Convergence of
fourth Advent Sunday, Christmas Eve a challenge for parishes
By Anna Weaver | Hawaii
Catholic Herald
It doesn’t happen often (and won’t happen again until 2017), but when
Dec. 25 falls on a Monday, it throws things a little off balance in parishes.
Will parishioners attend both Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas
Masses when they are two days in a row? When do you put up the church Christmas
decorations? How about priests dealing with the overloaded Mass schedule?
Church attendance was observed to be down a bit that busy weekend in
some island parishes, more so for the Advent Masses on Saturday and Sunday than
for Christmas.
Maria Lanakila Parish in Lahaina, Maui,
saw “a good 20 to 30 percent” drop in people at Masses on Saturday and Sunday
according to its pastor, Father Gary Colton. Father Colton presided over a
wedding Saturday morning and then celebrated eight more Masses for Advent and
Christmas.
“Adrenaline kicked in,” Father Colton said in explaining how he
managed it. “But Tuesday was like I didn’t know what day it was. I thought it
was Monday.”
St. Anthony Kailua pastor Father Dennis Koshko also saw reduced
attendance numbers. “I think people decided which of the two holidays they were
going to observe — [the fourth] Sunday [of Advent] or Christmas,” he said. “And
in some cases they would come to both. But in many cases they would just kind
of choose one or the other.”
However the collection wasn’t hurt, Father Koshko said. “We did much
better because we could take a collection both on Sunday and on the Holy Day.”
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace administrator Father John Berger also
said having Christmas on a Monday helped the collection.
Annunciation Parish in Waimea on the Big Island
and its Ascension Mission had a lower Mass attendance, but for a different
reason. The Oct. 15 earthquake had closed the nearby Mauna Kea Beach Hotel,
reducing the number of visitors to the parish’s Advent or Christmas Masses.
St. Catherine in Kapaa, Kauai, made
it clear to parishioners that they had an obligation to attend Mass twice. “We
really do catechesis and say, ‘You have to come to both Sunday and Christmas,’”
said parish secretary Carmen Nakasone.
Father William Shannon, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in
Lihue, Kauai, said, “For me it was kind of
natural that on the fourth Sunday it would drop off. But we had jumbo crowds on
Christmas.”
The scheduling situation left only a few hours on Sunday afternoon —
between the last Advent Mass and the Christmas Vigil Mass — to decorate the
church for Christmas.
Immaculate Conception’s solution was to put up the Christmas decorations
before the Advent Masses were done, but not turn on the lights on the
decorations until the first Christmas Mass.