St John’s College in Auckland appeared to have stepped back in time this week.

Students and staff arriving for morning prayer and classes on Friday were wearing cassocks in what has become an annual tradition – ‘cassock day.’  

The student initiative picks up on the history of student life at the Meadowbank campus, where ordinands once wore cassocks each day.

From college photographs in the John Kinder Library it appears students wore academic gowns in the 1930s, then cassocks from the 1940s until the mid-1960s.