Vicars urged to drop 'risky' dog collars

Over the last few years, I realised recently, I have grown more wary of wearing my dog-collar when not on 'clergical' business. I think that somehow I have become aware that I am more prominent. Once upon a time that prominence was helpful and spoke good things into the community and witnessed, somehow, to the rumour of God. Now, I feel vulnerable in ways that I didn't twenty years ago. My prominence has become a cause for concern: it attracts people who tell stories that don't add up but would relieve me of money; it attracts people who seem all too quick to become abusive; and it would appear that beyond my direct experience, it attracts those who are prone to violence.
"More attacks are carried out on priests than probation officers and GPs, according to the latest figures. Between 1997 and 1999, 12 per cent of clergy were assaulted and seven out of ten were abused or threatened."
I guess too some of my reluctance is about feeling that, now I'm older, the 'witness' of a younger person wearing other items that were reasonably fashionable is no longer as helpful as once it was: now I feel like I'm just another middle-aged figure in a dog-collar not speaking by my presence of anything more than the male, white, middle-years-ness of my church and that is a message that the world doesn't need to hear.
But perhaps I'm a victim of my own cowardice and finding clever little excuses for it.
Vicars urged to drop 'risky' dog collars - Telegraph: