Blue shirts, no ties: New dress code for church missionaries

Blue shirts, no ties: New dress code for church missionaries - Cache Valley Daily

Posted: 14 Jun 2020 02:31 AM PDT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The white shirts and ties that have long been the signature outfit for young men serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will no longer be the only outfit choice under a dress code change announced Friday.

Some men will now be able to wear blue dress shirts and no ties during faith outreach missions for the Utah-based church. While many will still wear white shirts and ties, regional leaders now have the option to allow the new attire if it helps "safety, effectiveness, approachability and cultural sensitivity" for missionaries in their areas of the world, church officials said in a news release.

It marks the church's latest step in recent years to modernize a missionary program that is considered a rite of passage for young members. Last year, leaders of the faith changed their rules to allow missionaries to call home every week instead of only twice a year.

Nearly two years ago, female missionaries got the option to wear dress slacks, instead of only skirts and dresses. That was designed to help women stay warm in cold climates and make it easier to ride bicycles.

"Missionary attire has regularly adapted over time according to location, style and custom," said Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a member of a top governing body called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chairman of the Missionary Executive Council. "These exceptions are a continuation of that process."

Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff said the most recent change was under consideration for some time.

The church has kept its missionary program going during the coronavirus pandemic. It brought home more than 26,000 young men and women from foreign missions and sent some of them out again in their home countries to do most of their faith outreach online.

The tech shift began with church leaders giving some missionaries tablets in 2014. That has since led to most young church members getting smartphones to use in their faith outreach. Two years before that, the church changed their rules to allow men to start missions at 18 instead of 19, and women at 19 instead of 21, which has led to more women serving.

LDS missionaries in blue shirts with no ties? No, they're not breaking the rules, thanks to new dress code. - Salt Lake Tribune

Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:26 PM PDT

It might be shocking to some to see male Latter-day Saint missionaries wearing a blue shirt or going tieless, but that is now permissible — in some areas and at some times.

"Missionary attire has regularly adapted over time according to location, style and custom," apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf, chairman of the Missionary Executive Council, said in the release. "These exceptions are a continuation of that process. In all our considerations, we keep top of mind the missionary's calling to represent Jesus Christ, their health and safety, and the cultural sensitivities of the places where they serve."

All "elders" (the term for male missionaries) will continue to wear a white shirt and tie and, in some areas, a suit coat, the release said, "when attending the temple, Sunday worship services, leadership and zone conferences, Missionary Training Centers, baptismal services and other church meetings."

Missionaries will be notified by their mission president if these exceptions apply to their teaching areas.

A year earlier, the church — which is likely Utah's largest employer — eased its employee dress code to include dress pants for women, as well as traditional skirts and dresses.

The reason for the church's emphasis on attire, Uchtdorf said, is for these evangelizers "to be dignified, respectful and approachable as missionaries fulfill their purpose of teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ."

One item that will remain on all missionaries: nametags.

Some observers in the U.S. and Europe have said that the white shirt, dark tie uniform made missionaries look like FBI or CIA agents, or like the lead characters in "Men in Black."

As a missionary in England 40 years ago, Jeff Schrade of Stafford, Va., wrote on Facebook, that "the only people who dressed in suits were detectives, morticians and the occasional banker."

Schrade sees the change as "wonderful" and hopes "it helps with missionary work."

Missionary dress codes have varied during the faith's 190-year history.

In the late 19th century, historian Jonathan Stapley reports that mission leaders had directed elders to wear a "Prince Albert coat" and top hat.

The coat was long and double-breasted, Stapley wrote on bycommonconsent.com. By 1902, he said, the Middle States Mission had abandoned the Prince Albert suit.

Even then, though, the directions were flexible. "Varied climates in the different missions," they said, "make it advisable to have clothing suited to the particular locality in which the elder labors."