Should She Collar The Interview?

Butterbeans, please help. R. writes,

Peacebang, I turn to you for wardrobe advice. I am a newly minted seminary graduate going for my first interview with a call committee. I have the shoes, I have a suit I love, and thanks to you, I have a new haircut, color, and great makeup. The nagging question is do I wear the collar?

For what it’s worth, in my denomination, I am not officially considered a pastor until a congregation issues me a call – then I can be ordained. So the call committee knows that I am not yet officially a “pastor”. On the other hand, I routinely wear a collar when preaching and on official church work (hospital visits, funerals and such). Wearing a collar is not prohibited for someone not yet ordained.

I’m torn, and so I humbly seek advice from those who have blazed the trail before me.

Peace,
R.

Dear R.,
As I said to you off-line, I don’t feel very strongly one way or another about this except that I wonder if you might feel more comfortable without the collar for this interview. Of course if you do wear it, you will feel more strongly identified with the role of pastor, and that might be a good thing. I suppose that it comes down to this: would you wear the collar to the office and on most days of your ministry? If so, then wear it to the interview. If not, then not. Thinking strategically, if there is a chance you might offend even one person on the call committee who finds you presumptuous or premature in your donning of the dog collar, why risk stepping into muddy waters so soon? Would the call committee be pleased to find you in a collar, or might it be distracting or raise questions for them? You say that wearing the collar isn’t prohibited, but there’s the spirit of the law and the letter of the law, as you know.

Readers, please weigh in! R., let us know how it goes, and congratulations on your graduation!

16 Replies to “Should She Collar The Interview?”

  1. I interviewed with three call committees last spring before taking my first call in an ELCA parish in small town / rural Minnesota. I did not wear a collar to my interviews (I was, in fact, seven months pregnant for two of them, so I wore a gray sheath dress and cardigan). I wear a collar every Sunday and also other days I lead worship (at the nursing home for example), preach, or preside at weddings or funerals; I did so as an intern, too. But I felt, as PB suggests, that wearing it to the interviews might seem presumptuous, especially in a region where many pastors rarely wear a collar. I felt more comfortable without the collar (partly, it’s true, because of my baby bump). Some of my classmates did not wear collars to interview; some did.

    Good luck and God’s blessings on your ministry!

  2. Wearing a collar without being ordained is a huge no no in my own denomination, so I’m biased, but I’d do without.

    But I never loved wearing a collar more than when I was pregnant! Except perhaps while nursing. What a great visual. . . .

  3. I would not wear one is this circumstance – professional look but no collar – as PB says one offended person is not worth it. Plenty of time to wear one once you get a call.

  4. Hi R. Congratulations,

    I differ with these lovely ladies. I wear my collar when I am more conscious of my office – hospital, worship, some meetings and events.

    The collar reminds people that you are called, that you have been trained and that you have the backing of your denomination thus far.

    I can only remember one time in four years that someone did not look happy at my wearing the collar. It was early on and I was part of a delegation of mostly lay people and, in hindsight, should have gone without, but I told them I was still trying to work out how and when to wear it. Only one person out of a dozen seemed to be bothered by it. Everyone else said it looked great.

    On the other hand, I have had so many positive experiences wearing it on campus and in the community. People here love to see a young woman in a collar. It brings them hope and I do get more respect when it is on, sadly.

    Blessings on your interview.

  5. I graduated from seminary last Friday and am waiting to hear about an appointment. I hope to be meeting with a Staff Parish committee in the near future. Even though I wore my collar when I was a chaplain this past year and always wear it when I preach, I will most likely will not wear it when speaking with the SP committee just as I didn’t wear it when I met with my District Committee.

    While it is not unusual for UM pastors to wear them, it isn’t the norm either in my conference. I would suggest dressing professionally for the call committee and then wear the collar once you are at the church.

  6. Ask a pastor of your denomination, and preferably in that region of the country. (IMHO, region is just as important as denomination for this.)

    Does the paperwork of this congregation have outside references to ask questions of? This sort of question counts too!

  7. It really does depend on your denomination, although U don’t understand why any women other than Episcopalians or Lutherans would be wearing a collar in the first place. Anyway, we Episcopalians don’t wear collars until we are ordained. (And some of us only wear them on Sundays afterwards, unless we want to kick some ass.)

  8. I agree that regional practice, as well as the practices of potential colleagues (in a staff situation) for a given congregation should be considered.

