Plea for pastors not to cancel church on Christmas

[alwayswill]

But if you visit family, you can still attend mass somewhere, can’t you? When my mother was dying, I still went to mass. There were 2 Catholic churches within easy driving distance. If I had taken Greyhound I had to borrow a car - fortunately, there was usually a car available from someone in the family. More cars than Catholics.

eta - just saw that you are attending mass - I wouldn’t think that comment would have been addressed to you.

I’m not attending Mass
I am not Catholic:
This thread is about the service on Christmas Sunday: not a Saturday night service::
We considered cancelling the Sunday service; because key people will not be available:
we divided to have a small service with the “back ups of the back ups”
once again. in our mid size church (300 attendees): it will still require dozens and dozens of volunteers to run the small worship service.

 

[pianistclare]

This is why the fora should be color coded. Believe me, I will stay far away from the non-Catholic forum in the future, even though this is a Catholic site.

One can expect Catholics to weigh in with their own experiences from time to time.
No one has said anything inappropriate.

Bye y’all. :compcoff:

 

[alwayswill]

This is why the fora should be color coded. Believe me, I will stay far away from the non-Catholic forum in the future, even though this is a Catholic site.

One can expect Catholics to weigh in with their own experiences from time to time.
No one has said anything inappropriate.

Bye y’all. :compcoff:

this thread was clearly addressed to Protestants
by post 4 it was asked how can a Sunday Christmas service cancellation be justified

reasons were given

 

[Bonnie]

I’m not attending Mass
I am not Catholic:
This thread is about the service on Christmas Sunday: not a Saturday night service::
We considered cancelling the Sunday service; because key people will not be available:
we divided to have a small service with the “back ups of the back ups”
once again. in our mid size church (300 attendees): it will still require dozens and dozens of volunteers to run the small worship service.

Sorry - I guess I got confused. It must have been someone else saying she was attending Christmas eve mass. For Catholics, tho, the Christmas Eve mass & Christmas day mass are equivalent - different readings, but both fulfil the obligation to attend.

Having been Protestant, I understand that it’s not a big deal to not have a service on Christmas day. It didn’t bother me then, & if I were still Protestant, it wouldn’t bother me now. I think it’s the cradle Catholics who have a hard time accepting that Protestant traditions are different from Catholic ones.

 

[Irishmom2]

this thread was clearly addressed to Protestants
by post 4 it was asked how can a Sunday Christmas service cancellation be justified

reasons were given

Maybe it wasn’t as clear as you think. But I wonder if you ever post on the other forums and have anyone say something like this to you.

Sorry to have posted on a thread that you think is only for Protestants. Last time I heard, these forums are meant for everyone, even Non-Catholic Religions. But this is not the “no Catholics are allowed to speak forum.”

 

[alwayswill]

Maybe it wasn’t as clear as you think. But I wonder if you ever post on the other forums and have anyone say something like this to you.

Sorry to have posted on a thread that you think is only for Protestants. Last time I heard, these forums are meant for everyone, even Non-Catholic Religions. But this is not the “no Catholics are allowed to speak forum.”

i did not say that I thought it was “only for Protestants.”

please don’t misrepresent what I said: Is that a fair and reasonable request?

I know it is hard to follow a conversation in a thread (especially when posters to not quote who they are replying to)
but when the thread starts with "Plea for pastors " it is obviously addressed to Protestants: correct?

 

[phil19034]

large churches may need up to 80 staffers to run a service: (parking attendants, sound techs, ushers, maintenance staff, nursery workers, greeters, security, choirs, musicians, etc)

Many staffers travel to be with family on Christmas; many of the backup staff are also unavailable,

some small churches have only one pastor: and he may want to spend Christmas with his mother in an out of state nursing home:

That is how it is justified.

that being said: our mid sized church will be offering a very intimate and stripped down worship service on Christmas Sunday

Really?

When I go to midnight Mass at the Cathedral (which sits 1500+ comfortably) all they have (besides the Archbishop, priests, deacons & seminarians who attend) is the Cantor, choir and organist (sometimes also additional musicians too).

Christmas Mass (whether vigil Mass on the 24tb or during the day on the 25th is a musical joy and the musicians who participate wouldn’t want to do anything else.

As far as the other stuff, we only have security guards … The priests lock up. No staff needed for any of that. You don’t need nursery on Christmas (kids should be with their parents).

I often think Protestants sometimes over do some of this. For example, sound engineers, you don’t really need them. You’re not filming a movie or music video. At my parish, our equalizer is always set with the same settings (which are marked incase someone changes them).

Parking/traffic attendants are not needed either (unless required by law).

Ushers and Greeters are nice to haves, not requirements. Plus the greeter and usher can be the same person.

As far as pastor wanting to be with family, Catholic Priests like to be with family too. No one says a church has to have 10 services that day. But have at least one. Even if it’s at noon. The pastor can pick a time that works best for him.

Reading all of this is EXACTLY why Christmas is so commercial in the United States. Christ has been removed, and that was started by Protestants not having services on Christmas.

 

[alwayswill]

Really?

When I go to midnight Mass at the Cathedral (which sits 1500+ comfortably) all they have (besides the Archbishop, priests, deacons & seminarians who attend) is the Cantor, choir and organist (sometimes also additional musicians too).

Christmas Mass (whether vigil Mass on the 24tb or during the day on the 25th is a musical joy and the musicians who participate wouldn’t want to do anything else.

As far as the other stuff, we only have security guards … The priests lock up. No staff needed for any of that. You don’t need nursery on Christmas (kids should be with their parents).

I often think Protestants sometimes over do some of this. For example, sound engineers, you don’t really need them. You’re not filming a movie or music video. At my parish, our equalizer is always set with the same settings (which are marked incase someone changes them).

