By Gracie Bonds Staples
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

December 22, 2011

This Sunday may be the first in a long while that Annette Bridges hasn’t attended church.

But as it does occasionally, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday and Bridges’ church, First Baptist of Atlanta, will hold its weekly church services on Saturday — Christmas Eve — instead of Sunday, a practice that is becoming more common here and across the country.

The reason? So the church’s hundreds of volunteers and teachers can spend Christmas morning with their families, said Marcus Ryan, director of communications at First Baptist Church of Atlanta.

Although there’s no way to estimate the number the churches that have canceled Christmas Day services this year, First Baptist of Atlanta, North Metro Church in Marietta and the North Point Community Church in Alpharetta are among local congregations scheduled to hold Christmas Eve services only.

Ryan estimates it takes more than 500 volunteers to facilitate everything from parking and ushering to teaching Sunday school at First Baptist of Atlanta, where more than 15,000 people attend services.

“On Christmas, many of those workers travel out of town, or desire to spend Christmas morning with their young children,” he said. “Moving the services to Christmas Eve morning allows our church family both to celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus and have unhurried, quality family time Christmas morning, at home or away.”

Bridges welcomes the idea of celebrating the day with her family uninterrupted, but others say they can’t imagine not attending church on Christmas.

“It’s Jesus’ birthday. That’s what we do,” said Johns Creek resident Karen Wise, who worships at St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Duluth with her husband, Rich, and their five children.

There are no rules guiding churches on when to hold services, said the Rev. Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which represents 45,000 churches across the country.

“I would imagine most are having services,” he said.

Like many metro Atlanta churches, Johnson Ferry Baptist will hold services Christmas Day, but it will reduce the number of its services that day to one.

Roswell Presbyterian Church also will hold a single service on Christmas Day instead of the usual three.

“As Christians, we worship together on every Sunday,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Lane Alderman. The church also has five services on Christmas Eve, but Alderman expects the Christmas Day service to be well attended.

“It will be casual, relaxed and yet holy, and will be a focal point to remind us why the day is special in the first place,” he said.

Whether or not a church holds services this Sunday, theologians say canceling worship on Christmas, though unusual, is hardly an unholy act.

“If a few congregations choose not to hold worship services Dec. 25 because the holiday falls on Sunday, I really feel this says more about the needs of the congregation and its service to the community than it does about the wider society,” said the Rev. Ronald Peters, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. “Each congregation must serve its own constituency, neighborhood, community in the way it feels is best.”

Beryl Kalisa of Atlanta said she recently found herself comforting a friend troubled by church service cancellations. Kalisa encouraged her friend to focus on the silver lining.

“The churches that have canceled services have not canceled their worship of God,” Kalisa told her. “They have instead chosen to do so a day earlier and have added a feature that families can come together.”

She said she supports both sides of the debate.

“The birth of Jesus symbolizes hope, joy and peace for all human kind,” she said. “This is after all the season of understanding and love.”

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