Quote Originally Posted by Doc Hudson
I believe Sir Robert is an Episcopalian as I am. And we do tend to wear coats and ties in Fall, Winter, and Spring, but during the Summer, things tend to loosen up. Most of us still wear ties, but leave the jackets off, but some will leave the ties off, and some of the younger folk will even wear shorts. But even in Summer, the priest wears his vestments.

I can well remember one Confirmation Service held at an outdoor church at Kawliga Park in Alabama. The only people not wearing shorts, and short-sleeve shirts in the August heat were the priest and Bishop Stough. They were in full vestments and came close to collapsing in the heat. Our priest later told me that he'd tried to get Bishop Stough to dispense with the vestments and perform the service in shirtsleeves. The Bishop declined on the grounds that the young people being confirmed would feel short-changed if they were denied the full service complete with vestments since that was the customary service. Bishop Stough was a tough old gent.
Sounds similar to our parish, Doc, although you don't see very many shorts, even on the young ones. We still have "society ladies" that wear hats! To keep this message "on-topic", we have at least four kilted gentlemen at St. John's, and our rector was stationed at the US Navy base at Holy Loch and is very supportive of our Scottish society. We usually use the parish hall for meetings, and hold our annual St. Andrew's Day service there.

I've been in vestements in July with no A/C -- "character-building" is the phrase I would use! :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Todd