    During my first-call interview process (ELCA, with several different churches in south-central MN), I stuck to a professional look, no collar. My reasoning was that I simply felt more comfortable and self-assured in my favorite blouse (which is a powerful deep red), and felt that confidence would make it easier to connect with the committee. In the case of the church I’m now serving, I was also influenced by the fact that the senior pastor never wears one. Now that I’m here, I wear it for worship and other official duties, and generally the response is positive.

  9. Just to clarify: it was an issue of physical comfort that kept me from wearing the collar during pregnancy, not emotional. I am now fondly recalling the afternoon of my ordination day: sitting in a crowded restaurant with my extended family, my mentor, and a representative from my new congregation, eating, breastfeeding, and wearing a collar.

    I have not had much of a response one way or the other to my collar wearing (as far as I know). The biggest response so far has been to my green tights on St. Patrick’s Day. (My daughter’s wardrobe, of course, receives much positive comment.)

  10. Dancing has a great point about paying attention to regions of the country. In SD, I wouldn’t wear my collar for an interview, but in DC I wouldn’t interview without it. For me the decision of wearing the collar or not depends on how I’ll be perceived. What are the benefits or costs of wearing the collar?

  11. I’m a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister and I wear a collar every Sunday, when I’m acting in my official capacity as pastor, and when I’m traveling with our church youth group to name three instances.

    There are several women pastors in my denomination and region (upstate NY) who wear clerical shirts with collars when they’re working – but none of us did it before we were ordained.

    My advice for your interview: be true to yourself. And if you’ve got doubts about wearing a collar then listen to your inner wisdom and don’t.

    Best of luck!

  12. This sounds similar to the question that my classmates and I were asking earlier this year – whether or not to put the title “Rabbi” on our resumes, even though it was clear to the congregations reading the resumes that we weren’t yet rabbis. Our school said yes, because we were going to be serving in that role, and the committees needed to see us as rabbis, not as students. As for possibly offending someone, we were told that if anyone on the committees questioned it, we were free to say that the school told us to do it. That said, I think it is a healthy emotional process for your interviewing committee to look at you and see “spiritual leader”, which comes when you wear the appropriate ritual garb that their spiritual leader would wear on a regular basis.
    [That’s interesting, because using the title Reverend before ordination would be a huge no-no. I’m sorry to be so ignorant, but what occasion or milestone “makes” a rabbi? – PB]

  13. In no other profession can one pose as a credentialed professional without requisite vetting. I’ve never understood why non-ordained clergyfolk are encouraged to wear collars or stoles or otherwise bear the mark of the ordained leadership.

    I’m an MSW and one of my mentors phrased it better than anyone in the ordination process. He said, “being called MSW, and even more so being licensed or certified, means that you are trusted to abide by a code of ethics that many professions would consider onerous. You have a lot more freedom without the letters behind your name, but by choosing to take them on you burden yourself to what they stand for.” So, in his (perhaps naive) world a person who uses those credentials is prepared to diagnose and treat appropriately, keep confidentiality, take money for services in an ethical way, etc. I never remember having that conversation in such a clear way in div school or afterward. Perhaps it should happen more. Layfolk are in many ways freer to do ministry as they feel called than are the ordained, at least in my tradition. What layfolk are not free to do is the work of the ordained. Seminary is somewhat liminal, but not that liminal.

  14. I think madgebaby’s comment is interesting, as I am a twenty-something male that is an ELCA candidate. As we share much with our Catholic brothers and sisters, we share also their tradition that seminarians are allowed to wear collars as long as they have been accepted into the candidacy process, after the initial interviews, psych evals and eventual affirmation of a call by the candidacy committee.

    The collar is not a sign of ordination, the only vestment that is a sign of ordination is the stoll.

    I currently am working as a youth pastor, as well as a semi-apprenticeship. Whenever I am preaching, the assisting minister, at a funeral or burial, or doing visits or traveling on Jesus-adventures, I am in collar, especially in situations where many may not know who I am, and where my age may betray that my Church has affirmed that I have a calling to the ministry, while I may not be ordained yet.

    Clearly though, it is inappropriate for a non-ordained person to bear the vestments of ordination, especially the stoll.

  15. Thanks for all the input. I chose to go sans collar. My call committee was uber-informal – jeans and t’s and most of the men in shorts. Of course it was 85 out that day! Still, the suit was formal enough without the collar!
    They are truly generous people – it was a lovely interview. We laughed and talked about ministry and vision and dreams. I thought it went well, but one can never tell. Now to wait for them to call….

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