Choosing an Ordination Stole

An ordination stole is white in the Roman rite and, more often than not, red in the Church of England and in Methodist and Lutheran use. That is the whole answer to the first question people ask, and the reason for the split is that the two traditions are pointing at different things — the Roman books treat Holy Orders as a sacrament that takes white, while Anglican and Methodist practice reads the rite through the Holy Spirit and takes red. Before ordering anything, ask the ordaining diocese or conference what colour they use, because a stole in the wrong colour is a stole worn once.

Everything else — the symbol, the personalisation, the length — follows from two facts: who is being ordained, deacon or priest, and how tall they are.

What colour should an ordination stole be?

Tradition	Usual colour at ordination	Status
Roman Catholic	White	The Roman rite assigns white to the ritual Mass for the conferral of Holy Orders. Some places use the colour of the day where the ordination falls on a Sunday or feast that does not permit the ritual Mass.
Church of England	Red, increasingly; white also used	Custom, not rubric. The Common Worship recommendation of red for confirmation is commonly extended to ordination rites. Wippell’s own ordinand guide tells candidates the stole is “usually red or white” and to check photographs of previous ordinations in the diocese.
The Episcopal Church	Red is the widespread custom	The ordination rites do not prescribe a colour; parishes and dioceses settle it locally.
United Methodist Church	Red	Ordination happens at Annual Conference and red is the settled convention for the service.
ELCA and other Lutheran bodies	Red	Common practice rather than rule. LCMS ordinations are congregational and local custom varies more.

Two practical consequences. First, a red stole given to a Roman Catholic ordinand will not be worn on the day — though it will be worn afterwards, at Pentecost, on martyrs’ feasts and in many places at confirmations. Second, a white or ivory stole given to an Anglican ordinand is not wasted either; it is the colour of Easter, Christmas, weddings and most funerals. Neither mistake is fatal, but only one colour goes on at the ordination itself. Which colour belongs to which season is set out in the comparison of colour use across traditions.

The festal colour, and when it wins

Where an ordination falls on a Sunday or a solemnity, the colour of the day sometimes takes precedence over the ritual colour. Petertide ordinations sit close to the feast of St Peter and St Paul, which is red in the Roman calendar, so a Catholic Petertide ordination can end up red for reasons that have nothing to do with Anglican custom. This is one of several places where the same visible outcome has two different causes, which is why asking the diocese is faster than reasoning it out.

What the embroidery on an ordination stole means

Most ordination stoles carry one motif at each end and, sometimes, a small cross at the nape. The choices are conventional and each carries a specific meaning rather than a general one.

Motif	What it is	What it signifies
IHS	The first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek, latinised	A christogram, not an acronym for anything in Latin. The commonest single motif on a white ordination stole.
Chi-Rho	The overlaid Greek letters X and P, the first two of Christos	The oldest of the christograms; often paired with alpha and omega.
Alpha and omega	First and last letters of the Greek alphabet	Christ as beginning and end. Usually flanking a cross or Chi-Rho rather than standing alone.
Descending dove	The Holy Spirit	The natural choice on a red stole and the reason red is used at all in Anglican and Methodist ordinations.
Wheat and grapes	Bread and wine	Eucharistic. Appropriate to a priest; less so on a stole for a permanent deacon, whose ministry the rite frames as service rather than presidency.
Crossed keys	St Peter	Common on Petertide stoles and on stoles for a parish under Peter’s patronage.
Marian monogram	The interlaced A and M	Devotional and personal. Lovely for someone with that devotion, presumptuous as a guess.

Two cautions. A patron saint’s emblem or a personal devotion is the right choice only if you know it is the recipient’s, not yours. And symbols read at a distance: a fine, small, dense motif that photographs well close up disappears from the seventh row. A single clear device four to five inches across does more work than an intricate one twice the size.

Personalisation and dating

Embroidering the name and the ordination date is a settled custom and worth doing properly. Three conventions that keep it from going wrong:

• Put it on the reverse, or on the inside face of one tail. The stole is a liturgical garment, not a memento; the person wearing it does not want their own name facing the congregation for the next thirty years.
• Date it in a way that will still parse. Ordination dates are usually embroidered as day, month and year in full, or in Roman numerals where the workroom does that well. Numeric-only dates read differently on either side of the Atlantic and cause a lifetime of small confusion.
• Keep the wording short. A name and a date. Longer inscriptions turn a working vestment into a plaque, and this is a garment intended to be worn at every Mass or service for decades.

Personalisation also removes the option of returning or exchanging the stole, at every maker we know of. Confirm the spelling of the name, the form of the surname, and the date in writing before the workroom starts. A stole embroidered with the wrong date is a total loss.

Deacon or priest: the stole is worn differently, and made differently

A priest or bishop wears the stole round the neck with both ends hanging in front. A deacon wears it over the left shoulder, drawn diagonally across the chest and fastened at the right side. That is the rule in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal at paragraph 340, and Anglican and Lutheran practice follows the same shape.

