Mass Attendance Observations

In Advent, I wrote a bulletin article detailing some observations about Mass attendance in our four parishes. Next month, Pastoral Council will be meeting to discuss Mass times, amongst other items. I thought that I would share a number of observations about our Mass attendance through January. Below you’ll find two tables with the numbers:

A couple observations are:
1. Mass attendance is steadily rising over the past 16 months: 1434 in October 2021, 1462 in October 2022, and 1573 November 2022 through January 2023.
2. The Saturday Vigil Mass increased over 60% when it moved to Immaculate Conception for the painting at St. Lawrence. The average attendance jumped from 149 to 239.
3. The Sunday Evening Mass at St. John was very well attended in the fall and much less attended in the winter. Lately, there have been a number of weeks that the attendance has been around 100.
4. Our best-attended Masses are the ones beginning in the mid-morning (between 9am and 10am).
5. Currently, there isn’t a Sunday Morning Mass at St. Lawrence and St. John. It has been difficult for many people and has hurt the morale for people and caused some to become disheartened.

As always, let us ask the Lord to guide us. May the Holy Spirit direct our hearts and minds. Please pray our Pastoral Council and we wrestle with what is the best Mass schedule for our people.

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Sean Wilson