(Clerical) Suit Up!

The dog collar. The flea collar. Clerical collar. Roman collar. Tab Collar.

Whatever you call it, the stiff white collar worn by many clergy (most often with a black shirt) is funny looking. Many pastors and priests have abandoned clerical collars. They are too formal. They make us (clergy) look different than everyone else - and we want people to know that we are just like them. Clergy want to seem more approachable, more relaxed, more laid back. We don't necessarily want to be connected to institutional religion in an age when people don't trust institutional religion.

All good reasons to abandon the clerical collar. And yet, I remain someone who wears clericals more often than not. I have outlined before some reasons why I do so. However, the greatest reason is this: I want people who are looking for a representative of God / the church to be able to find me; and to find me easily.

But, you may say, people don't really go looking for a representative of God or the church. And most of the time you are right. But when people get to the end of their rope, when people start feeling overwhelmed they do. Or, to put it another way, people do not start looking for someone in a clerical collar until their need is great.

The analogy I've always used is police officers. If I am in need of help, I am much more likely to look for a police officer in uniform than I am a police officer in plain clothes. Granted, it is not often that I am looking for a police officer. But when I am, I need to be able to find one as soon as possible.

So too, clergy. It is may not be often that a person is looking for a pastor, but when they are they often need to be able to find one as soon as possible.

Yesterday, I went to the hospital and visited with a member recovering from surgery. Walking out of the Critical Care Unit to go visit with the family in the waiting room, a young woman stopped me. "Will you be in the hospital long today? They are taking my Dad off life support today."

I told her I would be back. I went and visited with the family of the congregation member who went through surgery. I went back into the Critical Care Unit, and met the young woman's mother and her father. We prayed together. We cried together.

We watched as the ventilator tube was removed from the man. And then we sat together some more. We talked about God and suffering and pain. We cried some more. We prayed some more.

I spent about 3 hours in that room - because I was wearing a collar. They were experiencing the long dark night, and they needed - desperately - someone who could speak with them about faith and God, someone who represented the church. And I was the guy in the funny looking collar.

There is no argument that can outweigh my experience with that family yesterday (and others I have had like it).

And so, in the words of Barney Stinson, I will continue to "suit up."

A Missive on Clericals

A reflection from a few years back on clerical collars:

In my time as Pastor of this congregation, the members of Saint John have learned that I almost always wear a clerical collar - I can even sometimes make through the grocery store unrecognized if I am not in a collar. Yet within our community of Brenham, the use of clericals varies widely among the town's clergy. The origins of the collar are pretty uninteresting and banal - it largely is a product of men's fashion, and was simply the collar used by most educated men at one point. As to the black shirt; in an age before chemical dyes, black was the most expensive color to produce, and was reserved for the educated professions: professors, lawyers, and clergy (it is no accident that the two slowest institutions to adopt change - the church and the courts - retain the black attire).

Certainly the origins of the clerical collar are fairly uninteresting - but far more important is the historical significance of the collar, and how that can be understood today. Let me run down, briefly, what I think is the significance of clerics dressed in ... clerics.

1. The collar connects today's clergy to the "great cloud of witnesses" who have come before us and to the church catholic. Ordained persons do not serve for their own personal gain, nor ultimately do they serve only for the good of the local congregation. Rather, persons are ordained for the sake of the Church. The collar serves as a reminder of that responsibility, and also of how that affects authority ...

2. The collar points to the authority of the office. The authority of clergy is not a personal authority - that is, it is not a result of who they are or anything they have done. Instead, any authority granted to a pastor/priest is because of the office, not the person. In an age when it seems that many churches are driven by the personal authority of a charismatic pastor, the collar serves to remind both clergy and others that the authority of the office is much more important.
3. The collar is a symbol for the faithful. To members of the church, the collar helps mark the clergy as being set apart for the function of administering the sacraments and preaching the word. Certainly we all know who our pastor is, but this visual distinction helps to remind us of the function and role of our selected and called leaders. It also helps us to identify those from outside of our congregation who serve the same function.
4. The collar is a symbol for the world. Wearing the collar in public can be an interesting exercise for new clergy. You very quickly learn that, whether you intend it or not, when wearing the collar you represent the church to the world. Of course, this may mean that there are certain things that it may not be appropriate for you to do in public - but it also gives to the world a witness and a reminder of the church. Further, it makes it easier for persons to come to you with a need - because you are easily identifiable as a person who can help.

In short, think of the clerical collar as a uniform. If you were in need of help, would you be more likely to approach the police officer in uniform, or the plain clothes cop? So too with clericals. Both to the faithful and to the world, the collar serves as a symbol of our office and function - and also of the presence of the church in and among the world.