c. 2004 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ Seersucker and see-through, suits and ties and tie-dyed, feathered hats and baseball caps: On Sunday morning, you can see it all.

And it marks a change for Mary “Mickie” Jernigan, who recalls when church fashions were different.

These days, Jernigan, who is in her 70s, said she still has “Sunday dresses” she wears to worship at Government Street Presbyterian Church in Mobile. But other people, she said, are dressing more casually for worship.

That’s their business, she added.

“I mean, I can’t tell people how to dress,” she said. “I know what I feel comfortable in.”

Jernigan said she’s seen Sunday worship attire become more casual over the last decade or so. “It depends on the church. I just think it’s respectful to look nice.”

Within black congregations, dressing up remains important, according to Gwendolyn S. O’Neal, professor and head of the department of apparel, textiles and interior design at Kansas State University.

But, she said, the notion of what’s considered dressing up has changed.

“For the older generations, the notion of wearing hats _ I mean, the very fine hats _ the very best of your dress clothing, the notion of having clothing designated as Sunday attire is still the same,” she said. “For many of the young people today the latest fashion is dress-up. It’s significant to have it. For them, they feel dressed up.”

Part of the motivation for dressing up for worship is that the church remains a significant gathering place.

Historically, from the African-American perspective, the church was the “foundation of everything,” she said. “It provided the context for education. It was where you gathered for social and political events. It was where you were taught all kinds of things.”

Within the black community in particular, O’Neal said, people dress up for “anything that we reverence,” whether it be a secular or sacred occasion.

Elsewhere, many dress more casually for worship, and sometimes offer religious reasons for doing so.

Cecil R. Taylor, dean of the School of Religion at the University of Mobile, said he wears jeans to church, and doesn’t mean any disrespect to God by doing so.

“The important thing is to come before the Lord,” Taylor said. “I think whether I wear jeans or a three-piece suit probably is immaterial before the Lord.”

After all, Taylor recalled, David was anointed king after working in the fields. In the biblical story, David’s divine appointment is preceded by the Almighty telling Samuel of other candidates, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7).

The Rev. Roy Schneider, pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church in Mobile, said he once encouraged members of another church he served to come to worship straight from their work baling hay.

“The hardest thing was to convince their wives,” Schneider said, adding that he was only concerned that they “came with hearts that were prepared to worship the Lord.”

Schneider said the way a person dresses can reflect his heart. For one person, Schneider said, dressing up too much might be a prideful act.

“… God is looking at your heart and he is the ultimate judge of what you’re wearing,” Schneider said.

The Rev. Robert Seawell, vicar of the Episcopal Church of the Apostles in Daphne, said his attire varies with the type of service he is leading.

For the congregation’s traditional Sunday morning service, Seawell said he wears his vestments. During the Sunday evening service, he may wear shorts.

“For me, it’s a nice mix,”said Seawell, who believes both services reflect different aspects of God. The morning service is more contemplative, he said; the evening service is more charismatic.

Generally speaking, Seawell said he thinks worship attire has grown more casual.

“I think that worship ought to be a continuation of what we do,” he said. “Yeah, there should be some set-apart time. The Sabbath is a set-apart time. … (But) I don’t think it has to be so far removed from who we are,” he said, wondering aloud why, if a person doesn’t wear a coat and tie during the rest of the week, he should feel obliged to sport them come Sunday.

Duke Walker, a member of Government Street Presbyterian Church, said that while members of his congregation don’t tend to dress very casually, he has seen more relaxed attire at other churches.

“I think it’s less perhaps about a loss or lack of reverence and more about being comfortable with what you’re doing,” Walker said. “Maybe it’s that people are making God more a part of their everyday (lives).”

But the Very Rev. G. Warren Wall, pastor of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Mobile, seemed to express concern that some worshippers “don’t dress according to the place that they’re going.”

“The clothing ought not to be a fashion parade,” Wall said. But, he stated: “I think that the very idea of coming to church should express a virtue of God, which is modesty. … And in coming to church dressed immodestly suggests, I think, carelessness at least or a lack of attention to putting that virtue into practice.”

DEA/JL END CAMPBELL