Good Lord, children, please do NOT WEAR A CLERICAL STOLE OVER A DENIM OR CHAMBRAY SHIRT.
in the name of all that is holy! What an awful, awful look! It doesn’t say “folksy and approachable.” It says Clueless and Awkward.
Because you're in the public eye, and God knows you need to look good.
Not even one with liturgically colored cows? ;>p
At camp in Wyoming?
While preaching at a great camp in the Adirondacks in July?
But what about over jeggings? Or pajama jeans?
Or a Snuggie?
I was really hoping this entry included a picture 😀
[I would have loved to, but you know… and I don’t make this stuff up.- PB]
Or just pajamas?
But why, if it’s appropriate to celebrate whatever sacrament you’re doing while wearing the chambray or denim, is it not appropriate to put the stole on?
Either you’re actually too dressed down for the sacrament and the setting, in which case it’s the *shirt* that’s the problem, not the stole per se, or you are dressed appropriately for the setting in which the sacrament is taking place, and so acknowledging the priestly role you’re about to perform by putting on the stole is appropriate. Or you’re caught in an emergency situation where regrettably you’re under-dressed compared to what you’d like to be, but compounding that by not wearing a stole achieves nothing. In that case putting on the stole is a way of saying, “I know we’re in a pretty pedestrian setting here, and I may be attired very casually, but now we are moving into Sacred Action, and I’m acknowledging that by putting on this symbol of my sacred office.”
I’m envisioning situations when one is celebrating in a non-“sanctuary”/formal worship space setting . . . such as at a hospital, on a retreat, or at a camp, and am in a tradition where at least some folks believe that if you’re celebrating a sacrament or hearing confession, no matter the setting, you need to be wearing your stole. Hence the provision of reversible purple and white, easily portable, stoles that will fit in your communion kit, jacket pocket, etc.
I totally agree that one should never be standing in front of a congregation in a traditional dedicated worship space to lead a formal worship service when wearing only a denim shirt w/o further liturgical vesture, and then plunk a stole on top of that. Ugh.
I think the bigger thing here is that nobody should ever wear a denim shirt.
Back the truck up, now, Andy. There is a time and a place for everything. including denim shirts. I will, however, grant you that there should be very little overlap between denim-shirt time and stole-wearing time. (That overlap usually involves emergencies.)
I present to you…(drum roll, please)…the DENIM CLERGY shirt!
For the fellas: http://www.clergyshirtsclericalshirts.com/items/clergy-shirts-men/denim-clergy-shirts-tabden-detail.htm
For us gals:
http://www.clergyshirtsclericalshirts.com/items/clergy-shirts-women/denim-ladies-clergy-shirt-ju-d-detail.htm
Out here in the midwest . . . looks ok to me.
I have to say I’m with Gillian on this one.
On denim clergy shirts…has this link been posted here before? It’s from all the way back in 2003: http://reallivepreacher.com/node/815
(Anyone else really miss RealLivePreacher? That was the first blog I ever read, true story.)
I would think it was weird if a pastor donned a stole over street clothes anytime, period. I am used to seeing stoles paired with an alb in the context of congregational worship, but that’s about it. I have been in plenty of situations where the sacrament of Holy Communion was celebrated without the stole, and the pastor conducted his/herself in a very reverent fashion. Is this a difference between Anglican vs. other mainline Protestant traditions?
At least we can all agree “ew” on the denim shirts!
At RevE — OMG! First of all, it looks like a maternity shirt! And “Real luxury denim fabric”? (Haughty Sniff) Looks like chambray to me!
“Looks like chambray to me.”
It probably is – I got one of those ‘denim’ shirts thinking it would be just the ticket for outdoor worship, and I was sorely dissapointed. It was not denim and the ‘denim-looking’ fabric was cheap-looking. I thought it might look better after I washed it, but it didn’t. Needless to say, I got rid of the thing