Welcome to Ask the Church, our series where we attempt to answer your questions on church practice, theology, and worship in around five minutes. Today’s question centers on the types of collars clergy wear and the colors of their shirts. It’s all about clerical attire!
To answer this question, I’ve actually put on my cassock today. A cassock is a long black gown—you’ve seen them worn in our church and elsewhere. The cassock has been standard clerical attire for centuries. In fact, if you look back at the canons of the Church of England from the early 1600s, clergy were required to wear not a collar, but a cassock, along with a white flowing gown called a surplice over it, and an appropriate cap. I don’t have a cap, so I can’t put that on for you.
The reason I put on my cassock today is not just to illustrate its historical use, but to show the effect of the top of the cassock. You’ll notice that it ends in a black collar that rises up against the neck but leaves a small gap in the center, allowing the white band underneath to show. It creates an effect where there’s a sort of tab of white in the midst of black.
This is important because the tab collar—an ordinary shirt with a collar in the same color as the shirt and a small white band in the middle—was designed to mimic the look of the cassock overlaid with a full white collar.
Now, this full white collar—and if I peel back the edge, you’ll see it goes all the way around my neck—is often called a “dog collar.” It’s been worn by clergy for nearly two hundred years. It was actually invented in the 19th century by a Scottish Presbyterian, surprisingly enough.
Many denominations wore these collars in earlier times, though they’re mostly seen among Methodists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics in the West today. The “dog collar” was a variation of the detachable collars commonly worn by men in the United Kingdom at the time. In a world where clothing was more expensive, detachable collars made it easier to clean and iron shirts, and to replace worn collars without buying a whole new shirt.
The clergy collar was essentially a modified version of this everyday collar. It differed in shape—it didn’t have the gap in the center for a tie—but was otherwise quite similar. This style persisted in the church even after detachable collars fell out of general use.
The tab collar, which mimics the effect of the cassock on top of the “dog collar,” was a later invention, as it became less and less common for cassocks to be worn as everyday attire for clergy. There’s no difference in meaning between the dog collar and the tab collar. Both simply signify that the wearer is a member of the clergy—much like a police officer’s uniform or a nurse’s scrubs. They’re uniforms that reflect vocation and calling.
Personally, I like wearing it because it serves as a reminder of my purpose as I meet with people and go about the work of the Church. It’s certainly not prescribed in Scripture, and there have been many seasons when clergy didn’t wear collars, even if they wore other garments like the cassock. Still, it’s a tradition that has endured in certain parts of the world.
Now, let’s talk about shirt colors. In the Anglican world, there’s really only one rule: purple is reserved for bishops. Other than that, everything’s fair game! So when you see a member of the clergy wearing gray, black, or other colored shirts, it doesn’t signify anything—unless it’s purple. Purple is for bishops, and bishops alone.
In the Roman Catholic world, it’s a little different. Red, in the Roman Catholic world, means you’re a cardinal, purple is for bishops, and in many places, gray is reserved for deacons. So you’ll notice some variation there. But in the Anglican tradition, it’s purple for bishops, and everything else is fair game for the other members of the clergy.
The particular styles of shirts have changed over the centuries, and there’s really no theological significance to any of them.
I hope this brief answer helps! As always, if you have other questions, send them to steven@incarnationrichmond.org.
Thank you for watching this edition of Ask the Church, and go in the grace of our Lord.