Bishop Edward T. Cook was raised to keep a special outfit reserved for Sunday.
It was respect, first and foremost. It was tradition. And depending on how far you want to go back into the history of the predominantly African American Church of God in Christ, it was also a rare opportunity to wear your best, he reflected: “It was the one place where we could go and dress up, because there were quite a number of limitations on where we could go.”
Sunday remains the day to don a suit and tie for many of his generation. At 73, he calls himself a Baby Boomer. But for many others in his generation and those that have followed, it's become a day that – at least in terms of fashion – is scarcely different than any other.
Think jeans, tennis shoes, sweatshirts and hoodies.
Ministers have noticed this decades-long trend toward casual wear in the pews, but they're generally not too concerned about it. While each church presents its own culture of written or unwritten expectations, and some carry on the tradition of dressing up on Sundays, Bishop Cook echoes others locally in preferring to focus on matters of greater spiritual significance at New Life Church of God in Christ in Toledo.
“Our real concern anymore is that the individual is there,” he said, “and that they're taking in the worship, hearing the word and hopefully developing relationships that will keep them coming.”
At Five Lakes Church in Sylvania, where a non-denominational and multi-generational congregation sports everything from that suit and tie to summertime shorts and flip-flops, Pastor Micah Sutton offered a similar take. He hopes the casual-to-formal range signals to visitors that they're welcome in the congregation, and that they belong there, regardless of how they style themselves.
He just cares that they're comfortable.
“I would have to be dead to care any less about what someone is wearing when they come into the church,” Pastor Sutton said. “I just don't.”
Sunday best
Any Christian would rightfully insist that they go to church to worship on Sundays. But it's hard to deny that many have historically seen it as a runway, of sorts too – a place where they can see and be seen, traditionally in the best of one's wardrobe.
André Leon Talley, the fashion icon who died earlier this month at 73, used to speak glowingly of his memories of his grandmother's preparations for Sundays in Durham, N.C.: “Handbags, gloves chosen carefully – my grandmother had the most beautiful wardrobe of gloves, calfskin gloves in the winter,” he told NPR's Audie Cornish in 2018, in an interview tied to the release of the documentary exploring his life and career, The Gospel According to André. “You wore beautiful net gloves in summer. You wore beautiful cotton gloves. So all of that was very much ritualistic, and I loved it.”
It was her “Sunday best,” a term that lingers on even as it perhaps feels outdated in the average church today. Tracie Evans, curator of collections at Archbold-based Sauder Village, the living history museum that presents visitors a slice of life in northwest Ohio, offered some insights.
Sunday best reflected a desire to honor God, of course, she said. But there was more to it.
“Because religion was such a cornerstone of daily life, it was seen as the pinnacle place for social interaction as well as worship,” Ms. Evans said. “That was when people were going to get together, this is when your community came together. So you wanted to look your very best.”
Consider also the size of the average closet in the heyday of those hats, gloves and polished shoes – much smaller than it is these days, she pointed out. That meant that there often was an outfit that a church-goer could single out as the best, rather than one of the endless combinations from which many are choosing these days on a Sunday.
Exactly when and why this more fastidious approach to worship began to shift is a bit less clear, although it no doubt aligns with broader shifts in culture and fashion. Any church-going observer can confirm it's been happening gradually for decades, in any case. Among those observers is Wisetta Dolsey, a Catholic and a Detroit-based etiquette expert.
She runs the Five-Star School of Etiquette.
Congregational cultures can vary widely when it comes to attire, she pointed out, so an etiquette-minded church-goer would be wise to ask before they arrive: “I don't know anyone who drives down the street on Sunday, picks a church, and goes there,” she said. “Usually we're invited to a place of worship. So if we have any doubts about what we're going to wear, we can always ask the person who invited us what is appropriate to wear to the church.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, offer a loose set of expectations in document released 2006, titled “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper”: “As Christians we should dress in a modest manner, wearing clothes that reflect our reverence for God and that manifest our respect for the dignity of the liturgy and for one another.”
And Ms. Dolsey would never condone an extreme style that might offend others in the pews.
But as for formal wear? She doesn't see it as the standard anymore.
“Casual dress in church is appropriate,” she said. “We don't have to do our Sunday best, like we did in the '50s and '60s and '70s, with the matching shoes and hats and gloves and purses.”
Sunday, any day
There are some who still prefer to think of church as an occasion to dress up at New Life Church of God in Christ. Likewise at People's Missionary Baptist Church, where Pastor Michael Key echoed Bishop Cook in recalling the more rigid dress codes that were unquestioned in the church of his youth.
But there are also plenty who like the more relaxed standard that's taken hold today.
“I think the days – for most people, not all – are gone where they feel they have to wear a sort of uniform because they're going to church,” said the Rev. Bill Dunifon.
He drew on his observations of 35 years as a pastor, the most recent couple of which have been at Fairgreen Presbyterian Church in Toledo. There, like other pastors interviewed by The Blade, he said he sees a wide range of styles in his congregation.
These pastors don't mind. While they acknowledge that there are some options that would be too extreme or too risque for the pews, they generally see “inappropriate” as a high bar to reach – and one that in practice they don't see attempted often.
Pastor Sutton said he even likes to see his younger members dressing in their day-to-day clothes – and his older members, too. While he can point to some generational patterns when it comes to attire, there are enough exceptions that it's tough to generalize.
“The point that we're hoping to convey is that everybody belongs here,” he said. “You dress how you feel comfortable.”
Pastor Key is of a similar mind.
He thinks about the younger generation that in many cases was raised outside the church, and that in many cases is now under a mistaken impression “that if they didn't have a suit and tie, they couldn't come to church,” he said. “I don't know where that notion came from, but maybe they see everyone else dress up in a suit and tie.”
It's not the case at People's Missionary Baptist Church.
Not everyone will agree with him, Pastor Key said, chuckling, but his view is pretty firm: “I don't believe wearing a suit gives you any benefit toward God.”
First Published January 30, 2022, 1:30 p.m.
