Parade Floats Sinking Churches’ Normal Service Times

Some local ministers wish blind faith hadn’t played such a huge role in setting the 11 a.m. starting time for next Sunday’s Fourth of July parade.

Parade planners assumed the event wouldn’t conflict with worship services, ministers say. Churches, especially those whose downtown parking lots are in great demand during parades, didn’t even get a say.

“The distressing thing to me is this town, Coeur d’Alene, has a high incidence of church-going population and the churches were not consulted,” said the Rev. Bob Hasseries of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. He said holding the parade on Sunday morning is like asking churches to close on their primary day of business.

The Fourth of July Parade Committee didn’t yield to requests from several pastors that it move the starting time to noon. That’s deepened the dissatisfaction.

“Is it a parade issue? No,” said Hasseries, who notes Independence Day also is a holy day for Episcopalians. “It’s being considerate of a substantial number of people.”

Rich Ronnestad, who serves on the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce Parade Committee, says there was no intention to hurt the churches. The committee looked back at the last time July Fourth was on a Sunday - 1993 - and saw the parade was held at 11 a.m.

Thinking that hadn’t caused any problems, the group followed past practices. Once committee members learned of concerns, it was too late to make a change - especially considering participants come from Montana, Idaho and Washington, Ronnestad said.

To avoid a future conflict, the committee passed a resolution saying when the Fourth and Sunday collide again, a parade shouldn’t happen any earlier than noon.

Hasseries slimmed down his 10 a.m. service to 40 minutes, because he does not want his congregation to have to choose between the community event and worship. But he predicts churches will petition the City Council to make rules that ensure the parade doesn’t take place on Sundays.

Meanwhile, First Presbyterian Church is combining its Sunday worship services into one 9:30 a.m. service. But it means that the general public, which likes to use the church lots at Sixth Street and Lakeside Avenue, will have to wait until after 10:30 a.m. to park their automobiles.

“This puts us at odds with something we don’t want to be at odds with,” said the Rev. Michael Bullard, leader of First Presbyterian. His congregation would prefer to be able to help with the parade rather than being squeezed by the scheduling. The 11 a.m. parade kickoff is not a Sunday tradition. The parade has only been on a Sunday morning once in the 111 years First Presbyterian has been worshiping downtown, he said. The Rev. Ronald Hunter, at Church of the Nazarene, finds it all sad. “You have to recognize some people choose to be insensitive,” Hunter said.

In the future, it would be best to only allow such parades on the federally designated holiday, Hunter said. In the case of Fourth of July falling on a weekend, that’s usually a Friday or a Monday, Hunter said.