Lent Blog 16: Cassocks or cossacks?

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As a PS to the previous post, I've just found out about the dress code for the next Archdeacon's Visitation. This is the annual service when Church Wardens are officially inducted into their role. (In fact this year we get the Bishop) I haven't had to attend one in this Diocese as a Chaplain, so this will be my first up here.

Long ago in Southwell Diocese I remember clergy had to wear cassocks at Visitations. As a curate I was once greeted at one by a vicar with "get your cassock on me boy". I was carrying it, as I didn't want to wear one walking though the middle of Mansfield, which seemed a reasonable precaution, especially as I usually trip over robes if the floor's uneven. In Coventry wearing cassocks for these meetings had been abolished by 1994 when I arrived, so the problem disappeared. But in Blackburn, it is as I suspected: it's back to black (it's all a bit more traditional up here)

Meanwhile I took a funeral yesterday close to school run time, so I left the car on the road, as I usually get blocked in by parents collecting kids from the primary school. So I walked down the road to the car in my... cassock. Pity the Secondary School were just coming out - I did feel a bit conspicuous!