To Day or Not to Day: that’s a question
Posted by dave on December 24, 2008
Shalom!
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1868647,00.html?xid=feed-rss-netzero
So, anybody attend or offer Christmas Day worship? I do not remember ever attending a service on Christmas Day! In some communities in which I have served, the Reformed churches and many Lutheran churches had Christmas Day services along with the Roman Catholics, but not American Baptists or United Methodists so far as I can recall.
Are we missing the boat?
Shalom!
dave
lorna said
Our church just has one Christmas Eve candlelight service. The church I used to go to had an early evening ‘family’ service, and then a later (10:30 p.m.) candlelight service.
The Christmas on a Sunday I remember the most was when my daughters were around 7 and 9 and for some reason I had thought there was still going to be Sunday School before the service. How I ever managed to get to church in time for Sunday School in spite of opening presents and stockings, I’ll never know!
Helen said
I must be the one from a bigger church.
We had 4 Christmas Eve services 5 6:30 comtemporay 7:30 and 11 and most of them have from 300 to 400 each.
We live down the street from a Catholic church and one Christmas morning my husband and I went to their Christmas morning Mass. it was very nice.
Michael said
Two years ago, my first Christmas at my current appointment, we had worship at 7p on Christmas Eve. 12 people showed up. When I asked around, I found that many of the families in the church do their family dinner on Christmas Eve, and couldn’t make it to worship at 7pm. We can rant all we want about the “reason for the season,” but the reality is that family trumps all at Christmas.
Last year we had two services: 7pm and 11pm. 10 people showed up at 7; 20 people came to the 11pm service. This year we did the same thing: 17 at 7pm, 20 at 11pm.
I personally would not object to having worship on Christmas morning but I seriously doubt if more than a handful of people would attend. When Christmas falls on a Sunday, I’ve noticed worship attendance is spotty.
Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Liz Bennefeld said
In my folks’ church, and in my in-laws’, also ELCA, they’ve discontinued Christmas Day services because of lack of attendance. I’m not sure how long ago they quit (10 years, maybe?).