Midnight Communion/ Mass?
Puzzler
Shipmate
Should it start at midnight?
Or 11.30 so that Communion is made at midnight?
What about those places which, for whatever reason, hold their service at 9pm- is that Christmas Communion?
Or 11.30 so that Communion is made at midnight?
What about those places which, for whatever reason, hold their service at 9pm- is that Christmas Communion?
Comments
We're calling the service "Midnight 'Mass'" - please note the inverted commas! In the past it has been Christmas Eve Communion.
An even earlier start has been suggested, but FatherInCharge prefers to keep it at 11pm, even though attendance has been sparse in recent years. Our Crib Service is at 5pm (not the best hour for small children - attendance is usually sparse, too), so there is a fair amount of time for rest and refreshment between the two services!
Liturgically speaking, I think Christmas Day begins at 6pm or thereabouts on Christmas Eve, so any Eucharist/Mass after that is the *First Communion or whatever of Christmas*.
Some churches seem to find that a mid-evening service works for them, so horses for courses.
At our place, it’s a 5:00 service and an 11:00 service, both Eucharists. (The 5:00 service is by far the better attended, so in years where Christmas or Christmas Eve falls on Saturday or Sunday, we might omit the 11:00 service.)
It was quite something.
Yes, sunset is more accurate.
Given the low attendances we've had in recent years at the Crib Service and the Midnight Mass, I wonder if maybe an earlier time for both might be more acceptable.
This would take a leap of faith, though. We may not have a priest-in-charge next Christmas, so, if that's the case, I'll put it to the PCC...
When I was a child we didn’t have any services earlier on Christmas Eve. Everyone went to midnight, including children. I remember the blaze of light in the church, the excitement of being wished ‘Merry Christmas’ one minute after midnight, and the noisy muddle of everyone racing round afterwards giving out Christmas cards.
It was 1pm before we got to bed and I was up by 6 for stockings. Services were 8am and 11am, and by the age of about 12, I was playing for the 8am service (for 3 old ladies and a dog). Vicar’s daughter = nearest available sucker!
The congregation at 9am consisted of the PCC Secretary and her daughter, but the (visiting) priest used to give them the whole BCP service - including the Exhortation, and a sermon!
The church is now part of a two-church benefice, but their website is so out of date that it's impossible to find out what they're doing this year.
or so Christmas Eve Mass (which counts as a Christmas Mass and usually is done with Midnight Mass readings and lots of special music to make it like a Midnight Mass) is usually the most attended service by far. Whatever the latest Mass on the 24th (usually not at midnight) is the second most attended, and the Christmas Day masses are often the least attended and have the least musical resources given to them, unless a parish is really big or rich and can afford to make all Christmas masses feel like Christmas masses.
The places I know that have taken Midnight Mass at Midnight seriously have either been traditional conservative RC, liberal RC with immigrants communities or wealthy donors who expect Mass to end at midnight, or High Church Anglican with the money to put on a spectacle and enough people willing to come that late at night.
I've tended to have one of my daughters and other relatives staying over but I might not this year. My younger daughter will come over though as she lives not far away.
On the 'liturgical time' thing, the Orthodox, and I believe, the RC and Anglo-Catholic traditions see sunset / Vespers as the start of a new day liturgically speaking, rather than midnight. Hence some pernickety debates between 'zealots' and others whether a fast should start around 6pm or at midnight. Most clergy would say midnight I think.
I think the service ceased to be held c.1990.
It was on NYE when I first moved here but quickly migrated to Christmas.
Does Your Place have a Communion service at Christmas (perhaps on The Day itself)? Apologies if you've already mentioned it...
I appreciate that the Kirk generally has fewer Communion services than some other denominations.
My current Russian parish has the so-called "All-Night" Vigil (usually Vespers, Matins and First Hour combined; 2 hours 15 minutes or so from memory..., but the website indicates Nativity is Great Compline, Litia (blessing of wheat, wine, oil and five loaves), Matins and First Hour) at 18:00 on December 24 with Liturgy on the 25th at 09:00.
