When we observed the change-over to the year 2000, a lot of attention was paid to midnight as it came in around the globe beginning on Christmas island.
At our parish and some others in the area there was a midnight Mass to usher in the New Year.
I got the idea then of observing a World Day of Prayer for Peace beginning at when it touches down at Christmas Island, praying for people in that time zone as the time zone came into the new year.
https://www.worldtimezone.com/newyear24.html gives you the current years places (since time zones occasionally change).
In the Eastern Time Zone it works out well. New Zealand comes in at 6am, Australia at 8am,
Japan at 10am, China at 11am. Bangladesh at 1pm, Iran at 3pm, Russia at 4pm, Jerusalem at 5 pm, Rome at 6pm, London at 7pm, Brazil at 9pm Chile at 10pm, East Coast at Midnight, Chicago at 1am.
On the East Coast, I would start the observance by having prayer around 8am on New Year's eve. for Australia etc. signing up people for the various hours. Might be an interesting project for kids to participate in telling everyone about the various areas of the world and their peoples and problems. Maybe they could help prepare a prayer guild. Various people might have experience, or relatives in various places that that could contribute their experience.
The high point of the first year observance would be the 5pm Mass where we would welcome the New Year to Jerusalem at the beginning of Mass, and Rome at the End of the Mass.
4pm and 6pm Christmas Eve Masses have become very popular, and this idea might just make the 5pm New Year's Eve Mass so popular that there might be demand for a 4pm Mass beginning with welcoming the New Year to Iraq and ending with Jerusalem (with a Mideast peace theme), and the 6pm welcoming the New Year to Europe (Rome at 6pm and London at 7pm). If this became really popular we could add a Mass at 9pm for Latin America, and Midnight for the USA.
I suspect the idea would work well for the Midwest just moving every thing up a hour.
West coast would be more difficult. since Jerusalem comes in at 2pm and Rome at 3pm West Coast time. Would require some bishops permission, maybe even approval from Rome if it is to count for the obligation.
Nice thing about this is that after all this prayer, we can party at midnight, and watch parades and football all day on January 1st.
Happy New Year, Jack. Interesting idea. Perhaps I like it because I messaged Happy New Year to my son and his family in Sydney yesterday morning. ;) I didn't stay up to message the California sons though at 3:am today.
ReplyDeletePeace - yes. The word "obligation" - No.
That really is a world. day. of prayer. I looooove it, with or without the 5 p.m. Mass. I didn't realize there was a gap of only two hours between London and the start of Latin America. (Fun fact: Miami FL is West of ALL the capitals of South American. [Well, it amused me when I learned it.])
ReplyDeleteI think the idea would catch on quickly. I saw a recent immigrant from Poland praying fervently after our only Mass today, and I will bet her homeland was on her mind. Praying at midnight back home with others proud of their European heritage could lead to all sorts of good things for everybody. Jack, I don't know how you'd do it, but get on it right away. This is a great idea.