What Looks Better? Tab or Dog?

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Backwoods Presbyterian

Backwoods Presbyterian

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I have both the "Tab" and "Dog" collar clergy shirts and cannot decide which one looks better/functions better. Now before I get "Backwoods is going FV because he owns a collar!" posts, I know there is a bit of controversy in some of our Reformed circles about the use of what used to be ubiquitous among Protestant clergy before egalitarianism took over so let's try and keep that kind of talk to a minimum. It will also not be an "everyday" shirt, I'll more than likely only wear it for hospital visits, funerals, weddings, etc.

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Now Ben, a simple suit and tie would be distinctive enough. After all, everyone down South knows that the only people who were suites on week days are preachers, funeral directors and Huff-Cook salesmen. :D
 
i said on fb, but i like the full collar better. which i'm guessing is dog.
to me the small one looks like a priest. but maybe to others, it's the opposite.
 
The tab both looks better and is, it seems to me, more immediately recognizable as clergy-wear. And that's what you're after, right?
 
Backwoods Presbyterian said:
The gentleman at the center of the Free Church controversy, Rev. Kenneth Stewart, wears a collar that looks like this.
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That is actually a neckband collar with a tab. I used to wear one every Lord's Day. Personally, I like the look of the neckband better. However, the tab collar is much more comfortable. Unfortunately, in some areas the tab collar can be mistaken for being RC. When I was at my sister's wedding reception the bartender called me "Father". When I used to wear collars all the time and was in full-time ministry I would wear the tab collars on the weekdays because they were more comfortable and seemed more casual. On the Lord's day and on certain occasions I would wear my neckband or one like Rev. Stewart.
 
I like it with the grey a lot.
I don't have an opinion about the use of a collar, but am interested in hearing more about the reasonings and history of one in the Protestant world. Can someone who has a stake in it start a thread of pros and cons to wearing a collar (so as to not highjack Ben's thread)?
 
In terms of how they look, I think the tab looks better.

But I question your reasoning for wanting to wear one. As someone who works in a hospital as a chaplain, I see how having a collar on would aid in quick identification of who you are when you're going ward to ward and room to room. But note - that supposes that you're visiting strangers. But if your visits are (mostly) limited to church members, why do you need that as an identification piece since they'll already know who you are? And won't you run the risk of confusing your members if they "usually" see you in normal attire but on "special" occasions you get duded up in clerics? (BTW - I don't think visiting sick members is "special," in fact I'd say it is "Ministry 101") and weddings and funerals? Why the clerics? Again, I'm not sure what good it does other than get folks to think you're a priest.
 
I read the following passage in Joel Beeke's The Family at Church this afternoon, and it got me thinking:

Prayer meetings were popular in the seventeenth century in certain areas of the Netherlands, especially among religious refugees. ... At one gathering, the Puritan John Howe, known for his great intercessory gifts, prayed with such fervor that he broke into a great sweat. His wife crept up behind him, took off his wig, dried his sweat with her handkerchief, then reset his wig.
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:think:
 
Rev. Kenny Stewart is a great guy and preacher but he'd look even better in a "dawg" with ministerial black.

You also need to get one of these:

View attachment 2031

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Eden_hat

When you take this hat off as you arrive in Church you remind gentlemen to take their hats off in the House of God. This also reminds the ladies to keep their hats on.

For the full effect on special occasions you may want to invest in one of these:

http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=fr...&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CDIQ_AUoAQ&biw=800&bih=410

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frock_coat
 
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JennyG said:
don't touch the tab. it screams RC priest!
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We had a young man (ARP) in northern Mississippi who took to wearing a tab (along with black shirt) for a while. He preached and did visitations in it, but he eventually grew tired of being asked if he was Roman Catholic and stopped wearing it.
 
Backwoods Presbyterian said:
The gentleman at the center of the Free Church controversy, Rev. Kenneth Stewart, wears a collar that looks like this.

Rev.jpg
Click to expand...

I usually associate the tab with priests rather than Presbyterian ministers over here, but maybe Mr Stewart has different experience of it to me. He'll have a good reason for going for the tab.

A lot of Free Church ministers have abandoned clerical dress.

My father always wore the dog collar in the pulpit, even (sometimes) on the beach.
 
The tab is always worn by priests.

Personally I would wear neither. A normal shirt and tie would my limit.
 
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