Out here in the Wild West, the amalgamation of cultures is a fascinating phenomenon. Most of Lutheranism is transplanted Midwestern, so many of those biases come with folks when they relocate.

I wear a clerical every day and am, from my observation, the only member of the clergy in Phoenix who does so. It is very rare for me to encounter another collared person during the week, even in a hospital. So, why do I wear one daily? My younger brother tells me that my image of the Office is frozen in 1960 and he may be right. I wear the "uniform" to keep my own focus as to what I am called to do. Being raised in the Roman Church, it is just the way clergy dress.

My one accommodation to the wild west is that I often wear khaki pants with my black shirt...we are more laid back out here in the Diaspora, after all.

At my midwestern ELCA seminary, we're encouraged to have them and wear them, but not exclusively. Since clergy shirts can be received positively or negatively, you have to experiment in your context to see whether they open more doors than they close. I don't know what other seminaries are like, though.

Hi Seminarian--I notice you post quite a lot. We have a seminarian department in the print journal. Are you interested in contributing? (Or, perhaps, do I already know you?)

Why is the clergy shirt a compelling argument against the ordination of women?

Anecdotally, here in the Midwest (Wisconsin) the clergy shirt doesn't function in the way you describe. Many pastors choose not to wear a collar, preferring instead a wide array of other options, from ties, to business casual, to total casual. But a good # of clergy do wear them, often or at least especially on Sunday morning, at other worship services, to the hospital, etc.

I don't wear mine all the time or consistently, but I do wear them often. Kids often ask me what it means or why I wear it. I say it's like wearing a police uniform or nursing scrubs.

I have never ever had it inspire suspicion rather than welcome. It usually is very comforting to people I visit in the hospital or nursing home. They immediately know who I am and what my role is when I enter the room. I'd be interested to hear if other midwesterners differ in their perceptions on this from me...

Also, one upping our friend from Phoenix, I almost always wear my collar with jeans. I own a fair trade "safari cut" shirt from Florida that I often wear in the summer, regular collars in winter under pretty much anything, like polar fleece or a Norwegian sweater.

But now we're out of the realm of symbol and straight into STYLE! :)

As a concluding anecdote, a friend of mine who is a German Lutheran missionary in Abakan Russia mentioned that all the priests (Russian Orthodox) near him cut their plastic collars from used laundry detergent bottles and insert them into their shirts.

In PA Va Hospitals after 9/11, the question was raised should chaplains wear a military uniform with a cross, Star Of David,etc. or should they wear a Roman Collar. The Roman collar was unanimously chosen as a universally recognized sign of Clergy.

Though not really interested in the clergy shirt discussion, was curious if the Rev. Ken Rudkin was ever located in Conneaut, Ohio. Perhaps early sixties. Would enjoy renewing the contact.
reply to GFMCGovern@aol.com

I am wrapping up my first year in a first call in a midwestern, suburban Chicago congregation, and I continue to have an ambivalent relationship to the clergy shirt. As an Associate, I get to postpone making up my mind on the matter since there is a certain practical wisdom in imitating the Senior, who wears her collar always on Sundays and occasionally during the week for visits, funerals, etc. But eventually I'll have to make some sort of fashion commitment for my own reasons.

To call the clergy shirt and its clerical collar a symbol is already to elevate the conversation beyond practical arguments--that it's simply a uniform for pastors, helps strangers to recognize a clergyperson in a crowd, prevents laity from getting distracted by the minister's fashion choices (like an alb in worship), and so forth--and into the theological realm where Lutherans, of course, have rather diverse understandings when it comes to the office of the ministry and, in particular, ordination. I tend to be on the "lower" end of the spectrum in that debate, since I don't see the tasks entrusted to me of administering the means of grace as attaching to me, altering my being, in any peculiar way, and am especially cautious against conveying that I am a member of a distinct religious class apart from the rest of the people of God. Hence, I wear a clergy shirt only uncomfortably and I think only for practical reasons.

In a denomination suffering from decline-anxiety and where pastors live with a palpable sense of their diminishing influence, I also believe there is a special danger in leaning too heavily on symbols of authority like the collar. Too often I see other young leaders using it as a prop that betrays underlying doubts about the power and efficacy of the Word coming from our mouths. It feels like people aren't listening or don't take us seriously, so we try to prop up the Word with a bit of plastic and maybe some desperate apologetic about the holy office. It doesn't work. The Evangelists record that Jesus "spoke with authority"; whether he "dressed with authority" wasn't worth mentioning because the message carried power in itself.

I agree with Sarah that much of the clergy shirt issue is contextual, and it seems to me that a pastor's responsibility is to deduce whether wearing one among a particular people helps or hinders them in recognizing the authority of the Word (offered through, but distinct from, the messenger). Some are more prone to locating authority in charisma and also through very real, lingering prejudices, and a clergy shirt might do a little something to temper that. Others are so tradition dependent that a pairing back of traditional authority symbols might redirect the focus to the Source of life.

