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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Eccles: Wot no Sunday service?
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Matt Black
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# 2210
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Posted
Not sure whether this belongs here, in Purgatory or possibly even in Hell(!) but whilst staying with the in-laws in Croydon over the Christmas holiday, we tried to attend a church service on Sunday morning, Boxing Day, and I was a bit taken aback by how many evangelical places weren't hosting a service. (As it was St Stephen's Day, I was tempted to make a list and thrown stones through their windows as a tribute to the first martyr!) From a human POV, I can I guess understand why, having done probably more than one Christmas Eve service plus at least one on Christmas Day, added to the fact that a lot of their congo might be away (and those that weren't probably wouldn't turn up in such great numbers as normal), a minister/ pastor might be tempted to close the place and take the day off but I still have a couple of questions (assuming the Croydon area to be typical of the rest of the country) for the ministers of such churches:
1. The fact that members of yourcongregation are out of your area ought to suggest that those ordinarily in someone else's area might be in your area, so why not open up so that they can pitch up as well?
2. I understand the need for a day off/ family time rather than enter into some kind of winter Triduum but churches of other traditions seem to manage a three-day-eventer, so why not yours?
Any ideas?
[ 29. September 2011, 07:38: Message edited by: Spike ]
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
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ianjmatt
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# 5683
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Posted
I suspect it is because many clergy took a week's holiday from Boxing day.
We ran just one service that day rather than the usual three (two morning and one evening). It was still difficult finding people who were available (other than clergy). We had about 100 people in total - normally about 300 over the two morning services. Glad we did it, a good number of visitors came that day (with not that many regulars!).
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
Are you referring to 'generic evangelical' or specifically Anglican churches? If the latter, I can understand the reluctance of clergy to get out of bed on a cold and hungover morning to open up for a frozen few, but there is such a thing as Canon Law. One parish I know had no actual act of worship but ensured the church was open at the usual time 'for reflection': I suppose that was a compromise. And if two or three did turn up they could have said morning prayer together.
But what you experienced seems wrong. Even on the part of churches which are not bound by Anglican laws and traditions.
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Matt Black
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# 2210
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Posted
We did find somewhere in the end - an evo Anglican gaffe which was pretty good but still not (without wishing to be rude to them) even our third choice (we know quite a few evo churches in the area and this one wasn't even on our shortlist!). I take on board your point but I think my questions still stand
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
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Angloid
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# 159
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Posted
Out of interest, did you research on the internet/ by phone before setting out, or did you have to trudge round in the snow before you found this place?
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Matt Black
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# 2210
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Posted
[cp with Angloid and missed edit window]: we initially tried evangelical Anglican places (I could name at least three) and then moved on to more generic charismatic evangelical places with the same result. The place we did find was officially an evangelical Anglican place (but you'd never have guessed it was CofE!) which we'd been vaguely aware existed.
[got to edit in time! - we researched over the internet the night before]
[ 04. January 2011, 16:37: Message edited by: Matt Black ]
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
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Baptist Trainfan
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# 15128
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Posted
We had a debate in our Church Meeting whether to hold a Boxing Day service or whether to join with the Parish Church (with whom we have a covenant agreement). In the end we decided that we would open up, about 30 people came (if that) as opposed to our normal 100 or so.
Yours truly was supposed to conduct the service but succumbed to 'flu on Christmas Eve. So a lay preacher (one of our members) did both the 25th & 26th, using my sermons and orders of service.
What I don't know is how many folk came on both the 25th and 26th - my guess is that people made a choice of one or the other. The decisive point that make us decide to have a service was the possibility of visitors to the area wanting to worship. I don't know if we had any, though!
A small village URC church round here had no services at all between 19th December and January 2nd but (as usual) joined with the Parish Church over Christmas. And I used to know a Baptist Church in London which always tok a day off the Sunday after Christmas, irrespective of the date.
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Carys
Ship's Celticist
# 78
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Posted
We're a two church parish with one service at 0930 in the modern church and 1115 in the older church and on Christmas 1 we only had one service at 0930 (in its usual place). We suspected numbers would be low and much as I love my church, it is very expensive to heat and as we had 16 in total I think we were justified in combining. But no service at all seems very strange!
