We changed our two Sunday morning worship times (9 and 11 a.m.) to one (10 a.m.) on June 21 in preparation for summer. At the time, I thought we would switch back to two services in September. You will notice that we haven’t done that.

First, some background: When I graduated from seminary in 2011, the prevailing wisdom of the time was that there needs to be plenty of open seats in a worship space for newcomers to feel, psychologically, that there is room for them in the community. The idea was that the chapel should be only about 60% full, 80% at the most, and if it was regularly more than that, then it was time to add another service.

Next, some history: Because of our small chapel, Chalice has had two worship services for many years. Of course, the congregation worshipped at one service in its early years. Beginning in May 2006 and through December 2011, Chalice had two worship services, except for a “summer schedule” of one service. In January 2012, during a time of “interim ministry” (between settled ministers), the congregation returned to one service.

We returned to two services in October 2012, the third month after my arrival. By then, the congregation seemed eager to return to the “normal” of two services, a reassuring feeling that the congregation was back on track after the stresses of being between called ministers.

It has never been my practice to move us to a summer schedule of one service because I observe that the more we change worship times, the harder it is for people to build the habit of regular worship attendance. So Chalice worshipped at two services from October 2012 through December 2019. (Seven years of uninterrupted worship times seems like a rosy dream now.)

Then we moved off campus for construction, and our worship time and place moved around quite a bit over the next eight months, but we were back on our campus at two services by September 2019. Our last in-person worship before the pandemic was March 8, 2020, and then we moved worship online. We returned to one in-person (and online) service on March 6, 2022.

We returned to two services on March 19, 2023. The reason we returned to two services was NOT because our chapel was filling up. The reason was to offer two worship times, to help more congregants make their way back to in-person worship. And given the financial challenge we were facing that spring, I wanted to give the congregation every opportunity to get back to our “normal” if we could.

So this year, for the first time ever, I decided to move us to one worship service for the summer. Attendance at Chalice is usually light over the summer, as people go on vacation, and neither of our two services has felt full by any measure. And moving to one service for July and August felt like it would give a little break to all of us involved with making Sunday morning happen.

It has indeed felt easier to offer one worship service rather than two. Easier for our greeters, for coffee and refreshments, for worship leaders, for tech team. And our congregants in attendance enjoy having the chapel feel full and lively. By mid-July, I was already hearing from people lobbying me to stay at one service.

It felt hard to know what to do. Two services allows for more people to attend worship: that’s just math. But it is also true that the religious landscape is changing rapidly. Very little of what I learned in seminary has felt applicable to modern church life. One of my colleagues has a theory that we should let our chapels get as full as possible because people want to be where it feels like things are happening. A chapel with too many empty seats feels like an empty restaurant or bar: evidence that nobody’s interested in what this place has to offer.

On top of this, our Director of Family Ministries has told me that our parents with young children would prefer a 10 a.m. service, as getting to Chalice by 9 a.m. can feel stressful to young families. (Even so, I have already heard from one parent who prefers the 9 a.m. service time.)

For the time being, we are staying at one worship service at 10 a.m. Our community is still recovering from the pandemic, people are still tired and overwhelmed, and offering two services is definitely more of an effort than offering one. If and when the time comes to return to two services, I trust that it will seem obvious to all of us why we are doing so.

Bright blessings,
Sharon

To schedule an appointment with Rev. Sharon:

Text or call: 619.871.9959

Email: swylie@chaliceuucongregation.org