a little church-work humour.

and most probably won't laugh at this, but...

last week at work, i heard Wayne talking about how he held onto all his clericals from years long past, and my ears perked up:

And my request went something like this:


"Heyyy... Wayne, can I borrow a green/"ordinary time" stole? I'm doing a wedding for a nominally religious family and as a favour I said I'd do the robe thing... I already have the both-Catholic-and-Protestant-looking alb, but you know clericals don't normally go with the Pentecostal game plan... green's the right colour right? I looked up this Ordinary Time stuff a while ago" (and i gotta say, we probably lost something by dropping the church seasons and the meanings of the different colours in our tradition)


And of course I could borrow them.

But it's just hilarious that... only when one works at a PAOC church (i typically wear jeans and t-shirts/conducting weddings would generally call for a skirt suit in most settings) with people of all flavours of Christianity can one borrow a Presbyterian stole from her co-worker to go with her Protestant/Catholic alb for a wedding as a favour to the nominally religious but nothing strongly family who wants nothing more than for nobody to be particularly shocked or surprised by the lack or appearance of clericals.

okay, perhaps only i find that little story hilarious, but it was funny at the time.


(for those wondering why i would bother, or that it is somehow dishonest for the jeans-and-t-shirts set to wear clericals, i think it's fair to use and wear these items as a respectful nod to different traditions - also looking at the roots of PAOC and two thousand years of church history

(the alb is a neutral garment used through many centuries and most types of churches. Pairing it with the similarly neutral general stole that doesn't denote any priestly rank is also respectful, historically appropriate, and genuine to my credentials - licensed, not yet ordained - as well)