Sunday best?

[John_Carrick]

I wear a lounge suit to church, as I always have done, to church (Anglican) in the West of Ireland. I can remember being admonished for not wearing a tie one week. I now realise I am one of two who dresses like this and everyone else wears sweaters, slacks, track suits, etc.
I'm not a big Margaret Thatcher person, but I do empathise her father's wisdom that one should not do something because that is what everyone else does.
John

[planemaker]

If you think the level of dress at regular church has gone down, you should go to a funeral. My wife to be and I went to one not too long ago and people were wearing shorts and t-shirts, base ball caps!!!

[knotty]

If you think the level of dress at regular church has gone down, you should go to a funeral. My wife to be and I went to one not too long ago and people were wearing shorts and t-shirts, base ball caps!!!

The last funeral I went to I saw all that plus a lady who looked like she was going to work ... at the closest light post! At least she had the legs for it

[madmacs]

If you think the level of dress at regular church has gone down, you should go to a funeral. My wife to be and I went to one not too long ago and people were wearing shorts and t-shirts, base ball caps!!!

Ditto for weddings... Even seeing a tie in the midwest is a rarity, especially on folks under 50

[okiwen]

I have worn a kilt to church for the last four times. I do not where a sporran but i do wear a jacket and a tie as I would with a normal suit. I was raised to dress appropriately for church and have done the same for all my children. I hope they will teach their kids the same. In the down fall of the family we have lost much in society.

[AKScott]

I think it is finding the middle ground between the level of dress you can expect everyone else to be in, and something that fits your comfort zone with respect to your own self.

Jesus did say to give the best seats in the house to the poor, I think in either Luke or John, not Matthew and I don't think that passage is in Mark. Any road, outside of Easter or Christmas Eve if I am kilted I'll go with a long sleeve collared shirt and a tie - and lay on the color contrasts - but save the jacket and chained sporran for the higher attendance, more widely celebrated events.

I agree that the falling away of the concept of Sunday best is lamentable; but I think how well dressed we are on the outside isn't the point of the exercise..

[Chas]

The answer to this question is complex and quite simple at the same time.

So as not to contravene Rule 5, I will keep this to historical fact.

Judeo-Christian history was (and still is) very heavy on cleanliness. 'Wash my sins away'; 'washing the feet of the disciples'; 'cleanliness is next to Godliness' - the bible is full of references to washing, cleaning, cleansing and even shriving. The central pillar - the Eucharist service - is all about coming before one's God in a pure state, without the taint or mark of sin. In effect, clean in mind and body.

So this idea of cleanliness is in the collective race memory. And we do things because our parents did them and their parents before them.

We only have to go back a mere 100 years (or less) to a time when people took only one bath a week. For the majority of people that was the day before the weekly church service. They would then put on their only other set of clothes.

I believe the very simple answer to why people no longer wear 'Sunday Best', is that they don't need to - they have indoor plumbing now. They no longer have to demonstrate to the world that they are 'clean in mind and body', because it is taken for granted that their bodies are clean.

Regards

Chas

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The answer is going to depend upon the church, the congregation, and the geographic location. I dress pretty much as David says he does -- jacket & tie, with slacks, most every Sunday. If it is *really hot* I may forgo the jacket, but I never forgo the tie.

A few men in my church dress similar to this, but most dress more casual. I wish more people would dress up, and the only way I know to encourage that is to dress nice myself, and so I do.

On the other hand, when I attend service on our college campus, it's another matter. Most of the male students dress very casually. While a small handful make the effort to dress nice, with slacks and a tucked in shirt (rarely ever a tie), most wear jeans, shorts, flip-flops, tennis shoes, t-shirts, etc. So I tone down my dress a bit. I still wear slacks, and either a dress shirt sans tie, or a polo shirt. In other words, I try to dress nicer than the average college male, but not so nice that I look like I'm trying to show them up. (By the way, the male professors who attend typically dress as casually as the students).

If I were wearing Highland attire to regular Sunday service, I'd wear the kilt, solid hose, plain black or brown leather shoes (I'd probably leave the sgian dubh at home), a plain black or brown leather day sporran), a dress shirt and tie, and a day jacket, either tweed or some other lighter weight material, but not a formal jacket (black with silver buttons). Possibly a waistcoat if I so desired.

Now, if it were a special day, like Chirstmas Midnight Mass, or the Easter Vigil, something like that, I'd dress up a bit more. I might wear that dress jacket, or a fur sporran, and perhaps even diced or argyle hose if the mood struck.

Normally, the only time I wear a kilt to a church service would be if it were a special occasion. Here's what I wore last Easter, when a couple of my students were being baptized and confirmed during the liturgy.


A few times recently I have had to attend funerals of friends of mine who were active in the Scottish heritage community, and I (and many others) wore a kilt in their honor. I didn't take any photos, but dressed very similar to this.

[Tobus]

Ditto for weddings... Even seeing a tie in the midwest is a rarity, especially on folks under 50

No kidding. The last two weddings I've been to, I was shocked at the way people were dressed. I wore a plain suit to one, and my kilt to the other. But in both cases, I was just about the only person wearing a tie except the wedding party. Most men were wearing blue jeans or shorts & sandals. The women were generally wearing shorts or short-skirts with sandals.

I'm not that old (I'm only 38), but I guess I was raised with old-fashioned values. I cannot enter a house of worship for any type of service (be it church, wedding, funeral, or other service) without dressing up. My mother, the late Methodist minister, would turn over in her grave if I wore casual outdoor clothes to church!

*edited to add:

In answer to the OP's question, if wearing the kilt to church, I think anything in the "day wear" or "dressy" range would do. I would stay away from PCs or formal sporrans with chains, but that's just me.

[knotty]

... one should not do something because that is what everyone else does.
John

Well said

What Ive always thought.