The consequence for buying is that a deacon’s stole is not simply a priest’s stole worn at an angle. Makers cut and finish it to fall correctly across the body and fasten it at the hip, often with a fabric tie or a hidden fastening — Wippell’s ordinand guide calls this the diaconal tie. A straight stole thrown over one shoulder rides, twists and shows its wrong side.

This matters most for a transitional deacon, who will be ordained priest around a year later. Their diaconal stole does not convert. If you are buying for a diaconal ordination and want the gift to serve both, buy a good stole for the diaconate and let the priesting stole be a separate decision made a year on, when there will be a colour, a parish and a preference to work from. The mechanics of diaconal vesture are set out more fully in the article on why a deacon’s stole crosses the body.

Length, and the problem the gift-giver always has

Stoles are commonly cut between about seven and a half and nine feet overall and three to four inches wide, as the standard descriptions of the garment record. That range exists because stole length is set from the wearer’s height, not from a size letter. Too short and it reads as skimped and sits above the hem of the chasuble; too long and the ends foul the chalice at the altar and drag when the wearer kneels.

The obstacle is that a gift-giver almost never knows the recipient’s height to the inch, and asking gives the surprise away. Three ways round it:

1. Ask a third party. The ordinand’s mother, spouse, formation director or a classmate will know, and will keep the secret.
2. Ask the seminary or diocesan office. They hold alb and cassock measurements for exactly this reason and will often confirm a height.
3. Buy the certificate, not the stole. Order from a maker who will make to measure and give the certificate. The recipient supplies the number and gets a stole that hangs.

Our own height-based chart, and the reasoning behind where each length falls, is in the guide to working out stole length from the wearer’s height. If you are ordering anything else at the same time, the general method for taking vestment measurements covers the alb and chasuble figures a workroom will ask for.

Before you order: a checklist

1. Confirm the colour the ordaining bishop or conference uses. One email.
2. Confirm deacon or priest. They are different garments, not different ways of wearing one.
3. Confirm the height, or buy a certificate instead.
4. Choose one clear motif and confirm it is the recipient’s devotion, not yours.
5. Approve the name and date wording in writing. Personalised work is not returnable.
6. Check the lead time against the ordination date. Made-to-order stoles run from around four weeks to twelve depending on the workroom, and every workroom is busiest from March to June.
7. Ask whether the lining and interlining are included. An unlined stole in a heavy damask will not lie flat across the shoulders.

Our Ivory and Gold Ordination Priest Stole is $195 and is cut to the wearer’s height rather than a single stock length; the Holy Rood Guild listed white stoles from $289 to $596 and Wippell listed made-to-order stoles at £490 to £795 in September 2026. Compare them on cloth, lining and where the embroidery is actually worked, rather than on price alone.

Common questions

Is an ordination stole white or red?

White in the Roman rite, which assigns white to the conferral of Holy Orders. Red is the common custom in the Church of England, The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church and much Lutheran practice, drawing on the Holy Spirit rather than on the sacrament. Ask the ordaining diocese; both answers are correct somewhere.

Should an ordination stole have the ordination date on it?

It is a widespread custom and a good one, provided the embroidery goes on the reverse or the inside of a tail rather than the front. Keep it to a name and a date. Remember that personalisation makes the stole non-returnable at every maker we are aware of, so confirm the spelling and the date format in writing first.

Can a deacon’s ordination stole be worn later as a priest?

Generally not. A properly made deacon’s stole is shaped and fastened to sit across the body from the left shoulder to the right hip, and it will not hang correctly round the neck. Some very plain straight stoles will do both jobs adequately, but a stole made well for one is compromised for the other.

What length of stole should I order if I do not know the height?

Do not guess. Ask a family member, the seminary or the diocesan office, all of whom will have the figure and will keep the secret. Failing that, buy a gift certificate from a maker who cuts to measure. A stole that is four inches wrong is noticeable every time it is worn.

How far ahead should an ordination stole be ordered?

Allow the maker’s stated lead time plus three weeks. Ordination season concentrates demand between March and June in Catholic and Methodist practice, and again in September for Michaelmas ordinations in the Church of England, so quoted lead times stretch exactly when everyone needs them.

If you are ordering more than the stole

Work out first what the ordinand will actually be given by other people. Stoles are the most duplicated ordination gift there is, and a co-ordinated conversation beforehand is worth more than a better stole — the piece on what gets given and what gets duplicated at ordinations covers how to have it. If a first Mass is planned and the family is commissioning a chasuble, the stole should be specified alongside it rather than separately, so that the cloth and the orphrey agree; how far ahead a first Mass chasuble has to be ordered sets out the timeline both pieces have to fit.

Sources

• GIRM, Chapter VI — Sacred Vestments (USCCB)
• Liturgical colours — Roman and Common Worship usage
• Stole (vestment) — dimensions and manner of wearing
• J. Wippell & Co — Ordinand Guide (checked September 2026)
• The Holy Rood Guild — white stoles (checked September 2026)
• J. Wippell & Co — stoles, made to order (checked September 2026)