What are churches doing when Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday?

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, December 24, 2023Worshipers at a candlelight Christmas service at Life.Church in 2017.

For most years, Christmas Eve is a time when many churches across the United States and abroad hold multiple worship services to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

However, unlike most years, in 2023, Christmas Eve will fall on a Sunday, which means that the usual morning services most congregations have may get impacted by the liturgical calendar overlap.  

So, what are some churches doing in response to this? Are they canceling morning worship, revising their regular schedules, or simply holding all the usual services?

The Christian Post spoke with representatives of multiple churches across the United States to see how they were scheduling worship on Christmas Eve Sunday.

The Church of the Resurrection, multisite congregation that is one of the largest United Methodist Church congregations in the world, will be holding several services on Christmas Eve.

According to COR spokesperson Cathy Bien, the church is scheduled to hold 44 candlelight services, which will include 29 in-person services among their six physical locations, plus services online or on television.

“Christmas Eve Candlelight Services are very much a defining experience for Resurrection and a tradition for our congregation and community. For that reason, even when Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, all our weekend services will be Candlelight Christmas Eve Services,” Bien explained to CP.

“Our Christmas Eve service includes the same elements as a regular Sunday worship service, along with the passing of the candlelight.”

Worship held at the Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas as part of the congregation’s Leadership Institute gathering on Sept. 27-29, 2019. | Tom Bradley

As with other churches this year, Resurrection began observing Advent on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in order to still have the traditional four weeks of the Christmas season leading up to Dec. 24.

In addition to the services held on Christmas Eve and the day before, COR will also have a special candlelight Christmas Eve service on Thursday, Dec. 21 for those who are traveling for Christmas.  

“Then, we offer Christmas Eve services on Saturday, Dec. 23, when we would have regular Saturday night services at two of our locations,” said Bien, noting that a children’s service will take place at 10 a.m. on Christmas Eve, followed by traditional candlelight services at 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.

“One thing to note is that we have kept our regular online and broadcast times on Sunday for audience consistency, although these will all be Candlelight Christmas Eve services.”

St. Andrew Catholic Church of Pasadena, California will hold several services on Christmas Eve, both in English and in Spanish. English masses will take place at 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., with a midnight mass as well. They will also have English and Spanish masses on Christmas Day on Monday.

In brief comments emailed to CP, Father Marcos Gonzalez of St. Andrew Church explained that the schedule was meant to “accommodate everyone” while having the “same number of masses” if Christmas Eve had fallen on another day of the week.

“When it falls on a Sunday, we use the regular Sunday schedule but add Vigil Masses plus the midnight Mass,” he explained.

Worship at Immanuel Bible Church of Springfield, Virginia. | Stephen Procopio

Immanuel Bible Church, a nondenominational megachurch located in Springfield, Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C., will hold two worship services on Christmas Eve morning and an additional Spanish-language service at 12:45 p.m.

Additionally, according to Immanuel spokesperson Steve Holley, IBC will hold two services that the congregation calls “Christmas Vespers” at 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., respectively.

“This has been our customary schedule to have at least one morning worship service when Christmas Eve falls on Sunday and a Christmas Vespers Service in the evening,” Holley told CP.    “We are a soon to be 60-year-old church so this is not our first Christmas rodeo.”

Holley also noted that whenever “Christmas Eve falls on a different day of the week, we will only have the two Christmas Eve services, adding that this has been the trend going at least as far back as the 1970s.

Pastor Jeremiah Lange of Marion Presbyterian Church of Marion, Kansas, explained to CP that his congregation will have a morning worship service in which they will celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent.

“Then, in the evening, we will have a Family Christmas Eve service at 5:30 p.m. in our Fellowship Hall, followed by an 11 p.m. candlelight service in our sanctuary,” Lange said.

“We didn’t really decide on this schedule as much as we just incorporated our normal Christmas Eve service schedule into our normal Sunday schedule.”

Lange also told CP that the Christmas Eve service schedule remains “the same as when it falls on other days of the week” and that this year’s Christmas Eve Sunday schedule reflects how his congregation has handled past years when Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday.

Danny de Armas, senior associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Orlando, Florida, explained to CP that his congregation was having four “identical services” on Christmas Eve, with three being in the morning, while a fourth would be at 1 p.m.

“We reviewed several options for a few months before landing on this schedule in September,” he said. “We wanted to keep our typical Sunday schedule and accommodate an expected high attendance.  Keeping the usual 3 and adding a fourth at 1:00pm seemed a good option. “

De Armas noted that this was a new idea for Christmas Eve, as the last year that it fell on a Sunday, his church did five services at 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., respectively. 

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