As someone said, these are complicated issues and worth seriously considering together. I’m closing the comments because I want to respect Rev. Dr. Kendra’s minority status among the clergy and to keep this from becoming a pile-on.

Non-Christian Unitarian Universalists who wear clericals have, courtesy of these comments, more fodder for thought about what kind of pastoral ministry they will be expected to offer if they’re out and about in clericals, especially in chaplaincy settings.

Any Christian can baptize in an emergency, layfolk distribute the elements of communion from the sunday service all the time, and any Christian can hear a confession (without the absolution at the end). When I was a CPE resident, I did all these things as a Christian person, and as a deacon I did them in a collar as did all the deacons I know.

I don’t think any of us want to impose our beliefs on anyone, as chaplains or otherwise, but by wearing a collar one chooses to send a message about oneself and about what one is available to do. If I wear a collar, I say that not only am I available to be open and present in a person’s crisis, I am also available in a more explicitly Christian, sacramental way. That’s where my concern originates in this case.

I think what PeaceBang does in this blog is bring to light all of the social baggage that goes along with being clergy as well as being societally American. We believe in what we do and we manifest that belief in our actions and our appearance. Much of what we do as church-people is intensely watched and critiqued by the non-churched; I am not sure I agree with the message that the Rev. Dr. Kendra is sending to the world.

At any rate, I do have to argue with MadgeBaby’s statement:
“A person in the hospital, say, has the reasonable expectation that a person in a collar will baptize their sick baby, bring them the Eucharist, listen to their confession, and provide absolution.”

While this may be a correct assumption, technically speaking, a vocational deacon in the Episcopal church can do none of these thing - they are not ordained to the sacraments. What deacons do, as do all chaplains, lay or ordained, is witness to people in crisis, without imposing their own beliefs or stories upon those who are suffering.

Thank you, all, for once again allowing me to express my belief in God and the contents of Vogue.

regardless of the history, in our context wearing a collar (tab or neckband) IS associated with Christianity and with the sacraments. I’ve never known a rabbi to wear a collar, or an iman–have any of you? Lots of protestants I know don’t wear them because they aren’t all that sacramental in their focus, and many Episcopal priests only wear them when they are functioning sacramentally or will be known by that capacity.

A person in the hospital, say, has the reasonable expectation that a person in a collar will baptize their sick baby, bring them the Eucharist, listen to their confession, and provide absolution. I’m thinking that this person, for all her gifts, will not and dare I say SHOULD not be doing these things because of her own belief system.

I’m all for respect and tolerance but this makes me very uneasy. I’m pretty careful not to use the symbols of other religious beliefs for my own ends, and I don’t like it when the symbols of mine are used in ways that are confusing.

I prefer full (a.k.a. neckband or Moravian) collar for the following reasons. Note the lack of profound systematic thinking.

1. Moravian collars “read” lower church, perhaps because of their association with monastics (who needn’t be ordained). I don’t know where I got that from.

2. Tab-collared all-in-one shirts seem to be commonly cut in the worst boxy styles in the cheapest broadcloth.

3, You can’t tuck Geneva tabs under a tab collar. (But you can tie them over, with a gown.)

4. You can wear a shirt front with a Moravian collar.

5. Tab collars are often made of polypropelene. An emergency substitute can be made out of an index card or a piece of a plastic orange juice jug. I do not think this is a good thing. I found acetate-lined cloth neckband collars, admittedly in Rome, but they are available. One colleague somehow finds the kind you have start to death.

Over time a white cloth wrapped around the neck became the symbol of public speakers and anyone who wanted to be seen as a serious public speaker had to wear it. That is why even today lawyers in British Commonwealth nations still wear what we would call preaching tabs.

The real question is why wear a tabbed collar verses a full collar? That’s the question that we really should be discussing, at least for those of us who are part of Christian or Christianish denominations.