I had a letter published in the Methodist Recorder yesterday. Having emailed it on 10th March I had assumed they weren’t going to print it, so they must have been desperate to fill up space this week! Below is what I said. I have had a nice email from another minister today saying he thought it was ‘sensible’. Not everyone will agree.
Dear Editor,
In response to those who have written defending the clerical
collar I would like to give some support to Terry Wynn (Recorder, February 15).
It is right for Rob Hufton (February 22) to draw attention to pragmatic
advantages at certain times in public, but some of the arguments from other
correspondents leave me uneasy. I am primarily concerned with the damage done
to the priesthood of all believers. So the collar may be a public badge of
faith (Tony Hannam, March 8) but where does that leave those who are not
ordained? Isn’t the best ‘badge of faith’ the lifestyle of all Christians?
Surely ministers aren’t the only ones to ‘go public’ with their faith? The very
point of a Local Preacher is that s/he is public about faith in the world. And
other free church traditions cope with ministers who are not dressed
differently.Yes, the collar can lead to conversational outreach (Stella
Yellowley, March 8) but (a) again, where does that leave other Christians? And
(b) that which is an opening to some is a barrier to others. I recall being
asked to take a funeral for a two-year-old who had died of a brain tumour.
Phoning the distraught young couple to arrange to see them I had to explain I
wouldn’t be in a clerical shirt that night – they were in the wash. At the end
of the visit they spontaneously told me how relieved they had been that I came
dressed ‘normally’ – they had been worried what it might mean to meet a
‘priest’. I did dress formally for the funeral itself – the occasion and
concern for other mourners led to that decision. But it was a moment of grace
not to have worn the collar for the pastoral visit.Similarly, the collar is not the automatic entry to a
hospital ward at any time of day or night that it might once have been. I am
entirely dependent upon the ward staff allowing me in ‘out of hours’ and in my
experience that is only usually when they know the family have explicitly asked
for me.Finally, while Mrs A Barlow (March 8) is right to make the
link between the collar and the symbol of being a slave of Christ, my problem
again is a ‘priesthood of all believers’ one – aren’t we all servants of
Christ? I have only half-jokingly suggested in sermons that on that basis
either no Christians should wear the collar or we all should.Those of us who in our attire are what one Anglican friend
of mine called ‘not so much low church, more like subterranean’ do so not
because we despise our honourable calling to ordination. We do so at least in
part because we also honour our Christian sisters and brothers whose honourable
callings are elsewhere.Yours faithfully,
David
Faulkner
Technorati Tags: dogcollar, clericalcollar, ministry
Big Circumstance 
Saw your letter in The Recorder.
I really rather like the idea of every Christian wearing something distinctive that makes us instantly recognisable and I mean that absolutely seriously.
Like many who wrote into The Recorder, I value the fact that “the dog collar” can open up conversations. Although I equally know from when I worked in an office that people will want to talk to one about faith if one is known to be a Christian – with or without a collar.
I grew up conservative Lutheran and the ordained ministers in that era and denomination wore their collars all the time, no matter what they were doing. I feel that some of the “anti-dog collar” stuff is just low-church reverse-snobbism. (And after many decades of being low-church, I feel that this sort of anti-high snobbism exists as much as does its antithesis!)
Let every Christian wear a dog collar! Or maybe better still, we should all commit to wearing “plain” clothing like the Quakers – no precious metals, etc. And maybe a distinctive stainless steel cross that is a statement of faith rather than a piece of jewelry?
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I wanted to add this disclaimer as I felt yesterday’s post might have sounded more grumpy than I meant it.
I didn’t see your letter as being “snobbish”. I have no problem with a minister who chooses not to wear the collar for pastoral reasons or personal preference (and anyway, I think you indicated that you do in some instances). It was the early letters in “The Recorder” to the effect of “Ministers who wear collars only do so to show that they are superior” that I found to be in this vein.
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