How to Get Dressed to Lead Worship

http://www.kencollins.com/how-10.htm

These are my personal suggestions for Protestant ministers whose denominations don’t give them guidance on what to wear. I am following the general ecumenical practice in the United States.

Presbyterians can use these suggestions; however, if they wish to wear the distinctive Presbyterian vestments that are based on medieval academic attire, they should consult their presbyteries. Roman Catholic clergy and especially Orthodox clergy should consult their bishops.

Lay Leaders

In any church, there are people who can’t afford nice clothes, people who overdress, and others who just have poor taste. You can eliminate these problems if you vest the lay leaders. It won’t matter if they are dressed like a floozy, a beach bum, or Miss America, because no one can see what is underneath.

If you would like lay leaders to be vested, acquire a collection of albs in various sizes. Lay people can wear albs and cinctures. Albs are available in children’s sizes for acolytes who are children. If you are Anglican, you have the alternative of cassocks and surplices. In that case, acolytes can wear red cassocks with white surplices.

Only choir members should wear choir robes. It is possible to outfit the choir in cassocks and surplices, just like the choirs of angels on Christmas cards. There are specially designed vestments for organists and pianists. They match the vestments for the choir, except that the sleeves fall away at the elbows so that they don’t interfere with the keyboard.

It is inappropriate for a lay leader who is not a choir member to wear a choir robe or a Geneva gown. Only ordained clergy should wear a pulpit gown, and only ordained clergy with a doctorate degree should wear the pulpit gown with puffy sleeves that have three stripes. Unless you are Presbyterian, my personal taste runs against wearing academic attire to lead worship, because it will make you look like a judge in traffic court.

Regular Ordained Clergy (Presbyters)

If you are ordained clergy, and you would like to dress ecumenically for worship, I suggest the following wardrobe:

• One or two albs.
  At least one should be white to avoid a color clash with your white stole. The second alb can be white, ivory, or natural colored. If you have two albs, you won’t feel any anxiety when you take one to the cleaners. Albs are inexpensive compared to other vestments and most are machine washable.
• Four stoles.
  You need one stole in each of the following colors: green, white, red, and purple. The type of stole that goes with an alb is sometimes called a broadstole. It is about 5 inches wide. You wear it around your neck with the ends hanging down in front to about your knees.
• A natural colored rope cincture, or cinctures in colors that match the stoles. Some albs are designed to be worn without cinctures, and others come with cloth cinctures, but in most cases, you’ll need the ropes. If you need help, Almy, a leading supplier of clergy vestments, has a web page with diagrams that shows how to tie a cincture.
• If you wish to give special Communion services extra dignity, four chasubles in each of the four colors I just mentioned. You need a second set of specially designed stoles to wear under the chasubles, but don’t worry, when you purchase a chasuble, it normally comes with the matching stole. There are cheap chasubles; however, they look as cheap as they cost. Since you will be wearing them the rest of your life, invest in a good ones. Chasubles are very expensive, so you can economize by having only one chasuble, in which case make sure it is ivory or white and very high quality, so that you use it for weddings, funerals, Christmas, and Easter—services that include Communion.

To get dressed, put on the alb and the cincture. Put the cincture on the level of your navel, not your waist, otherwise it will accentuate your belly and make you look like you have a bigger paunch than you do. Then put the stole over the alb. If you are wearing a chasuble, it goes on top.

Think of the stole as the first-century equivalent of the modern necktie, and the chasuble as the first-century equivalent of a modern jacket. Think of the alb as the first-century equivalent of a dress shirt that is very long and not tucked in. There wasn’t anything to tuck the alb into, because in the first century, only barbarians wore pants.

You can also acquire a small “portable stole” that is purple on one side and white on the other. You wear it over your street clothes on certain occasions. The purple side is for hearing confessions or conducting counseling sessions (whichever your church calls it) and for ministering to people during sick visits. The white side is for funerals when full vestments aren’t practical, and for ministering to people in the presence of the deceased.

Ordained Deacons

If you are an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church or in any of the Methodist denominations, or if you are a “licensed minister” in the Disciples of Christ, I suggest the following wardrobe:

• One or two albs.
  At least one should be white to avoid a color clash with the white stole. The second alb can be white, ivory, or natural colored. If you have two albs, you won’t feel any anxiety when you take one to the cleaners.
• Four deacon’s stoles.
  You need one stole in each of the following colors: green, white, red, and purple. A deacon’s stole is designed to hang only over the left shoulder to your knees, or more commonly, it hangs diagonally across your chest, is gathered at the waist on the right, and extends down your right leg to about your knees. Your church discipline probably prohibits you from wearing a presbyter’s stole.
• A natural colored rope cincture, or a cinctures in colors that match the stoles. Some albs are designed to be worn without cinctures, and others come with cloth cinctures, but in most cases, you’ll need the ropes. If you need help, Almy, a leading supplier of clergy vestments, has a web page with diagrams that shows how to tie a cincture.
• If you like, a dalmatic.

To get dressed, put on the alb and cincture. Put the cincture on the level of your navel, not your waist, otherwise it will accentuate your belly and make you look like you have a bigger paunch than you do. If you are wearing a dalmatic, put it on next. Finally, put the deacon’s stole on top.

When to Wear Which Stole

• Red
  Wear your red stole at Holy Week services, on Pentecost, at ordinations, and on services that commemorate the death of a Christian martyr.
• White
  Wear your white stole during the twelve days of Christmas, during the fifty days of Easter, at funerals, and at weddings. Wear it at any service that celebrates a secular holiday, and on certain special days, such as Epiphany Day, the Baptism of our Lord (which is the Sunday after the Epiphany), on Trinity Sunday, and All Saints Sunday. You can wear a small, white “portable stole” over your regular clothes when ministering to people in the presence of the deceased, or when conducting a funeral when full vestments are not practical for some reason.
• Purple
  Wear your purple stole during Lent and Advent. You can wear a small, purple “portable stole” over your regular clothes when hearing confessions (in Lutheran and Anglican churches), when conducting a counseling session (which is the same thing for the rest of us), and when administering Communion in the hospital.
• Green
  Wear your green stole whenever none of the above colors applies, mainly after Epiphany Day but before Ash Wednesday, and after Pentecost Sunday but before the first Sunday of Advent.

Use these color guidelines for chasubles, too.

For More Information

You can find out more information in my glossary about vestments.

If you would like more detailed information about vestments, or about how to perform various acts of worship, you might want to add some of the books in my list of How-To Manuals for Clergy to your personal library.