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What Do Clergy Wear?
by
Jennifer Lynn Baskerville
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The matter of what clergy wear can be divided into two categories—Sunday clothes and the clothes for the rest of the week. On Sundays during worship clergy typically wear robes called vestments. These will vary depending on whether you are a deacon, priest, or bishop and their colors will change with the church or liturgical season. The rest of the week offers more variety for fashion choices. While a few dioceses still mandate a “color canon” usually meaning that an ordained person’s street clothes will consist of black clergy shirt, clergy collar, black pants or skirt and optional jacket, most dioceses leave it to individual choice. The possibilities range from wearing a suit everyday with a clergy shirt to wearing what you like with a bibstock or “dickie” under your shirt, sweater or dress. (A bibstock or dickie has a clerical collar attached and is worn under a garment such as a blouse or sweater.) Lastly, many clergy do not wear clerical collars at all during the week and simply dress in professional attire appropriate to their context (jeans at youth events, shirt, slacks/skirt and jacket for pastoral visits, etc.)
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