Finally, as a midwesterner, I should note that we have considerable fashion diversity just in this region. My head is still spinning a bit in making the move from the synods of the Twin Cities and Northwest Minnesota (predominantly casual, just wear a sweater) to Metro Chicago (black is in this season, every season). It's a generalization, but Luther Seminary folks tend to roll their eyes at clerical symbols, while I get the vague impression that LSTC (seminarians in particular) wear their clergy shirts to sleep.

I've worn one when doing pulpit supply, and on some hospital visits. What I have noticed is that people tend to treat me differently, i.e, they seem more willing to approach me to discuss things about the church, and about God, that are on their minds. For this reason I see it as a useful tool to represent the whole church. I can see the danger, however, it using it as a crutch for authority.

This recent trend with the apostate lutheran church is is disgusting, I have seen several, 7 to be exact luthern churches split and then fall apart with the revolting idea of contemporary services, music and worship book tossed out the window and replaced with monotanous music and gibbersih that took the place of the beautiful litergy of the lutheran service book and the pastor wearing street clothes and no traditional vestments, No wonder several former lutherans are now Roman Catholics or Anglicans

I too was a lutheran in the liberal apostate ELCA and was totally disgusted with what is going on in the ELCA and finally prayed over it and my family and I now go to the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church

My parents moved to FL in 2004 when I was 20 from Pennsylvania and the Lutheran churches there are more traditional Lutheran and there is no doubt that you in a Lutheran church there, We have been going to a "liberal/Contemporary" Lutherean church here in FL and you cant tell the difference with it and the cheesey televangelists on the local "christian" network, they are so lame and non denomionational with mustic that is pathetic and gibberish preaching that never gets to the point with a message or even scripture readings that you wish you were in a "REAL" Lutheran Church that is conservative and traditional. Our church has been doing this "contemporary stuff" for 4 years now and the chrch had 700 members when it started this idea and its now down to 235 or so and its now March 2009. My dad says he remembers this same thing happening with all of the churches in the 1970s when they tried "contemporary" services and they lost 2/3 of their members and never gained them back so why cant the church council presidents, pastors and others wake up and smell the coffee .. People dont like the contemporary services now or back in the 1970s....

"...so why cant the church council presidents, pastors and others wake up and smell the coffee .. People dont like the contemporary services now or back in the 1970s...."

Amen.

Rick My guess is that they are all now spineless and cant defend Tradition its kinda like the warning Christ made about lukewarm christians so they better wake up and smell the coffee or come to church some sunday morning expecting to see a full sanctuary and wind up having it be empty. Ive been in lutheran churches recently where it has actually happened and has continued to happen as long as this trend in contemporary services are done ELCA Died in 2006 Can LCMS or WELLS be far behind ? wake up now and stay traditional lutheran or split into schisms and slowly die and fade away

I am a western Mid-westerner newly in the "East." I even came to being Lutheran from another denomination that has no tradition of pastors wearing clericals. In a small town like the one I grew up in it is less of an issue. It doesn't take long for your role in that community to become known. Clericals were and for many still are more of a formal dress for special occasions with many pastors. When you grow up and realize that it is appropriate to wear appropriate attire for the appropriate occasions, you do so. I soon realized as I grew older that grown up men wore a tie at a funeral, or at least his best jeans, out of respect for the loved one. Pastors wore their clericals. Sorry to be so gender specific but I am male and it is a matter of context.

In the area I now serve, it is really quite expected of me especially being new to the area. I and the Roman Catholic priest in town are the only two members of the local ministry who ever wear them. I have to admit it is sometimes difficult not throwing on the something fun now and then. I also have come to realize that communication is also visual. When I worked in a VA hospital during seminary I learned that in a tie and jacket, I was asked what I was selling. A large cross meant I was there in to serve in the name of Christ. Clericals serve that capacity on the street. Truth in advertising, not being subversive on the approach.

I am a pastor. While I like being anonymous, occasionally detached from this truth it does not change the reason I was called to this congregation and community. When strangers approach me for prayers on the street, I know they would not do the same if I was not in a collar. There are theological reasons to set aside such distinctions in the parish. They know who I am but being a pastor also has an outward element that includes bearing witness in the world. Those who want to leave clericals at home, I believe, might want to find a nice job doing shift work instead of public ministry in the setting where their role is not clear or just enjoy their self expression or post-modern philosophical selfness in equally appropriate ways. I personally don't wear my clericals hiking, ditch-digging, sleeping, or traveling... usually. Why dirty extra extra clothes if I don't have to. I don't get the enjoyment of blending into the crowd but no one ever told me that being a pastor was always going to be a convenient vocation. It is not about authority or subversive theology, it is about being publicly and consistently honest in our call especially in a place without a Lutheran Pastor on every block.