Carys
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Corvo
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# 15220
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Posted
Maybe because they thought it was Boxing Day, a public holiday which cannot fall on a Sunday.
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Bishops Finger
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# 5430
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Posted
IIRC, we expected a dozen or so on that Sunday morning (as opposed to our average of 30-35), and I think we had 15 all told (including a couple who had not been able to come on Christmas morning or to Midnight Mass).
We did much what we normally do on Sundays - a simple Sung Mass with incense - but everyone said how much they had enjoyed the rather more quiet and reflective feel of the service.
I cannot understand this desire to keep the doors of the church closed at a time of year when people might, just might, want to come in......and on a Sunday, too. As Angloid says, at least the C of E has Canon Law! Even if you can't (or won't) run to a full service, a time at least of lay-led prayer with a hymn or two could surely be managed.
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
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drnick
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# 16065
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Posted
We had this conversation in an Elders' meeting. Should we have a service or not (knowing the minister will be on holiday)? Some people said we shouldn't bother and that no one would turn up anyway; I argued that it's Sunday like any other and there should be a service. Which was taken by the meeting as volunteering to lead it, which I did (the first time I've done so). We had about 30 people, well down on normal but not bad for a very cold and snowy Boxing Day.
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"Christians like you are why God invented lions" Pagan Wanderer Lu.
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Spiffy
Ship's WonderSheep
# 5267
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
I cannot understand this desire to keep the doors of the church closed at a time of year when people might, just might, want to come in. [...]
Me either. But from my perch atop this very high candle, I affirm my belief in the statement of Robert A. Heinlein that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and then doing again.
Now, to preface this next story, it was one lower-ranking pastor of one church in one city in California-- but when I asked why the church he pastored and I attended at the time was not having a service on the Sunday after Christmas, he said "Because we won't take in enough money for it to be worthwhile." And then a pause. "And people should really spend that time with their families."
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Jessie Phillips
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# 13048
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Posted
I missed church on Boxing day, and I'm slightly mourning the fact that the next time St Stephens day falls on a Sunday won't be until 2021. Damn! I was in the vicinity of a church which did have a liturgy based on St Stephen that day, and I missed it! Oh well.
Is anyone able to comment on which holiday date was set first - Christmas on December 25th, and St Stephen on December 26th? I remember reading something somewhere which suggested they are related to other, and the date of one of them was specifically chosen to be one day different to the other. But I can't remember where I saw it. I'm not sure if both Christmas and St Stephens Day were fixed at the same time, or, if they weren't, which one was fixed first.
Anyone able to shed any light on it? Thanks.
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Bishops Finger
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# 5430
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Posted
I have no idea how Christmas and St. Stephen's Day came to be celebrated contiguously, but ISTM that Stephen (and the Holy Innocents, commemorated on 28th December) remind us (a) that following Christ is not necessarily an easy option, and (b) that the Christmas story is not a cosy and rather twee fairy tale.......
....and therefore sorry I am to say that we had the readings etc. for that schmaltzy Roman 'Feast of the Holy Family' (a fond thing vainly invented IMHO) - with not a single nuclear family in the church.... ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
I have no idea how Christmas and St. Stephen's Day came to be celebrated contiguously, but ISTM that Stephen (and the Holy Innocents, commemorated on 28th December) remind us (a) that following Christ is not necessarily an easy option, and (b) that the Christmas story is not a cosy and rather twee fairy tale.......
I also seem to recall that marking Stephen's feast day as the first feast day after Christmas was intended to reflect Stephen's status as the first martyr.
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Sine Nomine
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 66
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Posted
The Sundays following Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are low Sundays, and when it's the VERY NEXT DAY it's a REALLY low Sunday. We only had one service instead of our usual three – and it wasn't at a normal time. But we had a slightly better turnout than we did on Christmas Day itself. Of course we had had three huge, packed services Christmas Eve. I ushered on both the 25th and the 26th because nobody else wanted to, having shot their wad, so to speak, on the 24th.
