Choir dress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Choir dress is the vesture of the clerics, seminarians and religious of traditional churches worn for public prayer, either apart from the eucharist or by those attending the eucharist as the clergy part of the congregation rather than as the celebrants. The choir vesture is often simpler than the vestments for the celebrants of the eucharist.
[edit] Eastern choir dress
The choir dress of clergy in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches are relatively similar. Over the inner cassock, a deep-sleeved exorason, which is often black, is worn. In Eastern Orthodoxy, monks also wear a black cloak, the mandyas, but this is only usually worn when performing certain sacramental roles. The mandyas of an abbot or bishop is of coloured silk. Monastic clergy wear different headcoverings than married clergy. In Eastern Orthodoxy, married clergy wear the kalimaukion or skufia and monastic clergy, the kalimaukion and veil. In the Syriac Orthodox Church, married priests wear a black skullcap, or phiro, while monastic priests wear their schema, eskimo. For certain sacramental functions, a priest or bishop puts on the epitrachelion, or stole.
[edit] Roman Catholic choir dress
Choir dress in the Roman Catholic Church is worn by deacons, priests and bishops when presiding at or celebrating a liturgy that is not the Mass, especially the Liturgy of the Hours, or when attending Mass without celebrating or concelebrating the Eucharist. It is worn by seminarians, instituted lectors and acolytes, and altar servers and choir members at Mass or other liturgical events.
The basic components of choir dress are:
- the cassock, with or without fascia
- if the person is a brother or priest in a religious order that has its own habit (e.g., Franciscans or Dominicans), the habit is worn in place of the cassock
- the surplice (or rochet if the wearer is a bishop, cardinal or certain canons), and
- the biretta (though in practice this is now optional)
For seminarians, deacons, and priests the cassock is exactly the same as their normal cassock: a black cassock with black fascia.
Priests who hold additional honors may wear a different cassock: chaplains of honor wear a black cassock with purple piping and fascia, while honorary prelates and protonotaries apostolic wear either a purple cassock with amaranth piping or a black cassock with red piping
Bishops wear the above mentioned purple cassock with amaranth piping, and add a pectoral cross suspended from a green and gold cord, a mozzetta over the rochet, and a purple zucchetto under the biretta. A cardinal wears a scarlet cassock with scarlet trim, pectoral cross on a red and gold cord and a red mozzetta over the rochet, with a red zucchetto. The Pope's choir dress includes a white cassock, rochet, red silk mozetta and his pectoral cross hangs from a golden cord.
The cope and/or stole may be worn over choir dress when a cleric presides over a sacrament (for instance, at matrimony, if not celebrated during Mass), or by the cleric presiding over prayers (for instance, the priest presiding at a solemn celebration of vespers in the Liturgy of the Hours at a seminary might wear cope and stole over choir dress, while the priests of the faculty and seminarians would wear simple choir dress of cassock and surplice).
Monks who are neither deacons nor priests also have a form of choir dress: the full monastic habit with the monastic cowl forms their formal wear for attending the Liturgy of the Hours or Mass.
[edit] Anglican choir dress
What is now referred to as choir dress in Anglicanism was the only vesture permitted to the clergy after the reform of the church. From the 18th century, traditional eucharistic vestments were slowly re-introduced into the church. In some parts of the Anglican Communion, especially among low church and some evangelical churches, choir dress is still the vesture of clergy at public worship. In other parts of the church, choir dress is worn less frequently.
The cassock is almost invariably black for priests and deacons. Over this is worn the surplice, which is longer and more full than that worn by Roman Catholic clergy, reaching to well below the knees. Traditionally, an academic hood is worn around the shoulders and down the back. As a symbol of church authority, clergy wear a black scarf, or tippet, around the neck and hanging straight down in front of the wearer. The tippet is not to be confused with the stole, which is also worn like a scarf. The Canterbury cap is the traditional headgear of Church of England clergy; some prefer the mortar board, but neither is widely worn, although the cap is specified in canon law. Some clergy also wear Geneva bands from their collars. Members of the high church or Anglo-Catholic parts of the church sometimes wear choir dress of a more Roman Catholic style, including a shorter surplice (or cotta) and biretta, excluding hood and tippet.
Readers usually vest in the same manner as clergy, but replace the black scarf with a blue one. Not having specified vestments, readers often wear their choir dress at all public worship. Some readers prefer to wear an alb, sometimes with a tunicle, at the eucharist. Some readers choose to wear the blue tippet, their distinct ensign, over an alb, which is a mixing of two distinct forms of vesture. Other lay people assisting in the leading of worship — including choristers, organists, altar servers — often vest in a cassock and surplice.
Anglican bishops usually wear a purple cassock. Over this, instead of the surplice, they often wear the rochet with red or black chimere, black tippet, and sometimes an academic hood.
