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August 21, 2006

Many years ago when I was a youth, I remember going to church one Sunday to find that the pastor had doffed his robes in favor of a very nice suit. Things went downhill after that (this minister was later figuratively defrocked as well).

Having grown up seeing robed clergy, the change struck me as wrong, or at least it ran counter to my conservative temperament. Then again, as I was barely aware of the church growth movement, it seemed like the hip thing to do. Maybe those old robes were unnecessary relics. America's current period of religiosity contains more than a bit of that old Puritanism that disdains the superfluous in worship, and even our pioneer forebears never could count on having the finest in liturgical dress. What was the point of it anyway?

For even despite some speculation that more formal versions of clerical costumes like albs, surplices, and so forth have roots in Jewish ceremony, it is much more likely that they developed out of Greco-Roman formal wear. In other words, they are just the vestiges of what, at the time, had been a very nice suit.

So does this justify my former pastor's wardrobe? On a basic level, I think that as a matter of Christian freedom, pastors need not be required to wear any particular style, unless it detracted from their office. Some modern evangelicals are probably comfortable with pastors who are indistinguishable in their jeans and t-shirts (I think particularly of youth-oriented ministries). Others are comfortable with some degree of formality; a suit or robe is enough to send the message that what the minister is doing is important and respectworthy. The trappings of high liturgy, though, are probably more readily-accepted by those who grew up with it.

The older churches are particularly intricate. For instance, what is the office of a Roman Priest who wears a red-trimmed cassock with a purple sash? What if he also wears a black biretta with a red tuft? In the Eastern Church, when can priests wear a mitre? This level of sophistication no doubt strikes many readers as risible if not repulsively foreign.

As for me, I've grown fond of formal worship attire. Some of it is, I'll admit, just some stuffy attraction to rules and formality. But much more than that, it is a rich reflection of the purpose of worship. It is a visible symbol that the pastoral office is set aside as holy, and that the work ministers do is sacred.

But that's not to say it can't also be a great source of humour.

Posted by Zach Wendling at August 21, 2006 12:22 PM

Comments

Posted by: Seth at August 21, 2006 04:41 PM | permalink

Posted by: Mike O at August 22, 2006 11:04 AM | permalink

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