No. Quarterly communion, carefully avoiding coinciding with major festivals, has been the tradition here. Given we won't have a minister with us at Christmas communion isn't even an option.
I see. Thank you!
Does anyone attend a church where the Christmas Day service gets the most people and is the principal service in terms of music and everything else? How common is this nowadays and what kind of churches do it?
Christmas Eve sees two services in the large town church.
- 5pm Family Service generally has the largest attendance 50-100 - priest, two acolytes, organist, crucifer if available. Setting up and blessing of the crib. Our new rector promised at morning tea today that it would be very interactive for the youngsters.
- 11pm Midnight Mass, age has wearied the congregation here, so the format has become more contemplative, singing accompanied by a solo instrument or a cappella. Up to 20 attendees.
Christmas Day
- 8.30am small town church - Eucharist for Christmas Day - priest, OLM as deacon, organist, tiny congregation
- -10.00am country church - Parish Eucharist - priest, acolyte, pianist, church comfortably full 50-80. It will be interesting to see the new rector's impact on this service.
We have a priest on Christmas Eve for the 2130 communion. Christmas Day is lay led.
Tbh Christmas Eve can be very busy indeed - the church is an easy stumble from the village pub (300 ish people in the village, might get 70 for the service), Christmas Day is more like a dozen.
I suspect we’ve ended up in this position because Christmas Eve had always been the more popular here.
It’s one of those moments when residual Catholic culture and current pub culture collide in the rural CofE - wander in from the pub because it seems like a good idea after 4-5 hours of drinking *and* it ‘counts’ as Christmas so you don’t have to bother/feel guilty about not going on the 25th.
The 8.00 is also busy, but its more traditional. Preceded by 30 minutes of carols. An older congregation who have places to be and things to do on Christmas morning.
The 10.30 in the morning is a smaller congregation (around 100.) A mixture of old and new music with both guitars and organ involved. Thats the one I play at, throwing in a voluntary at the end.
After that everyone deserves a rest!
*Christmass* Eve Crib Service at 5pm - last year had (IIRC) about 6 under-16s and 12 adults (plus FatherInCharge, Madam Sacristan, and one of our two Organists). It varies - once there were about 50 in church, all told;
Midnight Mass at 11pm - last year had 30 adults (plus FInC, Madam S, and the other Organist). In 2022, there were only 20 in the congregation;
*Christmass* Day Mass with Carols and Visit to the Crib at 1030am - last year had 12 adults (plus the same three staff as at the Crib Service). Again, it does vary - we've had maybe 20-25, and one year we had 50 in church!
I have suggested that, as an experiment, both the Crib Service and the Midnight Mass be retimed to start earlier (say 3pm and 8pm respectively), but you would have thought, by the outraged reaction, that I was suggesting the sacrificing of goats, or the worship of Ashtoreth...
There are various services across our five churches. Each one has had or will have a carol service at some point in December.
Mine has 11.30pm Christmas Eve HC. Choir was requested but none of us is going, either because away/ busy with visitors or live alone and don’t want to turn out at that time.
Christmas Day 10am in another village will probably attract very few. The locals in that village, apart from the Squire and two individuals, don’t do church, though will attend events eg messy church in the village hall, so it will be whoever travels from the other villages. Unlikely to be many. I hope we will have an organist.
Our Place has Evening Prayer & Benediction at 5pm on Christmas Day, but attendance has, in the past, been almost non-existent, apart from (you've guessed it) FatherInCharge and Madam Sacristan!
Madam S is not driving yet, following eye surgery, so probably won't be there this year...
Does anyone know of Places which have an afternoon, or late-morning (1130am or 12 noon), service on The Day, instead of the customary early- or mid-morning slots?
