Churches vary on Christmas services

With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year, this weekend will inevitably be a busy one for churches.

Some are sticking to their Sunday morning schedule while adding services in the evening. Others are cutting back on worship times this morning, but offering more services tonight. Still others – particularly larger Catholic congregations – are keeping their regular Sunday schedule while supplementing on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

“It’s crazy and tiring but very satisfying,” said Jim Putman, pastor of Real Life Ministries, a Post Falls congregation of roughly 7,000 people. “For us, it’s a special time because we get to point people back to Jesus, to something that will bring them peace.”

In addition to the sermon he gave during a service Friday night, Putman will preach four more times today, twice this morning, once in the late afternoon and once in the early evening.

When Christmas or Christmas Eve fall on a Sunday, churches are often faced with a dilemma: Add worship services at the risk of burning people out or scale back at the cost of tradition?

Last year, when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, some of the country’s most prominent megachurches were criticized for canceling worship so that members and church staff could spend more time with their families at home.

This year, several local churches – particularly smaller congregations – won’t have the usual array of Sunday worship offerings. Instead, pastors and others will put their energy into making tonight’s Christmas Eve services both beautiful and meaningful for those who attend.

“We create a space to reflect on faith and the meaning of the season,” said the Rev. Joyce O’Connor-Magee, pastor of Manito United Methodist Church, which has an average weekly attendance of about 100 people. “It’s about God coming to us where we are and living with us. It’s about the possibility of a new life within us.”

O’Connor-Magee has prepared different sermons for three services today. During the regular Sunday service this morning, she will focus on Mary and Elizabeth as mothers. At the 5 p.m. service, which is attended mostly by families with young children, she’ll call attention to the role of the shepherds. And during the 11 p.m. candlelight communion service, O’Connor-Magee will highlight the angels, she said.

Since Christmas Eve falls on a traditional day of worship this year, some Catholics will make two trips to church this weekend, maybe even on the same day – once to observe the Fourth Sunday of Advent and a second time to mark the birth of Jesus, which is a holy day of obligation.

For Catholics, “the religious celebration of Christmas places the Mass at the center of the holiday – no matter what day of the week,” according to a December 2005 posting on the Hartford Institute for Religion Research’s Web site. That posting, which examined Christmas attendance at churches both big and small, concluded that attendance often is down at Protestant churches when Christmas falls on Sunday, but that attendance at Catholic and Orthodox services tends to go up.

Locally, many Catholic churches in the area have expanded their worship offerings this weekend. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, for instance, will have two Christmas Eve services, midnight Mass and two more services on Christmas Day in addition to the three regular celebrations of the Eucharist that happen on Sunday mornings. The deacons will give the homily this morning, and the priests will preach at the Christmas celebrations, said the Rev. Steve Dublinski, the cathedral’s rector and vicar general of the Diocese of Spokane.

“The homily for Christmas will be on the great hope given to us by God’s willingness to enter into the messiness of life, how God appeals to our hearts by coming in weakness and vulnerability,” he said.

In addition to its Sunday morning worship, the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist will have two Christmas Eve services tonight – one geared for families with young children and another more elaborate one complete with carillon and harp music. On Christmas Day, the cathedral will have a quiet, simple service at 10 a.m.

Unlike most Episcopal and Catholic parishes, many churches in the area won’t have a Christmas Day service.

“It depends on the tradition of the church and on the pastor,” said O’Connor-Magee. “Methodists tend to do Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, we let people stay home and open packages.”

Shadle Park Presbyterian Church also has traditionally celebrated the holiday on Christmas Eve, said the Rev. Richard Avery.

This year, the North Spokane church of about 300 will have Christmas Eve services at 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. in addition to the two Sunday worship times in the morning. During Sunday school today, the kids at the church will have a birthday party for Jesus. During Avery’s sermon this afternoon and evening, he will speak about God’s love.

“He could have given up,” Avery said. “But because he loved us, he kept coming back. He came as a human being and was rejected, but he kept loving people despite indifference.”

After the long preparation for the marathon of Christmas Eve services, Putman of Real Life will give his staff the entire next week off.

“We try to keep it simple because you want people to have a good, calm Christmas,” he said. “We want them to spend time with their families. We give (the staff) the time off so that they can experience the peace we talk about at Christmas.”