Choir dress

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Choir dress is the vestiture of the clerics, seminarians and religious of traditional churches worn for public prayer apart from the eucharist. The vesture for non-eucharistic worship is often simpler yet more traditional than eucharistic vestments.

Eastern choir dress

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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 to 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.

Roman Catholic choir dress

Choir dress in the Roman Catholic Church is worn when attending a liturgy that is not the Mass, especially the liturgy of the hours, or, in the case of priests and bishops, when attending Mass without celebrating or concelebrating the Eucharist.

The basic components of choir dress are:

the cassock with fascia or, if the person is religious, the religious habit,
the surplice (or rochet if the wearer is a bishop), and
the biretta.

For seminarians, deacons, simple priests, and chaplains of His Holiness, the cassock is exactly the same as their normal cassock. This means that chaplains of His Holiness wear a black cassock with purple trim and piping and purple fascia, while priests, deacons, and seminarians wear just a black cassock with black fascia.

Priests who hold additional honors and bishops have a different colored cassock from their normal cassock when in choir. Honorary prelates, protonotaries apostolic, bishops, and archbishops wear a purple cassock with amaranth piping, while a cardinal wears a scarlet cassock with scarlet trim.

Bishops also add a pectoral cross suspended from a green and gold cord, a mozzetta over the rochet, and a zucchetto under the biretta. Bishops and archbishops have purple zucchetti and mozzetti, while cardinals have scarlet ones. Cardinals wear their pectoral crosses on a red and gold cord, while the Pope's hangs from a golden cord.

Anglican choir dress

An Anglican priest in choir dress. The dark red of his academic hood can be seen on his shoulders.

Anglican choir dress is noted for is dignity and simplicity. Originally, what is now referred to as choir dress was the only vesture permitted to the clergy after the reform of the church. From the 18th century, traditional eucharistic vestments slowly began to be re-introduced into the church. In some parts of the Anglican Communion, especially among the low church and some evangelical churches, choir dress is still the vesture of clergy at public worship. However, in many other parts of the church, choir dress is worn increasingly less frequently.

The cassock is almost invariably black for most clergy. Over this is worn the surplice, which is often 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. However, some prefer not to wear it, or wear it only when preaching, despite it being a legally appointed part of choir dress. 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 often 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, and excluding hood and tippet.

Readers usually vest in the same manner as clergy, but replace the black scarf with a blue one. Not having any specified vestments, readers often wear their choir dress at all public worship. However, some readers prefer to wear an alb, sometimes with a tunicle, at the eucharist. Although it is decried by many as a mixing of two distinct forms of vesture, some readers choose to wear the blue tippet, their distinct ensign, over an alb. Other lay people assisting in the leading of worship — including choristers, organists, altar servers and others — often vest in cassock, which often is not black, 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 and black tippet.

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