conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form: wardrobe

April 22, 2005

wardrobe

Larry had something interesting to say about how we dress. Strangely, after wearing a collar at the hopspital for the past several months, I must agree with him.

Who knew?

You can find more in the extended link.

A question for me was how to dress. I do at times wear a Rusian style cassock, and I did debate whether or not to wear it. I didn't feel comfortable for some reason wearing to Jane's ordination. To do so seemed pretentious somehow. Then I realized once at the Cathedral that I had dressed the part of a Covenant pastor, nice suit jacket, dress shirt (no tie I do not wear ties, though the tie is the Covenant clerical collar) and a cross. (admitedly a more urban Goth version of the Covenant pastor look, but Covenant pastor none the less.) I fell more comfortable in the cassock actually, but it doesn't really represent my tradition very well. I came as a Covenant Pastor to Jane's ordination, which is exactly how I should have come. This does however raise the questin of how to present myself when Jane is ordained a priest.
Tripp btw wore a clerical colar, which I think suits him. I don't think he looks teribly episcopal in it either. To me, he looks like a baptist in a clerical collar, which to my mind is a good thing.

[I did like that part especially. - Ed.]

If you are reading this and think, what does dress have to do with anything of faith and pastoring and the church, I will say everything. Christian faith is supposed to have form. There is very little in fact that is abstract, "purely spiritual" and disimbodied about Christian faith. The foci of our religious faith are intensly bodily and about form. Our central act of worship is centered on eating and drinking, we enter the faith by either being emersed in water, having watter poured over us or sprinkled with water in Baptism. We anoint people with oil for healing, we ordain people through the laying on of hands. These forms are not accidental for the Christians but are primary (except if you are Quaker, but I kindly and respectfully submit to the Quakers that they are the exception and the deviation from how the faith has been understood for most of the history of Christianity). So, what I wear as a pastor has not only meaning but cannot be laid asside as without consequence.

Plus even if the above was not so dress is a symbolic activity. How we dress speaks to those we meet, it also forms our sense of ourselves. While many people may think that I ignore this aspect of dress, I am actualy very careful in how I dress and what I communicate with that dress. One may not like what I say, or you may misinterpret what I am communicating with my dress, but it is deliberate. Such deliberation even when it is shocking to some is, I think, what it means to be fully human embodied and valueing the body as the temple of the holy spirit.

Posted by tripp at April 22, 2005 02:09 PM

Comments

He's right. In many ways, "Image is everything." We may not want to admit it, but how we dress makes an impression. Think about dressing up for interviews; you don't want two strikes against you before you open your mouth.

And in officiating, I always made sure that my knickers were spotless, my socks matched stripe for stripe, my shirts were immaculate, etc. I once had someone tell me that they could see my striped shirt through my knickers. I went out and bout white compression shorts the next day to hide that.

Same in this business. My mentor bought me a black suit coat because I needed to "look the part." Clothes make a statement, and we need to be putting our best foot forward, like it or not.

Posted by: Reverend Ref at April 22, 2005 11:13 PM

I'm finding that to be true, as well. You'll have noticed already that I am not tied to black clericals; but if I'm working in the role of a deacon, especially in the litrugy, I will indeed have a collar on. I'm new enough at this that it still feels oddly conspicuous; but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

When I was working in the mill, the "uniform" had more to do with safety-- hard hat, steel-toed boots, earplugs. . . but even then, there were distinctions in color, etc. that indicated position and responsibility. It was important, and helpful, to be able to identify folks at a glance, as well as being integral to an employee's self-image.

Posted by: Jane Ellen at April 23, 2005 06:24 PM

Yeah, I say it makes a huge difference. IN the trauma unit, wearing a collar get's you into the nitty gritty immediately. If anything, I work to keep people away from the most difficult aspects of their crisis...at least for the time being. The collar takes them there before any of us are ready to engage. And, taking a step back certainly does not mean that we cannot return. That we certainly can do.

I am often called "Father." I usually correct this. :-)

Posted by: Tripp at April 23, 2005 10:53 PM

Father Tripp . . . . Father Hudgins . . . . Father Tripp Hudgins . . . . I find myself giggling.

How about simply, "Yo -- Reverend Dude"??

Posted by: Reverend Ref at April 24, 2005 05:42 PM

Posted by: fdgfdgdfdf at October 29, 2005 11:29 AM