The Preaching Dress

Our seminary intern preached this past Sunday. She was great. It took me back to my own seminary internship days. One memory that floated up was the memory of a burgundy dress my grandmother and I bought for me the summer before my middler year. My grandmother had noted that my wardrobe was a little light in the "nice dress" department. (Though it was just fine in the Indian cotton skirt and Birkenstocks department.) Anyway, I wore this nice dress my first Sunday preaching in my internship church. A few Sundays later, my next door neighbor in seminary housing was due to preach at HER internship church and asked if she could, per chance, borrow my nice dress. I agreed. Shortly thereafter, another friend made the same request and my nice burgundy dress became known as "The Preaching Dress" and was worn by several of us young not-quite-revgal preachers whose everyday wardrobes didn't run much in the nice dress direction.

About two years ago, one of us was in the running for A Very Big Job in her denomination and I felt like I ought to call and ask if I should ship her The Preaching Dress. (Though in truth, I had worn that dress until it practically disintegrated and that was a dozen or more years ago.) She didn't get the job and I'm not saying it was because The Preaching Dress was dead, but maybe.