Holy Week, Easter and church fights
Strangely enough, Holy Week is not a week for church fights in most places. Simply put, the people in church who love being traditional are too busy preparing and helping with Easter breakfasts, commuinion, music, footwashing etc.. Working together to make sure the traditions get done well (in the traditional style) generally takes precedence over any conflict. Sometimes after Easter, sadly, the conflicts come back as if the togetherness of Holy Week had never existed. Miost times, though, church conflict will fade away as winter fades. By summer very little activity, including conflict, occurs in most churches. Summer is a season for working in the garden, going to the lake etc. and any conflict then is most often handled quickly and easily or the damage has already been done and pastor or others are on their way out. In rare cases the conflict reemerges in fall when people return to church after “Rally” Sunday or the first Sunday School day in the fall.
These patterns are especially pronounced in small rural congregations where summer is a time of feverish activity outside church.
GB