Making Room, and Time, for More
They were packing them in Thursday at the Mariners South Coast Church, where an estimated 9,000 people gathered in four shifts to praise the Lord on Christmas Eve.
“We’re here to sing with the angels,” Senior Pastor Kenton Beshore told the members of his Irvine congregation during an hourlong musical service in which more than 2,000 worshipers lit more than 2,000 candles. “Tonight, we are here to worship just as the shepherds worshiped. Christmas is about God’s gift to us--the gift of his son.”
The Irvine churchgoers were among the thousands in Orange County who flocked to places of worship, paying homage to Jesus on the holiest night of the Christian year. Many, like the congregants at Mariners, did so at multiple services staggered throughout the afternoon and evening to accommodate crowds that otherwise might have overflowed.
“We work very hard at being large and small,” said Beshore, who delivered his Christmas Eve sermon at 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m. “When I grew up, you had to plan your schedule around the church, but this is great--it gives people choices. They come in and experience their service--the one that fits in with their lives--and we keep it intimate and personal.”
Much the same attempt was being made at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, which scheduled four Christmas Eve services between 5 and 11 p.m. Eastside Christian Church in Fullerton also had four, while Tustin Presbyterian Church and King Glory of Lutheran Church in Fountain Valley each scheduled three.
And at Garden Grove’s Crystal Cathedral, worshipers experienced the usual Christmas Eve extravaganza--a Broadway-like production performed seven times featuring a tuxedoed orchestra with a massive Holy Land backdrop complete with a starry sky and 50-foot Christmas tree.
“What you all need is someone whom you can love who will love you in return,” the Rev. Robert H. Schuller said in a sermon broadcast worldwide and punctuated by artificial snow. “Nothing is more despairing in life than to have an empty heart with no one to whom you can give your love.”
Many of those attending churches with multiple services said that they liked the idea.
“It gives more people an opportunity to be here,” Louise McDermott, a Newport Beach hairdresser, said after the 3 p.m. service at Mariners South Coast Church. McDermott said she planned on having dinner with her family at 6 p.m. “If they only had a 5 p.m. service,” she said, “I probably couldn’t come.”
Cindy Salem, an Irvine teacher, said she had felt the presence of God at the church’s first scheduled service. “The choir sang so beautifully that it made me cry,” she said. “It felt like a family.”
And Nancy Smiley, a member of that choir, said that, short of a tired voice, she had no problem at all with having to perform through the service four different times. “It’s a lot of work,” she said, “but it’s so much fun. Each service has the same momentum, the same power, the same life. . . .”
She doesn’t even mind people who attend church only on Christmas Eve, Smiley said, because “if you come here for Christmas, you’re sure to come back.”
Not every service, however, was massive or multiple.
At the Sisters of St. Joseph of Motherhouse chapel in Orange, Bishop Mike Driscoll performed a Christmas Eve mass for about 120 deaf Catholics, including 15 costumed children who acted out the first Christmas using sign language. “We thank God for His many gifts, including the gift of Jesus,” the bishop said during the service, which, among other things, featured a choir signing the words to “Silent Night” accompanied by a Bing Crosby recording.
And at the Calvary Church of Santa Ana, the Christmas liturgy was performed only once--at 5 p.m.--despite an audience of nearly 2,000.
“We like the dynamic and joy of being all together,” explained Ron Rogalski, the church’s pastor of worship ministries. “It’s like having the whole family around the dinner table, as opposed to eating dinner in shifts.”
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Times correspondents Linn Groves and Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.