Dictionary definition of “cannonball Sunday”

cannonball Sunday

n. a sparsely attended church service, especially immediately following Christmas. Subjects: English, Religion

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Citations: 2003 John W. Wurster First Presbyterian Church (Findlay, Ohio) (Dec. 28) “Ode to Christmas”: ’Tis three days after Christmas/And I don’t know what to say./No one really wants to preach/On a Cannonball Sunday. 2004 J. Dale Suggs Torrey Pines Christian Church (La Jolla, California) (Feb. 22) “Enough Is Enough”: To tell you the truth, I’m amazed that anybody is here this morning. I advertised for weeks that today we were going to talk about giving generously. Stewardship sermons have a way of creating what we call in the business “cannonball Sunday.” That is, you can put a cannon in the front of the church and fire it in any direction, and most likely you are not hitting anybody. That’s what stewardship sermons tend to do. 2004 Stephen Van Etten Hunterdon County Democrat (N.J.) (Dec. 22) “Area’s churches have open arms, full pews”: Attendance at his church picks up slightly for Christmas, but he calls the following week’s service “Cannonball Sunday.” “You could shoot a cannonball through the church and you wouldn’t hit anybody because attendance is so low,” he said. 2004 Alan Kimber RecordNet (Stockton, California) (Dec. 25) “Spirited Words”: On these great festivals of the Christian faith, churches are crowded, often to overflowing while on some other Sundays the exact opposite is true. In fact, the Sundays after these great festivals are sometimes referred to as “cannonball Sundays,” meaning you can fire a cannon through the congregation and probably not hit anyone.

Posted 28 Dec 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

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