WDW church services discontinued!

[ncbyrne]

The weekly Protestant and Catholic church services that have been available every week since 1975 have been discontinued! I have a feeling that those in charge have succumbed to political correctness. Sad, very sad.

 

[jel0511]

Actually, I thought the same thing, until about a month ago, a CM posted that the services were not discontinued by WDW but by the people providing them. It was my understanding that they didn't have enough people to provide the services at the Poly.

 

[Kallison]

That is too bad. You reminded me of something funny, my associate Pastor goes to Disney every year with his kids. Last trip I asked him how he liked the services he said "Are you crazy, I'm on vacation - I'm not going to church" - lol! Probably the only way I would go is if it were C or E.

 

[Cinderella03]

It is true that the Church(Catholic Church, not sure if the Protestant is for the same reason) has decided that they did not have enough Clergy to send over to the resorts.

 

[drusba]

Actually, as I understand it, even God could not escape Disney's mammoth budget cuts.

 

[PamOKW]

Actually, it's not true that the decision was based on priest availability. Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine sent one their priests for the services as part of their tourism ministry. They are not a regular parish...they exist to serve the tourists. I e-mailed them at the time the rumor started about the services ending. The reply from the Shrine indicated the decision was Disney's.

Disney made the decision to discontinue offering guests the option of on-site religious services earlier this year. I'm not sure what motivated the decision and we will probably never know for sure.

The Shrine is located very close to DD and is a great off-site option for mass....especially at Christmas and Easter. www.maryqueenoftheuniverse.org will give you the info. Christmas Mass is the same as the regular Saturday/Sunday schedule with the addition of a Midnight Mass as well.

 

[PamOKW]

Just saw this post further down the board from a CM who heard there will be Christmas services at the Contemporary....however, he doesn't have the details on times and denominations....

Here's the link

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=305241

 

[currycook]

Sad that Disney would do that.

 

[currycook]

Didnt get to finish that post.

Sad that Disney would do that considering it did not cost them anything to provide this service.

 

[Peter_noPan]

The Drudge Report had a link to an article about this.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs....gory=NEWS&ArtNo=212250385&Ref=AR&Profile=1004

I hope this worked. I have never tried to put a link on.

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

I read just the other day in the Orlando Sentinel that the decision to stop the Catholic Masses was a joint decision by the diocese and Disney.
It looks like the diocese could only provide a priest for one Sunday Mass but that was causing serious crowding at the Poly Luau Cove. Personally, my son and I attended the 10:15am Mass last June and did not think it was overly crowded (I believe the 8:00 was discontinued by then). Anyway, Disney and the diocese decided to stop the Sunday Mass but would offer it for Christmas and Easter.
The real problem here is the way Disney handled the situation. It could have, and should have, said right away why they were stopping the Church Services. When I complained many months ago I actually received a call from the Executive Offices of Walt Disney World. The woman I spoke to told me about the overcrowing (which I told here I did not believe). She never mentioned that is was a joint decision. I told her that maybe it was due to the priest shortage and if so, Disney should say so.
Very bad lack of communication from Disney on this one.

 

[Chuck S]

Originally posted by wdwgoofeeee
The woman I spoke to told me about the overcrowing (which I told here I did not believe). She never mentioned that is was a joint decision. I told her that maybe it was due to the priest shortage and if so, Disney should say so.
Very bad lack of communication from Disney on this one.

You can't believe it was due, at least in part, to overcrowding? I've attended Catholic services there when we've invited Catholic friends along to our DVC condo, and yes, the service was packed...people standing everywhere. The protestant services, on the other hand, were NOT well attended.

Disney is in the entertainment business, not a church. While I'll miss the convenience of attending services on-site I certainly can't fault Disney (or the diocese) for discontinuing them. Plus, don't forget, all those extra guests showing up at the Poly could potentially have been a security problem, considering some nut case could have seen those services as a target.

 

[The_Disney_God]

That Mass isn't great either. But its better than the Shrine.

 

[Ocean]

If it was completely a Disney decision, then it's VERY ironic. We always attended the Protestant services, and at one service (sorry I can't remember if it was July 2002 or the previous year), Disney made a very big deal of the fact that the Christian Service Center of Central Florida had been conducting services at Luau Cove since the opening of the WDW Resort. A very big deal indeed. Some of the Disney reps were on hand to thank CSC. They presented a plaque to the organization, and the Voices of Liberty were on hand to sing for the service that morning. It's both strange and sad to think that we will never again be able to enjoy those Luau Cove services. It was such an important part of our vacation that for us it would be like going to WDW and finding that they had closed Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Oh, they did that too, didn't they?

