From time to time, PeaceBang gets an e-mail or message from one of you with a link to an article about worshipers dressing too casually for church with a, “Have you seen THIS” tag on it.
And I respond, “Yes I have, and I’m just glad people are still ATTENDING worship and I personally don’t give a hooey WHAT they’re wearing!”
And it’s true. I do not.
Unless they’re ushering or taking part in a service, or in some way representing the church, they can come as they are and I am happy that they came at all. Bring me the little kids in mismatched Underoos with crazy stickin’ up bedhead. Bring me the joggers fresh from their morning run (it’s considerate if they’ve showered first) in Spandex. Bring me the gals in skimpy sundresses with all manner of bosom and thigh revealed. Bring me the surfer dudes fresh from the beach in floppy shorts, Tevas and fungus toes. I don’t care! They’re there and hooray for us and for them, and for God who keeps speaking in the soul as a desire to gather together to praise life and to strengthen ourselves for the work of being for more fully human!
THAT said, and I don’t care if I said it in a run-on sentence because after all this is Saturday and tomorrow is Sunday and you all know what that means: I’m just taking a break from church prep here and who has time to proofread? — THAT said, there was an article that made the rounds this week about casual church in general, and I was wondering if you saw that. Does anyone have the link?
It got me thinking about robing, which I still feel strongly is a good idea for me because I can’t think of any street clothes that work for my body and for leading worship. A suit: no. Separates with a stole over the whole works? No. Very bad. Dresses? I don’t wear them often because of my body type.
Simply put, there is no appropriate way to dress my curvy-swervy body that is streamlined, chic and neat enough to stand the PeaceBang Test of polished and professional. So while I think it is possible to lean into this “more casual church” trend cautiously, one must consider what really works on one’s own personal self.
Not a very exciting insight, but I wanted to open the conversation. If you’re not robing, what are you wearing? And how does it suit (pun intended) your context and your worship space? Also, would you be willing to share photos?
Goodnight, preacher darlings.
Hi Peacebang.
I am a minister, serving two small congregations in the Pacific Northwest. I do not robe for worship. I generally wear a dress with a jacket or shrug of some sort over it, though I also sometimes wear nice slacks, a blouse or top, and a jacket, or cardigan. My body is probably shaped similarly to yours, though perhaps a couple of sizes smaller. I find that dresses tend to suit my figure pretty well.
The congregation I serve half-time meets in a Senior Center. It is a 60 member, very intergenerational conversation with children, young adults, middle-aged adults and seniors, in roughly equal measure. I preach from a small stage, we set up chairs each week. Given our context, I would feel very out of place in a robe–I honestly believe it would set myself apart in a way that would not be productive. My internship supervisor suggested that we dress one step above the congregation, and in this very casual context, wearing professional clothing seems to hit the right note of respect for the ministry, without looking costumed or very inappropriate for the space.
I also wear similar clothing in the other congregation I serve. This congregation meets in a church, in a rural area. I am with one or two long weekends every month. I generally wear the same type of clothing here as I do at the other congregation, though sometimes I wear a stole over my blazer. (Sorry…) It is a well-loved building, with congregants mostly in jeans. Again, to robe would (I believe) set me apart in a way that goes beyond the desirable separation and respect for ministerial authority and becomes a barrier to communication.
Our tradition is to not robe in the summer. My challenge is the dang microphone. So many elegant dresses I would love to wear but no place to put the battery pack for the microphone. So it’s mostly dress pants and nice blouses or dress pants and blazers, and an occasional skirt, though they’ve been harder to find lately.
Somewhere along the line I was taught to not wear a stole over street clothes. That seems to be passe as I see my colleagues all over facebook wearing stoles over street clothes. I’m not comfortable doing it myself, though.
I have skipped the robe since Memorial Day. Until recently, it’s still been too warm in the sanctuary to contemplate wearing it again. The congregation skews informal, although not quite as informal as previous commenters’ congregations, and my biggest dilemma has been the dang battery pack.
Generally, I am only comfortable wearing a stole over street clothes if the ensemble is (ideally) monochromatic, or at least all solids/no patterns. Most weeks, I’ve been skipping the stole unless the order of worship includes one of the sacraments. I am pondering whether to begin wearing a robe again now that the season is turning. I have these gorgeous stoles I received as gifts, you see, and they are a gift to no one while they reside in my closet.
I used to serve a congregation that had 4 services every weekend: one VERY casual one on Saturday evening, two different types of traditional ones – one at 8 on Sunday and one at 11, and a “contemporary” service at 9. I robed and stoled for the traditional services, wore casual (but neat) with clericals on Saturday evening, and professional (dresses, skirts or nice pants) with clericals for contemporary. I thought the stole looked stupid with street clothes; the clericals did the trick, as far as I was concerned.
As for the battery pack: when I wore dresses, I wore a very thin but sturdy leather belt underneath, being sure to have a full slip that covered my midsection because otherwise it is mighty uncomfortable. I clipped the battery pack to my belt UNDER the dress, augmenting the OEM clip with another small clip (like one on a name tag) because, honey, I have hips and the darn thing would pop off without a little extra grab. I fished the microphone wire under the clothes and collar; my mike was what we knew fondly as the “Madonna” type that curls around your ear and follows your jaw line. I know it sounds complicated, but it worked fine. And, yes, I learned to control the Mute button by feel and sound. Just be sure to check your batteries ahead of time, because it is mighty inconvenient to change them when one is trussed up in wires like Mary Martin playing Peter Pan.
Ah, the things we do for the love of God’s people.
I’m at a different parish now, and robe for both Sunday services; I still use the belt under the robe, because I still have hips. Those aren’t going anywhere.
Apropos of nothing, I recall the comment that helped me decide not to pre-candidate for a church. The interim said, “They get nervous when I lead worship wearing a TIE.” Lovely people, but when don’t robe leading worship I feel like I’m not wearing any pants.