Parking/traffic attendants are not needed either (unless required by law).

Ushers and Greeters are nice to haves, not requirements. Plus the greeter and usher can be the same person.

As far as pastor wanting to be with family, Catholic Priests like to be with family too. No one says a church has to have 10 services that day. But have at least one. Even if it’s at noon. The pastor can pick a time that works best for him.

Reading all of this is EXACTLY why Christmas is so commercial in the United States. Christ has been removed, and that was started by Protestants not having services on Christmas.

got it:
the question was how is it justified:
I gave a reason:
you don’t agree.

I understand

 

[Bonnie]

but when the thread starts with "Plea for pastors " it is obviously addressed to Protestants: correct?

Catholics have pastors, too, so it wasn’t clear to me at first that it was about Protestant pastors. I did figure that out, but it did get confusing.

 

[phil19034]

Catholics have pastors, too, so it wasn’t clear to me at first that it was about Protestant pastors. I did figure that out, but it did get confusing.

I know of a few Catholic Parishes that have more Vigil Masses on Christmas Eve than during Christmas Day. But Catholic Parishes will always have Mass on Christmas Day

 

[Wesrock]

The head priest in a parish is called a pastor, so Catholic Churches could be under that umbrella, too.

 

[Wannano]

Catholics have pastors, too, so it wasn’t clear to me at first that it was about Protestant pastors. I did figure that out, but it did get confusing.

It is a confusing post. I also thought it was directed to Protestants because I was pretty sure our Cathoilc parish always has a Christmas Day service. Just to muddy the waters some more, in my Protestant church the pastor would not call that shot anyway. Even if he was gone to his relatives over Christmas we would have a service with out him.

Let’s not let a little misunderstanding ruin the beginning of the season.

 

[exnihilo]

Could it be that less people attended Christmas Day services because they’re attending the Christmas Eve mass/service instead?

I’ve noticed this about my parish, which isn’t Catholic but we are obviously very liturgical. We have two Christmas Eve masses at 5pm and 10:30pm (the latter is such a high mass that it actually goes so long that it ends well after midnight on Christmas Day) and a 10am on Christmas Day. The two Christmas Eve masses are the much busier, the 10:30pm in particular is packed beyond the gills. The morning mass is very sparse by comparison. But part of why that is, is that most of the congregation has already attended Christmas mass the night before since evening and midnight mass would, in Catholic parlance, fulfill both the holy day and Sunday obligation.

Yes, part of it could certainly be that many attend Christmas Eve services. This is even true for many Catholics. I think the cultural push of Advent as Christmas contributes to it. A difference I would note in Catholic, and by and large if not totally Episcopal and Lutheran churches, is that they are going to have Christmas services and Sunday services no matter what. For some Protestant churches Christmas Eve can completely replace Christmas and Sunday.

 

[Rosebud77]

I haven’t seen Christmas midnight mass mentioned by any Catholics. Is that popular elsewhere?

Here in rural Ireland they call any Christmas eve Mass “midnight mass” whether it is at 8 pm or later…confused me my first year here…

 

[cfreeman]

Thank God for being Catholic and never having to worry that Mass might be cancelled for trivial reasons.

 

[Bonnie]

Here in rural Ireland they call any Christmas eve Mass “midnight mass” whether it is at 8 pm or later…confused me my first year here…

I thought it amusing the first time I saw in the bulletin that Midnight Mass would be at 10 pm. After a few years of that they finally started calling it Christmas Eve Mass & now I think it’s as early as 9 pm. Not sure about this year - the time hasn’t been posted yet.

 

[phil19034]

I thought it amusing the first time I saw in the bulletin that Midnight Mass would be at 10 pm. After a few years of that they finally started calling it Christmas Eve Mass & now I think it’s as early as 9 pm. Not sure about this year - the time hasn’t been posted yet.

Sounds like they might have corrected an error in promotion or in liturgy.

Christmas has 4 different liturgies:

Christmas Vigil Mass (anything before Midnight on the 24th)
Christmas Mass at Night (typically done at Midnight, and used anytime before dawn)
Christmas Mass at Dawn
Christmas Mass during Day

All four have different readings and the Nativity Proclamation is only performed at the Mass at Night.

There is no “midnight Mass” liturgy, so if a parish is calling a mass “midnight Mass” before midnight, they are doing one of two things:
(1) simply having a later Christmas Vigil Mass and simply calling it “midnight Mass” for whatever reason

(2) they are using the Mass at Night liturgy on the 24th with or without permission from their Bishop. *** NOTE: This Mass liturgy is supposed to be used only on the 25th, not before midnight on Christmas Eve.

Theoretically, if a parish schedules their Christmas Mass times “correctly” a person could come to Mass 4 times at Christmas and hear different readings & prayers all four times.

 

[JanetF]

We have standing room only at 4pm on Christmas eve to the extent that now we have 2 services at 4pm in my parish (using the school gym and the church). Announcements this weekend encouraged everyone to go Christmas morning as it would be less crowded. Certainly I’ve always had the option of Christmas day services. As I child I was involved in the Midnight mass (when it was really at Midnight). The last few years I’ve greatly enjoyed going to 10:30 mass on Christmas Day when my daughter sings in the choir. Mass is the most important part of Christmas to me. My family arranges our get togethers based on the Mass schedule. I assumed everyone did this…

 

[Wannano]

Thank God for being Catholic and never having to worry that Mass might be cancelled for trivial reasons.

I am Protestant and never worry about that either.

 

[Padres1969]

Thank God for being Catholic and never having to worry that Mass might be cancelled for trivial reasons.

Yeah it’s not only Catholics who can breathe easy not worrying about mass being cancelled for trivial reasons