Anglican Vestments: A Rookie Anglican Guide
You walk into an Anglican church and see many people wearing a wide array of odd clothing. You notice ministers wearing white robes with colorful scarf-like items around their necks, some vertical and some diagonal. If the parish has a verger (typically the person who appears to know what everyone is supposed to do), they may be wearing a black cassock with a mostly-black verger’s gown.
A few laypeople may be wearing robes, as may the choir. On the other hand, depending on the parish, you might see only the clergy vested, not the other servers or musicians. In some places, you might even see ministers wearing just the scarf-y thing without the white robes. If you stick around a few months, you’ll notice specific colors change over the course of something called the church year.
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So, what’s up with all of this? Below is a guide to most of the special clothes, called vestments, you might see at an Anglican church service.
Note: We are using C.M. Almy’s photos here, but they do not sponsor this article, nor do we receive any benefit from the link.
Anglican Vestments: The Basic Idea
The basic idea of Anglican vestments is to symbolize order, office, and role or function. This is true of any uniform that we use in society. Uniforms are not for personal expression; they should adhere to established design patterns (e.g., they shouldn’t include personalized messages, political symbols, sports or patriotic colors/symbols, or iron-on images of my children).
Black Base Garment: Cassock
Black robes, called cassocks, are actually not considered vestments. They are a base layer. Originally, the black cassock (the one that resembles Neo’s outfit in The Matrix) was simply the priest’s street clothes.
In traditional choir dress, a black cassock is worn under a white surplice. Bishops typically wear purple cassocks. In places where deaconesses are considered a separate order, they may wear blue casocks. Choir members or acolytes often wear black or red cassocks.
Sometimes, though rarely, the colors of the cassock are also linked to the colors of the cathedral church or the bishop’s canons (assistants).
White Overgarment: Surplice or Cassock-Alb
White robes have long signified the righteousness of Christ, worn as a garment. Wearing a white robe doesn’t mean I’m serving because I’m a great guy. I’m serving because Jesus loves me and you—and he covers me with his righteousness. The two principal white vestments are the surplice and cassock-alb.
Surplice
The more traditional white garment for clergy (both priests and deacons), choir members, altar servers, and others in the service is the surplice. It is always worn over a cassock (see below).
Cassock-Alb
The cassock-alb is a single garment, typically worn with a cincture and stole. It first appeared in the 1960s but descends from medieval albs worn under other vestments, such as chasubles (see below).
Belt: Cinctures
The cincture is a belt worn with an alb or cassock. These come in a rope or a band (also called a clergy belt).
Rope cinctures are more common for albs and cassock-albs, while band cinctures are more common for cassocks.
Scarves: Stole or Tippet
Stoles
Stoles are signs of order and office and are worn during eucharistic services. A priest’s stole hangs vertically over each shoulder. The cloth stole represents that Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30).
A deacon’s stole hangs diagonally from the left shoulder and is then secured on the right side. It represents a servant’s towel, recalling Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and calling us to do the same for each other (John 13).
Both stoles are always in the liturgical color of the season or special occasion.
Tippet
A black tippet is not a stole. A priest or deacon will wear these for non-eucharistic offices at times or when not serving at the altar in a particular service. The tippet was standard for both eucharistic and non-eucharistic services for centuries as part of the clergy’s “choir dress.”
Other Situations
Lay ministers, readers, or choir members will sometimes wear a cassock-alb or cassock and surplice with no stole or tippet. You may also see some wearing a blue reader’s scarf, but this is not a stole.
A Brief Note on “Choir Dress”
The attire commonly known as choirdress—a cassock (with cincture), surplice, and tippet, along with an optional academic hood—was the standard attire for Anglican clergy, both priests and deacons, in all services for over three centuries. It is still the standard attire for gatherings where clergy of all churchmanships, high and low, will be present. If the question arises of what attire is appropriate for an occasion, this remains the one that is never “wrong.”
Eucharistic Vesture: Chasuble or Dalmatic
Chasuble
Some, though not all, of you will see a priest wearing a chasuble. This is a large piece of material, cut round or diamond shape, with an opening in the middle. Priests wear this over their stole during eucharistic services.
(To learn more about the structure and parts of Holy Communion, AKA the Eucharist, go here.)
In Anglicanism, these fell out of favor during the Edwardian period but reappeared during the Anglo-Catholic movement of the 19th Century.
Dalmatic
The deacon will wear a similar vestment called the dalmatic. Under this is the white alb.
Generally, a church either really loves chasubles and dalmatics and uses them frequently or doesn’t use them at all. There’s not much of an in-between there.
Cope
Finally, a cope is a traditional alternative to the chasuble. A cope is, simply speaking, a cape, and can be worn over an alb and stole, surplice and stole, or surplice and tippet during a service. And, while chasubles fell out of favor during the Reformation, copes remained in use, particularly in cathedrals.
Colors
The colors of the stoles, as well as the chasuble, dalmatic, or cope, change based on the seasons of the church year. Basically, like this:
Purple or Blue – Advent
Purple – Lent
White – The feasts and seasons of both Christmas and Easter, Major Feast Days (particularly related to Christ), Baptisms, Weddings, and Funerals
Green – the Season of Epiphany and Ordinary Time
Red – the Feast of Pentecost (Whitsunday), Saints’ and Martyrs’ Days, Confirmations, and Ordinations
We hope this brief guide to Anglican vestments answers your basic questions. If not, please comment below!
Cover photo by Mart Production for Pexels, courtesy of Canva.
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