[Winniesboy]

You’re quite right, of course, to say that usage and longevity don’t automatically confer respectability: but you are quite mistaken about the connotations of this term in Britain, which have never been at all pejorative. The colloquialism became current at the same time as the collar itself was replacing the previously traditional long white clerical bands as the normal ‘uniform’ for Church of England clergymen: and remember that this was the time, in the latter half of the 19th century, when the CoE was at the apogee of its power and repect. Ever since then it has been the universally used term by those in and of the Church, as well as those outside it. Its connotations throughout my own (longish) lifetime here in England, and well before, have been of affectionate, familiar respect, not in the least derogatory. There’s a distinction between colloquialism and slang; and this term belongs firmly in the former category.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think of it as something an undergraduate might say, in a friendly and somewhat breezy manner -- as a servicemember or former servicemember might say "Padre." I notice in fiction (e.g. Angela Thirkell, Dorothy Sayers, Conan Doyle) it's the young fellows who're using the term, not the staid old matrons like yours truly.

Not derogatory -- but not something I'd say myself (at least not where a clergyman I didn't know well might hear me!)

[sionnsar]

Its connotations throughout my own (longish) lifetime here in England, and well before, have been of affectionate, familiar respect, not in the least derogatory. There’s a distinction between colloquialism and slang; and this term belongs firmly in the former category.

Thank you! The same is true this side of the pond.