I swear…I thought if I heard 'Hark, the herald angels sing' ONE MORE TIME…
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Precious, Precious, Sweet, Sweet Daddy...
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Jessie Phillips
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# 13048
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
I have no idea how Christmas and St. Stephen's Day came to be celebrated contiguously, but ISTM that Stephen (and the Holy Innocents, commemorated on 28th December) remind us (a) that following Christ is not necessarily an easy option, and (b) that the Christmas story is not a cosy and rather twee fairy tale.......
....and therefore sorry I am to say that we had the readings etc. for that schmaltzy Roman 'Feast of the Holy Family' (a fond thing vainly invented IMHO) - with not a single nuclear family in the church....
Ian J.
Certainly flicking through reading plans of churches, I noticed that the Roman Catholic churches tended to do the Feast of the Holy Family you mention; a few Anglican churches went with it too, but a few did St Stephen Acts 7.
On the historical order in which holidays were designated - from what I've been able to gather so far, it seems as though the Twelve Days of Christmas were pegged to the range from December 25th to January 5th as a single festival in the fifth century, to co-incide with the timing of the pre-existing Saturnalia, Sol Invictus and Kalends of January festivals.
So, splitting semantic hairs, it would be wrong to speak of December 25th as though it's the only Christmas day; there are in fact twelve Christmas days. The special significance of December 25th is that it is the first day of Christmas.
A few individual holidays were pegged at the same time as the whole twelve day festival, so as to fall within the festival. They were St Stephen's Day for December 26th, St John the Evangelist's Day for December 27th and the Holy Innocents's Day for December 28th.
All of these designations - that is, of the start and end dates of the whole twelve day festival, and the dates of the three individual saints holidays that fall within it - were made in one go, during the fifth century.
No other specific holidays were designated in what became the twelve day festival at the time, but the Circumcision of the Lord was pegged to January 1st later on.
I don't yet know what historical sources corroborate this theory yet, though.
(It's really awkward trying to avoid being ambiguous when talking about the historical order in which different calendar holidays were designated! Curse the English language. Perhaps I ought to learn another language.)
[ 04. January 2011, 19:48: Message edited by: Jessie Phillips ]
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Forthview
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# 12376
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Posted
BF I know that the Feast of the Holy Family was inserted into the general Roman calendar as late as 1921,but I also know that every Feast day would have been inserted into the calendar at some time and would at one time have been something new.
I am sorry to hear that there is not a single nuclear family in your parish,but I assume that the scouts etc who sometimes cometo the church will each one of them come from some sort of nuclear family. Of course the Feast can be seen in some sort of 'schmaltzy' form but so can the Nativity story.It is up to us to draw something more out of this.Whether we live in a one child family or not with both Mum and Dad there,all of us have come from some sort of family and few people will deny that the love of a father and mother for a new child is not one of the most wonderful things in this world.Few people surely ??will deny that the role of father and mother,whatever form it takes,is not one of the most important and demanding and it is this which the Church wishes to celebrate.I'm glad your parish chose to celebrate the Holy Family in concert with Catholics all over the world.
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Pancho
Shipmate
# 13533
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jessie Phillips:
I noticed that the Roman Catholic churches tended to do the Feast of the Holy Family you mention
They tended to do the feast because they had to do the Feast. It isn't optional.
I noticed a Methodist church in my area did not have any services for Christmas Day, just Christmas Eve. That kind of suprised me.
[ 04. January 2011, 20:01: Message edited by: Pancho ]
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“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’"
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Sine Nomine
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 66
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Posted
My former small parish, St. With-it, has two services on the 24th and rests on the 25th. At the cathedral we can't do that of course, but our biggest service of the year is at 4:00 on the 24th.
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Precious, Precious, Sweet, Sweet Daddy...
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LutheranChik
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# 9826
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Posted
USA Today, around the holidays, came out with an article about the number of churches -- particularly Evo ones -- doing away with Christmas Day services, and noted that this might be perplexing for marginally churched people who might expect to find open churches on one of the few days they'd actually attend services...especially churches of the militant "Keep Christ in Christmas" persuasion.
