and textures are available. I’d certainly broaden what is acceptable.
 
I think requiring the wear of such garb as defined by the pastor would also have an additional benefit. Anyone who actually refused or otherwise chose to “play the game” of defiance in such a setting is likely unsuited for such public ministry anyway. In other words, it would be a good litmus test in some cases.
 
Duesenberg said:
Not “accepted” by clergy or even the laity as a whole, but nevertheless I still see it in my parish on a regular basis.
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Well, now you’re giving information about your real-life parish. In the hypothetical parish you described in your OP, you made it sound as though shorts and flipflops had long been worn by most or all readers, ministers of Holy Communion, etc.,as standard practice.
Duesenberg said:
First, to make it easy and cheap to comply. Second, to make it easy to enforce. Third, if you’re going to have a dress code, why not have one mandating very plain garb that will not detract from the Mass?
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It would be even easier and even cheaper to comply if they didn’t have to go out and buy new clothes at all. They could wear full-length pants, knee-length skirts or longer (for women), shirts or blouses with elbow-length sleeves or longer (for both sexes), and so on, which they presumably already have hanging in their closets. And colors don’t detract from the Mass. We’re Catholics, not Quakers or Calvinists.
 
Men all wearing white shirts, black pants and ties might be mistaken for Mormons. Our LDS friends seem to have a problem with wearing non-white shirts, at least when engaged in religious activities.
 
I have to say I find this a little bit odd.
For altar servers there is, of course, the traditional cassock and cotta (or in some places the alb). Strictly speaking this is the only ‘uniform’ which may be on display as even the choir was until relatively recent years in a choir loft or behind a screen (and therefore out of sight).
To be honest I don’t care if someone reading is wearing shorts and a T-shirt as I’m hearing Scripture not evaluating their dress sense. In a similar manner I have no problems with a server wearing shorts under a cassock - indeed I have done it myself in hot weather, no one has noticed the difference as cassocks are made to measure and do not show any trouser leg anyway, the only requirement was black/dark shoes.
To have a certain dress code for readers and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion just seems a bit ‘cultish’ to me.
 
I would make the distinction between uniform and dress code… uniform, no- too cultish/ Mormon, as other posters have said. dress code, prohibiting flipflops or revealing or casual clothes, yes
 
Are flip flops really that wrong? Aren’t they just a variation on the sandal which Our Lord would have worn? 🙂
 
wrong, no… i have served Mass in flip flops and a cassock at a Catholic summer camp… but if one presumably has other options for their footwear that are more formal and IMO more fitting for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, then I would think that those ought to be worn.
 
Flip flops and a cassock - nightmare for rising from kneeling lol
 
oh, for sure- at the end I realized I should have just gone barefoot… no one would have cared
 
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