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Some churches join Christmas closings

With the holiday on a Sunday, others plan less drastic changes.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published December 15, 2005

	Xmas on Sunday Will you attend religious services, if so, when? Christmas Eve Christmas Day Both Not at all

With Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, churches face an unusual dilemma.

Yes, most Christians believe the holiday is worthy of celebrating in church. But Christmas Day is, above all, a family event - one almost always spent at home.

So should churches cancel their Sunday services Dec. 25?

Anticipating a low turnout after overflowing Christmas Eve services, some churches in the Tampa Bay area and across the nation have opted to keep their doors closed. Never mind the rising clamor in some circles "to put Christ back in Christmas."

Most cancellations are coming from nondenominational and autonomous churches, which can determine their own schedules. Most liturgical and mainline denominations, among them Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran churches, rarely cancel a Sunday service and are sticking to their schedules this Christmas.

For the Rev. Tom Norton of Christ United Methodist Church in downtown St. Petersburg, calling off a Sunday service is not an option. Only his bishop or district superintendent could authorize that, he said.

However, like many pastors across the country, Norton has made adjustments for Christmas Day. He will combine the three Sunday services into one. In an interesting twist, he plans to bless the toys of the children in his congregation that day. It's the same ritual he performed in 1994, the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday.

Other churches are focusing on large, joyful Christmas Eve services.

At Calvary Chapel in Pinellas Park, where weekend services draw about 3,000 adults and 600 children, there will be no Christmas Day service. The church, which worships in a former Wal-Mart, will hold its usual mammoth Christmas Eve gathering, the Rev. Danny Hodges said.

"We've tried to do something every Christmas (Eve) as a big event. We tried to get Tropicana Field," Hodges said. "We're setting up 5,000 chairs. We'll probably not have enough room."

The 6 p.m. service will be held in Calvary Chapel's parking lot, with arrangements being made for worshipers to park at a shopping center across the street and on the property of surrounding businesses, Hodges said.

"It's going to be a lot of fun," he said. "Lord willing, it won't rain."

Pinellas Community Church in St. Petersburg, another large nondenominational church, also will not hold a Christmas Day service. Instead, it plans three on Christmas Eve.

Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz and Without Walls International Church in Tampa both plan to hold Christmas Day services for their megacongregations. Without Walls, which boasts 23,000 members, does not typically hold services on Christmas. That changed this year, the Rev. Randy White said, because the holiday falls on a Sunday.

"We thought it would be hypocritical not to have service on the day that we actually celebrate our Christianity," he said.

Popular sentiment also influenced the church's decision.

"We took a vote on it and overwhelmingly, people responded that they would be there and they were excited about it," White said. "We think it's going to be a great day."

So confident is the church of a good turnout that it has scheduled two Christmas Day services.

For some Christians, there will be no ballot to determine whether services should take place this Christmas.

"Every Sunday is important to us Catholics. It's the Lord's Day for us," said Kathy Proefke, associate director in the Diocese of St. Petersburg's office of worship.

Furthermore, she said, Christmas and Easter are high points in the church's liturgical year.

The Rev. Charles Davidson of St. Vincent's Episcopal Church in St. Petersburg said his denomination always holds services to mark the two important Christian festivals and would never arbitrarily cancel a Sunday service.

"Sunday is a day of worship and so we're not going to close our doors," he said.

Davidson doesn't agree with the idea that services should be canceled because Christmas Day is a time for families.

"The larger culture sometimes impinges on us, and we allow it," he said.

Maggie Livingston, a mother of three, said she hadn't thought of Christmas falling on a Sunday. She, her husband, Sheldon, and their children regularly attend Mass at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.

"I don't think we will go to an additional Mass on Sunday, because we will have gone to Mass on Saturday for Christmas," she said.

Attending Christmas Eve Mass satisfies the obligation to attend Mass on Christmas, said Vicki Wells Bedard, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, which covers Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. Even so, some Tampa Bay area Catholic churches are actually expecting overflow crowds on Christmas.

"That's because there are so many visitors to the area," Bedard said.

This year, First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks, which has about 6,000 active members, will hold services Dec. 25.

"We usually focus on Christmas Eve services," church administrator Tim Ferguson said. But, said Ferguson, when the topic of a Christmas Day service came up six months ago, the Rev. Charlie Martin, the church's senior pastor, was unequivocal in his response.

"He said, "Yes. We always have church on Sunday,' " Ferguson recalled, adding that the church will hold one service at its Largo campus and another at Trinity College in the Tarpon Springs-New Port Richey area.

In Clearwater, Calvary Baptist Church is also planning a service that day.

"I don't think we ever truthfully thought of not doing it," said the Rev. William Rice, senior pastor of the 4,000-member church.

"We know that folks are busy," he said.

But, Rice added, "It is, after all, the celebration of the birth of Christ. I think most of our people would want an opportunity at least to gather for a few moments and I don't think that distracts from family time."

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 00:33:15]