Our small-ish congregation has had as many as three services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but this year they were pared down to one Christmas Eve service...like many other churches, it's just too difficult for us to find assistants for both days. We did, however, have church on the 26th.
I wonder if it's a possibility for churches caught in this collision of holy days without adequate help to offer the sort of simplified Eucharists one would have at a retreat -- a simple spoken service with an un-fussy, one common-cup Holy Communion? For the dozen or so people who might show up on Christmas morning or a Sunday immediately after Christmas, might this not be just as meaningful in its own way?
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Autenrieth Road
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# 10509
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Posted
It's possible to have a service without assistants. We did on Thanksgiving.
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Truth
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PD
Shipmate
# 12436
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Posted
My church was open as usual on 12/26 and we kept St Stephen. The attendance was normal at 9am but less than half the usual at 10.30am.
St John the Evangelist (Mon.) was well attended for a Midweek holiday, but Holy Innocents (Tues.) and the Circumcision (Sat.) were both a bit of a bust.
Next year is going to be really interesting. Does one go with the usual weekend schedule or the usual Christmas schedule?
PD
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malik3000
Shipmate
# 11437
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pancho:
[QUOTE]I noticed a Methodist church in my area did not have any services for Christmas Day, just Christmas Eve. That kind of suprised me.
On other threads it was noted that the First "Day" of Christmas starts at sunset on the 24th, liturgically*, so if the Dec. 24 service started after sunset it was a Christmas day service strictly speaking. When at all possible I want to worship in church on the Feast Day of Christmas, and for me the "Christmas eve" after dark eucharist is my celebration for the feast day, one I look forward to.
*(altho i don't know if the Methodists might consider that so)
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Autenrieth Road
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# 10509
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by PD:
Next year is going to be really interesting. Does one go with the usual weekend schedule or the usual Christmas schedule?
We'll do the same as we did last time Christmas was on a Sunday: one service on Christmas Day, which is our normal Christmas Schedule (plus the full complement of Christmas Eve services). This year we had one service on Christmas Day and one service the Sunday after. Our normal is two services on Sunday.
I can't remember what we did last time Christmas Eve was on a Sunday: the usual complement of two evening Christmas Eve services, but did we have one or two Sunday morning services? I'm not sure.
I find the not-having of services to be odd. Surely "wherever two or three are gathered..."
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Truth
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
We had a service on each of three days, though numbers were well down (on last year as well as last week) - 54 communicants at midnight, 75 on Christmas morning, 69 on the 26th. Normally we'd expect 80-120. So taking all three together we did well! Also they were three very different congregations, so dropping any one of the three services would have excluded some people from church entirely.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
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Olaf
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# 11804
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
We would have gone to a Christmas Day service had there been one. But we're church geeks.
Me too, on both counts (attendance desire and church geekiness).
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Autenrieth Road
Shipmate
# 10509
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
I find the not-having of services to be odd. Surely "wherever two or three are gathered..."
Rereading, this may be unclear. I mean not having services at all. Having just one in place of two or more seems just fine.
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Truth
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PD
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# 12436
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Posted
It depends whether I have to fill in anywhere else next Christmas. If I am spreading my three Masses between two churches then it will be 8pm or Midnight and 10.30am in my own church, and 5pm in the other church. If not it will be Carol Service at 7pm; 8pm or Midnight High Mass; 9am Low Mass and 10.30am Sung Mass.
PD
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Delores King
Apprentice
# 12835
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Posted
I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I was miffed when last summer our, rather lazy, vicar decided not to have a service on St Stephen's Day. So, rather than going to my own, rather high, Anglican church I walked 1km to join the neighbouring, very low, Anglican church. It was interesting, and they were very welcoming, if a trifle surprised at the amount of kneeling I did.
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anon four
Shipmate
# 15938
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Posted
I love the fact you assume just "more than one" service Christmas eve and maybe one Christmas day........ ![[Biased]](wink.gif) - after nine on those two days (not counting carol singing at various OAP homes, holiday club before crib service etc etc), we had little guilt in combining our Sunday worship with the other two churches in our group of parishes.
