Wearing the Collar
In my diocese, there are no policies, rubrics, or clear guidelines on when and where a priest must wear the clerical collar. A troika of local custom (what your fellow priests do), common sense (church services but not church picnics), and personal preference informs that choice. For a new priest, there is a trial-and-error feel to it. Show up at a gathering as the only priest with or without a collar. You won’t make that same mistake again.
Why Wear the Clerical Collar?
I wear the collar whenever and wherever a priest’s services or mere presence are reasonably required or desired. This includes all assemblies of the church for worship, prayer, study, and business. These events are important. Home visits, hospital calls, funerals, or weddings of family members or friends outside the diocese and in other churches also require it. After much prayer, discernment with my spiritual director, and reflection, I decided not to wear the collar when I teach each day in a public high school. Nor do I ask the director of schools for permission. It is a legal gray area. However, being in the South grants more leeway for public expression of faith than in other regions of the country.
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My colleagues and administrators are aware that I am a priest. I often bring a clerical shirt to school to change into for an afternoon hospital visit. It is my students who concern me the most. I fear that the collar might distance me from the very ones who need a priest or simply a caring teacher the most. These are those on the margins, those with no real adult presence or guidance, and those who feel isolated and alone. For them, I can best be a priest incognito. My white shirt and tie are better suited for this than a black shirt and clerical collar. I also don’t generally wear the collar when relaxing at home with my wife. However, in case of an emergency call-out, I always have a shirt pressed and ready.
However, all this still leaves large segments of my life unaccounted for. As I write this, I am sitting outside at a local café on a Saturday morning, savoring a cup of coffee. Collar on? No, not today—not yet today. I haven’t decided about later, after I mow and shower. Will I wear the collar to the mall this afternoon when I take my daughter to buy contacts? Or to the bookstore? What will inform my decision?
The Collar: A Connection to Other Churches
Earlier this year, I sat with my wife in the food court of an Orlando airport. My daughter and her male companion—I still can’t say boyfriend, though it’s true—browsed the shops awaiting his flight departure. Some Orthodox clerics passed by across the concourse. They were very distinctive and noticeable with long beards and black cassocks. There my wife and I sat, 600 miles from home, anonymous, in the company of hundreds of total strangers. My heart leapt at the sight of these men. My people! These Orthodox priests would certainly consider me heterodox and perhaps even heretical.
Their presence reminded me that the Lord arose and is working in the world, not least through his Spirit-filled people. Their presence was a silent proclamation of the Gospel. I am certain there were many other faithful disciples of Christ in the Orlando airport that evening. However, they were anonymous and unknown. The cassock made the difference. In my shorts and sandals—I was on vacation, after all—I made no one’s heart leap with joy for the risen Lord. This will inform my decision about wearing the collar to the mall or the bookstore.
The Collar: A Road to Evangelistic Opportunity
Yesterday afternoon—thanks be to God it was Friday!—my wife and I were relaxing for a few minutes at Barnes & Noble. We had just come from school, and I was still dressed in my “teacher uniform” of shirt and tie. I stood at the café counter, awaiting our order, and enjoyed some friendly banter with the baristas. One of them said, “Do you mind if I ask you a question? I’ve seen you in here with a collar on. Are you some kind of pastor?” I explained to her that I was a surprised Anglican priest; she knew what an Anglican was. It seems her studies involve history and the history of religion, even though, as she acknowledged, she is not particularly religious.
We had an interesting, though brief, talk before my order came, and she left for the evening. (I had intended that discussion to be the topic of this post, but the writing went elsewhere, as it often does. I will return to it later.) But, I will see her again and frequently, and God only knows (truly) where this brief conversation might lead. It is all because of the collar. How many conversations have I missed by not wearing the collar in public, I wonder. The collar serves as an open and public invitation to strangers to strike up a conversation with me about important things. On several occasions, I’ve seen it do this. This will inform my decision about wearing the collar this afternoon.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
John 21:15-17
Understanding the Rationale Behind the Collar
When I was discerning the priesthood—and even before formal discernment had begun —my spiritual director asked me wonderfully probing questions. “Why do you feel a need for ordination? What can you do with a collar that you can’t do without one?” The answers are many, and this is not the place to explore them. Nevertheless, I now realize, even if I didn’t fully understand it then, that a priest’s unique calling is to be a public witness to the presence of Christ. This is not only in the parish, but in the world.
Using Discernment When Wearing or Refraining
In a nominally Christian culture that is, in reality, increasingly secular or pagan, the simple wearing of a collar is a countercultural act of Gospel proclamation. With no words necessary, the collar nonetheless testifies to the mystery of faith: Christ has died. Christ arose. Christ will come again. As a priest, I have this great opportunity. It is something I can do with the collar that I can’t do as easily without it. This will inform my decision about wearing the collar this afternoon.
I also live in the South, and this is summer when the temperature and humidity both hover in the nineties. Who chose black for a clerical shirt? When the sun beats down and the sticky air makes it hard to breathe, a black clerical shirt and collar are miserable. Though I’m ashamed to say it, this uncomfortable physical reality will also inform my decision about wearing a collar this afternoon.
In my diocese, there are no policies, no rubrics, and no clear guidelines on when and where a priest is required to wear the clerical collar. It is a personal and private decision—certainly adiaphora—and I honor the various choices of my fellow priests. However, it is a decision I hope to make theologically and vocationally, rather than haphazardly or thoughtlessly. As trivial as it may sometimes seem, indeed, there are more important issues, aren’t there? It is not unimportant.
Photo by: Marek Studzinski on Unsplash.
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