 

[Ziggie]

It's not a religious institution, after all...

By Mark I. Pinsky and Robert Johnson
Special to the Daily Press

December 29, 2002

Walt Disney World doesn't advertise its theme parks as the holiest place on earth - just the happiest.

Still, some religious leaders are dismayed and disappointed that, after Wednesday's popular Christmas services at the Contemporary Resort, the next organized Christian worship at the resort will not take place until Easter.

Citing space problems and concerns about fairness, the giant resort has stopped the regular Sunday services for Protestant and Catholic visitors that had been held at the Polynesian Luau area since 1975. Christmas and Easter services will continue.

"It no longer seemed appropriate to offer only two options for worship to our guests," said Rena Callahan, a Disney spokeswoman.

"As our guest population has grown, so has the diversity of cultures that visit our theme parks," she said. "Places of worship that have grown up around our property are best suited to meet the wide array of spiritual needs of our guests."

But the Rev. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, had a different interpretation.

"This is just one further step away from what was once was a core constituency of religiously motivated, 'family values' clientele," he said.

Disney's decision, he said, is "more a matter of indifference than hostility," reflecting "a lack of comprehension of how the real country lives and what's important to them."

Other conservative Christian groups, such as Colorado-based Focus on the Family and the Washington, D.C.-based Traditional Values Coalition, have also criticized Disney World's decision to end the services.

No regular religious services are conducted at Disneyland in California, and there are no chapels on either of the Disney cruise ships, according to company officials, nor are there any generic church facades on Main Street, USA.

Disney World still had separate Christmas Day services scheduled on its property. A Protestant service was set for 9 a.m., and a Catholic service was set for 10:15 a.m., both in the Contemporary Resort's Fantasia Ballroom.

But such services will now be rarities rather than regulars.

Since SeaWorld and Universal Orlando don't offer church services, that leaves the relatively tiny Holy Land Experience as the only local theme park with regular services. Holy Land offers free admission on Thursday nights to a non-denominational gathering. It also offers a special New Year's Eve service that includes a talk by Rev. Marvin Rosenthal, the park's founder.

"We wanted to have something spiritual for people who aren't partying," Rosenthal said.

At Disney World, two Catholic Masses and one non-denominational Protestant service had been conducted every Sunday morning since 1975.

Last summer, however, a shortage of Catholics priests caused the Rev. Joseph Harte of Mary, Queen of the Universe, Catholic Shrine to reduce the number of Masses at Walt Disney World to one. When that happened, the single service at the Polynesian became too crowded, and some worshipers had to be turned away.

That, in turn, led to a decision by Disney and the local Catholic diocese to end the Mass entirely and urge visiting Catholics to attend services at Mary, Queen of the Universe, which had been built in the meantime specifically to serve tourists.

The decision, said Harte, was entirely amicable.

"Disney's business is entertainment, and they're very good at it," said Carol Brinati, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Orlando. "The 'business' of the Catholic Church is to proclaim the word of God. It's up to us, as Christians, to find the appropriate services."

The Protestant services were conducted by a rotating group of six volunteer pastors, according to Robert Stuart of the Christian Service Center, a downtown social service agency that organized the services.

The Protestant services drew between 25 and 250 worshipers, he said. Donations from that service, which went to the Christian Service Center, averaged $15,000 a year.

 

[ilovefh]

Ok, I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second. With so many guests staying on property it would not be fair for them to only offer Catholic and Protestant services. I am sure when I am there I am not the only Orthodox person there, therefore it would only be fair to offer services for anyone who wants them. So I could understand if that was why it was discontinues (which it appears that is not the reason) That being said, I have never gone to church during my vacations, and I am not upset that they never offered services because we most likely would have not gone anyway. I also agree with the statement that not all things in life are fair. Just wantes to play devil's advocate for a minute.

 

[copper0426]

Our family is not please with the end of services at Disney. We usually have family from other states meet us and vacation at Disney together. This is also the only time for us to worship together, which as a family I feel is very important.

I would have had no problem worshiping with anyone no matter what they believe. If they wanted to just sing praise songs and say some prayers that would be exceptable for me. It is really what is in your heart and what you feel for your Lord that is important. So you can really have a service any where, but the Cove is pretty much the quietest place on property. For people like us who don't leave property during our stay, going off for services just doesn't fit in.

Well, just my opinion