The choirs, readers, etc etc are all good and faithful folk but they are volunteers - and we needed to respect their exhaustion levels too. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
There was plenty of signage to let folk know where and when worship was being held.
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Ό δε ανεξέταστος βίος ου βιωτος ανθρώπω.
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Corvo
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# 15220
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Posted
The Church Times ran an article suggesting that Sunday would (and should) be as normal in the C of E.
[ 05. January 2011, 09:04: Message edited by: Sacred London ]
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Matt Black
Shipmate
# 2210
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by anon four:
I love the fact you assume just "more than one" service Christmas eve and maybe one Christmas day........ - after nine on those two days (not counting carol singing at various OAP homes, holiday club before crib service etc etc), we had little guilt in combining our Sunday worship with the other two churches in our group of parishes.
The choirs, readers, etc etc are all good and faithful folk but they are volunteers - and we needed to respect their exhaustion levels too.
There was plenty of signage to let folk know where and when worship was being held.
A couple of points by way of rejoinder:
1. These were evo places - no choirs, but worship groups I guess, but in any event neither are necessary to have a Sunday service.
2. The information about number of services came from the websites of the churches concerned: IIRC one place had one service on Christmas Eve, one had two - at 4pm for the kids and Midnight Mass - and another had two - at 4pm and 6pm, with all having just one service on Christmas Day (10am IIRC).
3. I can see the point, where you have more than one church per parish, of only holding one service in one church, but these were whole parishes having no (CofE) service on the Sunday.
OK, that's three points - re-cue Spanish Inquisition sketch intro!
[ 05. January 2011, 09:23: Message edited by: Matt Black ]
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
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Oxonian Ecclesiastic
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# 12722
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Posted
A local evangelical Anglican church plant advertised "No Service on Boxing Day". I confess to being a bit disgusted when I saw that.
Posts: 174 | From: London | Registered: Jun 2007
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Matt Black
Shipmate
# 2210
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Posted
Well, exactly!
[ETA - both my Catholic rellies and Mrs B's Brethren family were quite shocked that these churches weren't having a service on a Sunday; it tended to reinforce their opinion that the denomination(s) concerned weren't Proper Christians™, which wasn't particularly helpful...]
[ 05. January 2011, 09:45: Message edited by: Matt Black ]
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
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Edward Green
Review Editor
# 46
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Posted
I think there were 6 at our St.Stephen's day Benefice service! A normal Benefice service might attract up to 70, and normal Sunday attendance across 7 churches is well over 100.
Although I would not cancel a Sunday service I can understand why people wouldn't run one on Boxing Day!
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
So what's so odd about us that we got the same numbers on all three days? Very different people, but approximately the same numbers.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
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Corvo
Shipmate
# 15220
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Posted
Most evangelical churches round our way called the 26th 'Boxing Day', implying that it was a holiday maybe even from church. Higher places called it 'St Stephen's Day' suggesting you should observe it.
I suspect many evangelical clergy just don't like the idea of small services. Size matters for them, almost as a sign of authenticity.
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by PD:
Next year is going to be really interesting. Does one go with the usual weekend schedule or the usual Christmas schedule?
For us the normal Sunday schedule is one service, so the only question will be whether the service will be at 11:00 (as is usual on Sunday) or 10:00 (as is usual on Christmas). ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
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Cottontail
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# 12234
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Posted
In the Kirk, we wouldn't dream of not having a service just because Sunday was Boxing Day. Church Law obliges us to have a service every Sunday in every parish, and we need a special dispensation from Presbytery not to. There would have been quite a few kirks who had nothing on Christmas Day, as was once traditional - but the Sunday, definitely!
As it was, we had a quiet service of Holy Communion on Christmas Day itself. About 50 people turned up, about half of whom were visitors. Then Sunday was our all-age service, where the children brought along their presents, etc. Between the two churches, we had the usual c. 90 folk.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
Then Sunday was our all-age service, where the children brought along their presents, etc.
