December 03, 2024 – Pastor’s Note

The Christmas Mass schedule is now official. First the schedule, then a reflection on why this has taken so long.

Christmas Eve

Assumption	6:00 pm [Johnson] Midnight [Moore]
Sacred Heart	3:00 pm [Johnson] 9:00 pm [Moore]
Ferndale	3:00 pm [Doss] 6:00 pm SPANISH [Moore]
Blaine	3:00 pm [Grasher]
Lummi	6:00 pm [Doss]
Lynden	6:00 pm [Thumbi]
Deming	3:00 pm [Thumbi]

Christmas Day

Assumption	11:00 am [Moore]
Sacred Heart	9:00 am [Johnson]
Ferndale	10:00 am [Doss]
Lynden	10:00 am [Thumbi]

Now, what was the hold up?

1. Something new always takes longer than something established. Except for Ferndale/Lummi/Blaine (which had the priest doing 3 Christmas Eve Masses), I could have reused the schedules from last year. But I thought our first Christmas together as a Family would benefit from consistency across the county, so that we all felt that we were entering into Christmas together. Coming up with a new system requires that I have “brain time”, which is hard to come by.
2. Consultation always takes a long time, because it requires back-and-forth. This process began in September with a request for each church to send me their previous Mass times. Then I needed to consult with the Lord, which is always my first step, after which I needed to consult with the Archdiocese about whether the Archbishop would approve 3:00 pm Mass times (we only have blanket permission to go as early as 4:00 pm). After that, I needed to consult with the parish staffs and church coordinators about their opinions on behalf of their communities. Lastly, I needed a final sign-off from the Archdiocese about the 3:00 pm slots. I could have made this decision without consultation, but that did not seem wise.
3. My office time (when I do all of this planning and consultation) is severely restricted. Theoretically, I have 28 hours of office time each week (10 – 5, T – F). This week, 16 of those hours are already dedicated to meetings, meaning I only have 12 hours this entire week to respond to e-mails, staff concerns, parishioner needs, and all the little emergencies that seem to come up. Many weeks look similar. When everything is triage, sometimes things take a while to become urgent enough to deal with.

I very much appreciate your patience with all of this. I, of course, will want to hear any feedback you have after Dec. 25^th. Whenever we try something new, it is important to evaluate it after the fact, to know if the theory was born out in the practice.