Christmas on Sunday

Our ward leadership is getting ready to high-level calendar 2016 and I noticed that Christmas falls on a Sunday in 2016. I vaguely remember authorization for a shortened block the last time that happened, am I remembering correctly?

Last time was 2011. I'm not finding anything in the Handbook or the OCL, but I also remember shortened meetings. I think it was just sacrament meeting - and may have been shorted even then.

A letter from the First Presidency dated July 18, 2011 made the following points:

• Church services were to be limited to sacrament meeting (no mention of a non-standard meeting length);
• Fast Sunday should be scheduled for a day other than January 1, 2012;
• For socials scheduled for New Year's Eve, dancing should be discontinued at midnight, but a supper could be served if it ended by 1:30am;
• Regular Sunday meetings would be held on January 1.

Of course, there's no guarantee that the same pattern will be followed next year, but it's a reasonable guess.

hansg wrote:Our ward leadership is getting ready to high-level calendar 2016 and I noticed that Christmas falls on a Sunday in 2016. I vaguely remember authorization for a shortened block the last time that happened, am I remembering correctly?

You are remembering correctly. And it would be prudent to plan for the normal schedule until such a letter is received from the First Presidency this time. Christmas has fallen on Sunday before, and there has not been a letter as there was in 2011.

lajackson wrote:

hansg wrote:Our ward leadership is getting ready to high-level calendar 2016 and I noticed that Christmas falls on a Sunday in 2016. I vaguely remember authorization for a shortened block the last time that happened, am I remembering correctly?

You are remembering correctly. And it would be prudent to plan for the normal schedule until such a letter is received from the First Presidency this time. Christmas has fallen on Sunday before, and there has not been a letter as there was in 2011.

Although it's true that there hasn't been a letter yet, I would note that the letter in 2011 was issued on a date that would correspond to July 2016. So although it's certainly prudent to plan on a normal schedule until we hear otherwise, it seems quite premature to read anything into the fact that no letter has yet arrived, when the corresponding letter date is still 8 months in the future.

aebrown wrote:A letter from the First Presidency dated July 18, 2011 made the following points:

• Church services were to be limited to sacrament meeting (no mention of a non-standard meeting length);
• Fast Sunday should be scheduled for a day other than January 1, 2012;
• For socials scheduled for New Year's Eve, dancing should be discontinued at midnight, but a supper could be served if it ended by 1:30am;
• Regular Sunday meetings would be held on January 1.

Of course, there's no guarantee that the same pattern will be followed next year, but it's a reasonable guess.

Very reasonable indeed and It is no longer a guess. A First Presidency letter dated June 20, 2016 provides the same guidelines for Christmas 2016 and New Year's Day 2017. The letter is at the Official Communication Library.

Can you tell me if the church has made a decision on whether we will have entire meeting schedule on Dec 24, 2017?

thanks
terrie perkins

The First Presidency sent out a letter on June 30, 2017, that said Church services and meetings should be limited to only sacrament meeting on December 24, 2017.

There are two wards in our building. We are meeting together at 10 am for Sacrament meeting on Christmas Eve morning. Any suggestions on taking a fair attendance? There will be out of town family and guests (unfamiliar faces). I am trying to get a fair count during this last month of the quarter.

jbuhl68 wrote:Any suggestions on taking a fair attendance?

Now there's a fun debate.

Since the budget is based on average, you could ignore that date in calculating the average, but I suspect that with the added people there will be a desire to include them. <grin> Even if they won't be there to spend budget on in 2018.

To keep it simple, you could just split the number in half.

To be more convoluted, you could divide it based on the average attendance not counting that date. For example, if one ward averages 150 and the other 75 and the total on the combined Sunday is 300 (a 33% increase), then the first ward counts 200 and the second one counts 100. That may be a little too complex for the comfort level of some but seems like the most fair way - short of asking each ward to sit in a specific part of the chapel. <grin>

Thank you for the thoughts on the options.