Christmas on a Sunday

BY STACEY SHEPARD

North Tonawanda, NY — While area churches are gearing up for some of their most well-attended worship services of the year this weekend, some across the country will be locking their doors.

Even though the holiday falls on a Sunday this year, some pastors at megachurches — those that have more than 2,000 members — are canceling services, anticipating low attendance on what they call a family day.

The trend of closing down for Christmas does not appear to have made its way to the local faith community, but megachurches are not alone in adjusting Sunday worship to accommodate families on Christmas. While many local churches are boosting the number of services they offer Saturday, few are adding more or even sticking to the usual offering on Sunday.

“It is more lightly attended, it’s sad to say, than other weeks,” said the Rev. Alice McDermott of Salem United Church of Christ in the City of Tonawanda, which will offer one Sunday service as opposed to the two it offers most of the year.

But the thought of canceling the Sunday service — especially on one of the church’s most sacred holidays — never crossed her mind.

“I can’t think of a family being together any better than in church on Christmas Day,” she said.

It is almost unheard of for a Christian church to cancel services on a Sunday, and opponents of the closures are accusing those that are of bowing to secular culture.

“This is a consumer mentality at work: Let’s not impose the church on people. Let’s not make church in any way inconvenient,’” said David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Hamilton, Mass. “I think what this does is feed into the individualism that is found throughout American culture, where everyone does their own thing.”

The churches closing on Christmas plan multiple services in the days leading up to the holiday, including on Christmas Eve. Most normally do not hold Christmas Day services, preferring instead to mark the holiday in the days and night before. However, Sunday worship has been a Christian practice since ancient times.

Cindy Willison, a spokeswoman for the evangelical Southland Christian Church, said at least 500 volunteers are needed, along with staff, to run Sunday services for the estimated 8,000 people who usually attend. She said many of the volunteers appreciate the chance to spend Christmas with their families instead of working, although she said a few church members complained.

Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., said church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 1994, and only a small number of people showed up to pray, she said.

"If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don’t go to church, how likely is it that they’ll be going to church on Christmas morning?” she said.

In contrast, the Rev. Joseph C. Gatto of St. John the Baptist, the largest Catholic church in Niagara County, feels the holiday is an opportunity to reach those who only come to church this time of year.

“We call them the Cs and Es — the people who come to church only at Christmas and Easter,” he said. “It’s one of the days we can reach them and talk to them about continuing to come back.”

He also feels the decision does not consider seniors and divorcees who may otherwise be alone on Christmas without their “church family.”

“You never want to forget that the whole point of Bethlehem is to bring you together for one purpose,” he said.

The closures stand in stark contrast to Roman Catholic parishes like Gatto’s, which will see some of their largest crowds of the year on Christmas, and mainline Protestant congregations such as the Episcopal, Methodist and Lutheran churches, where Sunday services are rarely, if ever, canceled.

“We normally don’t have church on Christmas Day, so every seven or so years, when Christmas is on a Sunday, we think that’s very special,” said Pastor Karl Eastlack of the Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church in Clarence, which generally sees 2,400 come out to worship during its four weekend services. “We actually look forward to it.”

Still, church officials decided to combine three Sunday services into one and add an extra service Saturday.

“(On) Christmas Eve, we expect 4,000 between the two services,” he said. “I really don’t know what to expect for Christmas Day because it’s been so long since we had Christmas on a Sunday.”

Contact Stacey Shepard at 693-1000, Ext. 114.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.