Some of us (in our Presbyterian congregation) sometimes jokingly refer to our Christmas morning Communion service as the "Pajama Mass," as families are told it's perfectly fine for children to come in their pajamas.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Ecclesiastical Flip-flop
Shipmate
# 10745
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Delores King:
I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I was miffed when last summer our, rather lazy, vicar decided not to have a service on St Stephen's Day. So, rather than going to my own, rather high, Anglican church I walked 1km to join the neighbouring, very low, Anglican church. It was interesting, and they were very welcoming, if a trifle surprised at the amount of kneeling I did.
There is a summer date available for St. Stephen's Day, which is 20 August and I believe the feast is kept on that date in Hungary. But it is ambiguous whether your mention of summer refers to when the decision was taken or when the feast was kept down your way.
Apart from that, with Boxing Day on a Sunday this time, I notice that some churches went low key that day. In my local Church, after a carol service on Christmas Eve, midnight Mass and Christmas morning worship, Boxing Day was observed with an early service of Holy Communion and no other service that day. It is one thing to go low key, but quite another to cancel.
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Joyeuses Pâques! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua! ˇFelices Pascuas! Happy Easter!
Posts: 1946 | From: Surrey UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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Peter's Bark
Apprentice
# 16074
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Posted
Our local (fairly high church) Anglican church was closed on St Stephen's Day, though it has a similar complement of clergy to the nearby Roman Catholic church, where it was, of course, business as usual.
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You can recognise me by progressive elimination... Just eliminate all the progressives.
Posts: 20 | From: Essex, UK | Registered: Dec 2010
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Peter's Bark:
the nearby Roman Catholic church, where it was, of course, business as usual.
except it wasn't St Stephen's day.
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Brian: You're all individuals!
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Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Matt Black
Shipmate
# 2210
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ecclesiastical Flip-flop:
There is a summer date available for St. Stephen's Day, which is 20 August and I believe the feast is kept on that date in Hungary. But it is ambiguous whether your mention of summer refers to when the decision was taken or when the feast was kept down your way.
Different St Stephen, I think you'll find.
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
Posts: 14304 | From: Hampshire, UK | Registered: Jan 2002
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Edward Green:
I think there were 6 at our St.Stephen's day Benefice service! A normal Benefice service might attract up to 70, and normal Sunday attendance across 7 churches is well over 100.
Although I would not cancel a Sunday service I can understand why people wouldn't run one on Boxing Day!
We didn't do much better. Our joint benefice eucharist was the only service that day and we got 19. Normally, each church would expect to get about 60 people and a joint benefice would get about 100.
Word may have got round that the heating packed up on Christmas morning!
I was quite shocked - I strongly believe in 'Sunday obligation'. it seems that we are more 'liberal' than 'catholic' despite claiming to be both.
[ 05. January 2011, 16:45: Message edited by: leo ]
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Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
it seems that we are more 'liberal' than 'catholic' despite claiming to be both.
Not unusual. It makes me ever more reluctant to use the L word of myself.
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Brian: You're all individuals!
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Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Ecclesiastical Flip-flop
Shipmate
# 10745
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
quote:
Originally posted by Ecclesiastical Flip-flop:
There is a summer date available for St. Stephen's Day, which is 20 August and I believe the feast is kept on that date in Hungary. But it is ambiguous whether your mention of summer refers to when the decision was taken or when the feast was kept down your way.
Different St Stephen, I think you'll find.
That may be so. But I still say there is a summer date available for St. Stephen's Day. 3rd August rings a bell and I want to check this out. If I remember rightly, it has been observed at St. Stephen's Gloucester Road, London on that date. Also, it occurs in the South African Prayer Book and I will look this up. Obviously, August in Southern Hemisphere is in winter.
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Joyeuses Pâques! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua! ˇFelices Pascuas! Happy Easter!
Posts: 1946 | From: Surrey UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Christmas Day this year (i.e 2011) falls on a Sunday, so our schedule will doubtless be our usual Sunday BCP said Matins at 930am and Sung Mass at 1030am (with a procession to the Crib for the prayers).
We can manage a Mass with just two assistants (one to serve and one to wave the smoke), so absenteeism in the staff department is not too much of a problem!
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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