The Symbolism of Clerical Attire: A Cross-Denominational Exploration

The Symbolism of Clerical Attire

In a religious organization, clergies are colorfully dressed in different attire that symbolizes what they believe. Christians are known to be followers of Christ with the belief that someday they will eternity with their creator (God). In the respective denominations like Catholics, Anglicans, Methodist, presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. clergies’ hierarchy are seen in the outfit they wear. Recently, I got to understand what some outfits, which is the essence of this article:

The clerical collar:

The clerical collar also known as the “Roman collar” is commonly worn by Reverends in my denomination (Pentecostal denomination). It signifies that the clergies are yoke with Christ; just as how animals are yoked to plough the farmland, the clergies are yoked to plough God’s farmland. In my denomination, Reverend is a higher rank ahead of the pastors. During the ordination, the ordained Reverends now wear clerical collar.

Pectoral Cross:

The pectoral cross is commonly by churches that tend to relate with Catholics in terms of their service pattern, such as Methodist, Anglican, etc. Since I was opportune to attend a catholic secondary school, I was privileged to see it worn by the Reverend father while rosaries were worn by the students. The pectoral cross plays similar role like rosary, it is worn as a reminder of Christ’s suffering on the cross; the only difference is that pectoral cross is worn by Clergies.

Cassock/ Catholic vestment:

These two attires are commonly by the Catholics and in different occasions by Reverend fathers. The reverend fathers wear the catholic vestment only when they are serving mass while the cassock can be worn when they are done serving mass. However, Anglican clergies are also seen wearing a cassock during and after church service. Based on my understanding the attire signifies holiness – in the Bible the priest wears the attire and are wrapped with a rope to enter into the holy of holies; on the other hand, historically it was initiated by the Romans Catholics.

Staff:

The staff is often held by bishops symbolizing they are shepherds who guide the sheep tot the right path. These sheep are the congregation another people who they tend to disciple. It is commonly seen in orthodox churches like Anglican, Lutheran and also Catholics.

Conclusion:

From the above explanation about the different attires worn by Christian clergies we can now agree that the outfits are symbolic and not seen as a fashion, even though people happen to wear them casually. Generally, attires like these help us to differentiate denominations in the Christian society. The essence is not to cause division but to identify the personality and what he stands for (belief).

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_{Note: All pictures were originally captured by me.}

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