No, I am not talking about "blue" vestments used in some churches in Advent, but Christmas services here at St. Francis. The turnout, even though it was higher than last year (thanks be to God!), was lower than I had hoped - especially in the wake of much advertising and two big newspaper articles. That goes to show that newspaper articles do very little to help churches like us. There is just too much other stuff in the news, etc. for an article or two - even if big - to translate into visitors.
Looking at the parish register, I think that a major part of the problem is that back in 2000 the church changed the time of the Christmas Eve service from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. 6:00 is the worst time for ANY evening church service no matter WHAT time of year it is. Dinner, work, and the commute always trumps church! Next year the service will be later. Plus, I think people prefer to go to late services on Christmas Eve anyway, and ours would be too early even if no one was doing anything that night.
Otherwise it was an okay service. We actually had some good music, amazingly enough, thanks to the organist from a nearby Episcopal parish filling in for us. And it was GREAT to spend the night with our beloved parishioners (sans the college students, who are all away for the holiday).