4:00PM: unofficially known as the Younger Families' Mass, this will be Standing Room Only with folding chairs set in every aisle, out through the Narthex and down the hall toward the Christian Ed rooms. It's sure to be wild and wooly this year, since the Children's Pageant is being incorporated into this Mass. There is no vested choir for this Mass, but that's okay -- sitting and listening and/or presenting music in a noticeably chatty and bustling environment would be a challenge. I'm sure I'll have to boost the piano mic for this Mass' carols. Hoping for no more than an 85min duration, as the Choir is supposed to begin an extended Prelude for the 6PM Mass at 5:30.
6:00PM: this Mass does tend to draw a slightly older congregation. Some of the chairs in the aisles will be used, but not to the degree of the 4PM Mass. Vested Choir, anthems as well as congregational carols. This Mass will probably run 75min or so.
We will also have an 8:15AM Christmas Day Mass that will likely be attended by upwards of 40 parishioners. Cantor only with traditional carols, and usually fairly quick (45-ish min).
Perhaps particularly because the Midnight has been packed. On the two occasions in my life I've attended the Midnight it's been very hard to get to sleep afterwards and very hard to wake up in the morning. In fact I remember feeling tired all day on those Christmas Days.
I ask as an Anglican parish in a nearby town has it listed among its pre-Christmas and Christmas services/activities, and I'm determining which to attend, having been rather blessed by the Advent Carol service they held a few weeks ago.
Well, yes - ISWYM.
I've felt the same, having been helping at the Midnight-ish service, and not reaching home until nearly 2am...getting up for the 1030am Mass was not easy...
No, not necessarily synonymous. Christingle involves the handing out of specially decorated oranges, each item being symbolic, as is the orange. The tradition is Moravian. These services may be held pre or post-Christmas, not on any specific date.
Crib services involve the blessing of a crib. Both services typically include the narration of the nativity and are geared to children. The Crib services in churches near me are either this coming Sunday or on Christmas Eve.
The blessing of the crib, which includes placing the figure of Baby Jesus in the manger, is reserved for the Midnight Mass, and is usually done during a pause in the opening hymn. Other Places may do it differently, of course!
TBH, I'm not all that keen on crib scenes and such - they seem a bit twee - but, if they help young or not-so-young people to at least some understanding of the Incarnation, so much the better.
Mind you, Our Place excels in twee-ness when FatherInCharge cajoles the Faithful Few into visiting the crib after Mass on Christmas morning, and singing *Happy Birthday!* to Jesus...
I kid you not.
We don't have our *own* Christingle Service, but we do host one for the local Cubs/Beavers, who make (and pay for) all the Christingles themselves. It's held a week or so before Christmas, as a seasonal end to their autumn session, and they usually turn out in force.
Not so many this year, I'm told, but they did make a major contribution to our appeal for toys etc. for local families in need. As there wasn't such a good attendance (we've had over 150 children and adults in past years), there wasn't as much mess - squashed oranges, sweet wrappings, and the like - to annoy Madam Sacristan...
Incidentally, we used to advertise the Christingle service to our own congregation, but not any wider. This year, it was not advertised outside the Cubs/Beavers groups at all - safeguarding concerns being very much in the forefront these days.
the candle (always beeswax) wrapped in red paper that was the beginning of what became the Christingle is very much part of Moravian tradition in the US, the full-blown Christingle, with orange etc., isn’t at all. Perhaps it’s a specifically British Moravian tradition?
Fixed coding - Nenya, Ecclesiantics Host
Yes, although it seems that not all Christingle services in the UK are devoted to the Children's Society.
At our place the base of the candles are very carefully wrapped in foil, so I suppose that helps prevent wax poisoning 😉
IME usually perfectly edible, but they don’t last as well as an un-pierced orange.
(There are usually a few oranges sans decorations left behind after a Christmas, and I bring them home and eat them, so long as they remain good. An approx 1” by 1/2” hole in the ‘core’ of an orange doesn’t seem to affect its eatability.)