suit & tie?

[Nenad]

I know this is probably a completely trivial, if not small minded, question, but I was wondering whether it is prerequisite to dress up for church. I come from a denominational/cultural background in which ordinary (albeit decent) clothing is practically considered a norm. I don't own a suit, have never worn a tie, and as irrelevant as this may seem in the larger scheme of things, I'm curious to find out whether a suit-and-tie Sunday clothing is a must.

[Misshalfway]

Well, I tell people "Sunday best". I am not sure that means suit and tie. If one holds a priesthood calling, then the suit becomes more of a mandatory thing. But I know folks who come to church in a nice shirt tucked in with a belt and cowboy boots. No suit or tie and its all good. A nice pair of slacks with a belt and a button down would be fine.

[nbblood]

Just this Sunday, my Bishop made a passing comment about inviting people to church and said, and I paraphrase, "unless they're in something like a tank-top and flip-flops were not going to ask them to leave."

That was just a comment to point out that attire is not what is important. Sure, we wear "Sunday Best". But we also have some that come in military or security guard uniforms (not dress uniforms, work uniforms). We have one family that clearly doesn't have the same sort of attire we are accustomed to wearing. They commonly show up in jeans and t-shirts (albeit, neat appearance, it's quite simply the best they can do right now.)

The bottom line is it's more important to be there than what you are wearing. We try to dress our best in honor of the significance of meeting and worshipping God. We dress as we would in His physical presence. That means different things to different people. I'm not about to judge at all what people wear to church. I'd be happy to see them there and welcome them (unless it was something completely inappropriate, say a t-shirt with profanity or something).

I think some people wear their "best" and feel like they are underdressed according to what others are wearing which leads to embarassment and perhaps the feeling that they don't want to attend. To me this is far more tragic than somebody showing up not wearing a suit.

So, I would recommend considering what you own and deciding what you would like to wear in the presence of God. Wear that. Don't worry about what others are wearing. You may find that you decide to purchase a suit. Maybe not. Whatever. IMHO, As long as attire is not inappropriate....then it is suitable. It sounds to me like what you are considering is just fine.

[pam]

You might want to take a look at some of these threads. It's been discussed exhaustively. There might be something in those that would assist in answering your question.

Proper attire for Sunday meetings

Ladies/YW Wearing Pants to Church

Proper Dress

[mormonmusic]

It's part of our North American culture that the typical dress for men is a white shirt and tie, slacks, and dress shoes. However, it's not a hard and fast rule by any means. Non-members attend wearing colored shirts, no tie, sometimes even jeans. You can probably judge from your own locale what is typical in Church. Most of the time, people are more comfortable wearing what's typical.

I've seen a lot of harm done by being too fixated on what people wear at Church. It can be offensive to people who are new to everything to feel judged by what they wear. I never make an issue of it - except when I was a young men's leader and we had tighter standards on what a person should wear when passing, preparing or blessing the sacrament. Even then, we were sensitive to economic and cultural circumstances.

In certain areas, you wear a jacket to Priesthood meetings, or if you're a priesthood leader, you feel naked if you don't have your jacket on. In one very zion-like Ward I attended, I came out of less-activity wearing a blue shirt and a tie, and no jacket. It took two attendances at High Priest Group meeting to realize I was the only one who wasn't wearing a white shirt, tie, and jacket. And I owned one, so I started wearing it.

There are instances time and time again in the Book of Mormon about people thrown out of congregations because of the way they dressed, and it's always associated with arrogance on the part of the people who threw them out. I'd even allow flip-flops and tank tops if I was a Bishop, and the person was new.

I notice that after being exposed to the Ward for a while, and the gospel, people often make voluntary changes to their clothing and appearance without any intervention....

[Wingnut]

Originally Posted by pam

You might want to take a look at some of these threads. It's been discussed exhaustively. There might be something in those that would assist in answering your question.

Proper attire for Sunday meetings

Ladies/YW Wearing Pants to Church

Proper Dress

Thanks. My thoughts exactly, but I didn't want to look them up.

[beefche]

Nenad, I notice you are from Yugoslavia. I served a mission in Bulgaria. My experience on my mission was that most men did not wear a suit/tie. They came dressed nice (slacks with nice shirt), but no tie. Some of the men were businessmen who had suits and they wore them, but most men did not.

Also, as stated previously, there is some requirement for priesthood holders in leadership position and/or passing sacrament, but they were a little more flexible in Bulgaria due to culture/finances.

So, don't worry about your attire. Just attend church and serve faithfully.

[Nenad]

Thank you all for your responses!

[dazed-and-confused]

I have lived in Arizona, USA, where sunday best meant clean cloths....

In My Humble Opinion......if you do your best to live by the Word, striving to be in the Light.....do you REALLY think you will be denied because you didn't wear a suit to church?

[Nenad]

Originally Posted by dazed-and-confused

do you REALLY think you will be denied because you didn't wear a suit to church?

I didn't exactly put my original question in such strong terms, although I can see how you could infer that. No, I just wanted to know to what extent is suit and tie something expected, even if not explicity asked for. I just wanted to get some feedback on this.