All of the 25 largest Episcopal churches in terms of average Sunday attendance will be holding at least one service on Christmas Day this year, the first time since 1994 that Christmas has fallen on a Sunday.

Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest churches in America, recently announced that it was canceling all worship services this coming Sunday and asking its members to stay home and spend time with their families on Christmas Day instead. Since the announcement, a number of other “megachurches” announced similar plans.

“For a church that glories in the Incarnation, it would be improbable to cancel services on Christmas Day,” said the Rev. Andrew J. Archie, rector of St. Michael and St. George in Clayton, Mo. “If there is one habit that I want my parishioners to have it is coming to church on Sunday. I’m not going to get in the way of that.”

Fr. Archie said St. Michael and St. George will have one service on Christmas Day. St. David’s, Austin, Texas, will hold three, including Compline at 9 p.m. The service is held every Sunday evening and is primarily attended by single adults with no children, according to the Rev. David A. Boyd, rector. “Our worship planning committee concluded that this was a service whose population would be likely to come,” Fr. Boyd said.

The Rev Jay Sidebotham, rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, Ill., told The Living Church “it never occurred to me that we would have no service at all” on Christmas Day. Fr Sidebotham noted Holy Spirit had “decided to go to one service at 10 a.m. and have canceled our standard 7:30 a.m. service, which for some of our folks, is in itself a pretty radical move.”

Originally Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., planned just one service on Sunday, but when several regulars from the 8 a.m. Sunday service asked for an early service, the rector said he was delighted to oblige. “When someone wants to have a service, we are inclined to do it,” said the Rev. Edward A. Mullins, who added that after the 10 a.m. service there will be a Christmas dinner for anyone in the area who would otherwise be eating by themselves.

St. Luke’s, Birmingham, Ala., will also host a dinner after its Christmas Day service, said the Rev. Richmond R. Webster. “I have children who are 13 and 11 and they are dependable acolytes,” he said. “They have always associated Christmas Day with worship.”

The dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, the Very Rev. Samuel Candler, said he has used the announcement about churches being closed this Sunday as a teaching tool and believes it illustrates the contrast between the worship geared toward “entertainment” and the historic church.

“The Episcopal Church, like other historical churches, is where people go through graceful changes of life together, not necessarily where they are entertained,” Dean Candler said. “Christmas is an occasion for the entire community. We share a history of ups and downs together.”

The Rev. Canon David H. Roseberry, rector of Christ Church, Plano, Texas, concurs with Dean Candler. While megachurches provide a great deal of leadership and depth to American Christianity, in this instance they need “to look to the mainline” churches for guidance Canon Roseberry said. “`Closed for Sunday' is the sign that hangs in a business, not a church.”

To find more news, feature articles, and commentary not available online, we invite you to subscribe to The Living Church magazine. To learn more, click here.