What's Wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong . . .

Christmas is over and things are slowly returning to the routine. My thoughts turn to priorities for the year, missed opportunities, making progress toward long-term objectives. So I look back at the gifts we've seen pass through the house this year.

The kids got mostly useful things, and spent their gift cards on useless plastic junk. But we happily remain holdouts in the great war of the Wii. The link below caught my eye as an interesting vignette on where our society is going and how fast it's going there.

Watch and weep! http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/01/when-marketing.html

Have a Peaceful and Wonderful 2009

Christmas

Well, I looked up my (by "my", I mean the one of which I am officially a member) local United Methodist Church's website and found something shocking today. This year's Christmas Services all occur on Christmas Eve. Not a one of them on Christmas Day. Why?? Because Christmas is unlucky enough to fall on a Thursday this year!
And to top it all off, only one of them even features Communion!

Here's the Schedule . . .

Christmas Eve Worship

Traditional Worship

4, 6, 8, and 10:30 p.m.

Communion at 10:30 p.m.

Family Celebration Worship

2, 4, and 6 p.m.

Just what have we become? The last time I checked, the United Methodist Church, founded by John Wesley, was a sacramental church (of sorts) , holding Holy Baptism and Holy Communion as sacraments reserved to ordained elders. I have long been frustrated by the marginalization of Holy Communion in the United Methodist Church, as the rise of "contemporary worship" and the relegation of "traditional worship" to something practiced by stuffy old folks has seemed to have gained momentum of late.

So just for kicks, I surfed over to the local Catholic Church website ( one which I have visited on occasion in the past) and found this . . .

Christmas Schedule

Christmas Eve

4:00 pm - Children's Mass
4:10 pm - Overflow Mass in Parish Hall
6:00 pm - Mass
6:10 pm - Mass in Parish Hall
8:00 pm - Mass
11:00 pm - Choral Concert
Midnight - Mass

Christmas Day

9:00 am - Mass
11:00 pm - Mass in Spanish

Note: The Blessed Sacrament will be reposed at 8:30 am on
Christmas Eve.
Adoration will begin again on Monday after the 9:00 am Mass.

You can probably bet that they'll be "serving Holy Communion" at each and every one of those masses!

I have observed that most Protestant congregations do a better job of celebrating Christmas than they do of observing Easter and the related observances at the beginning and end of Lent. But I guess that only applies when Christmas falls on Sunday!

Sheesh!

May God's Peace be on all this Christmas!