In the 1970's I had a beard for years. Nobody ever said anything about it nor did it impact on anything I did in the congregation such as talks etc. I have read on here also about having a practical car that can take others out in FS. I had two seaters and remember the laughs we had extracting the 80+ year old PO after giving him a lift.
My wife regularly wore trousers to the meetings and in FS, it could be very cold "up North"!
My current congregation must be very apathetic, I have never heard any comments about the changes, we will see if anything is said after this evening's item. As for AM III's involvement in any of this, I doubt if many of them even know who he is or was.
George