I went to church this morning, and while it wasn’t the first time I’d gone to church in a while, it was the first time I’d gone to my church. I’m not Catholic, but I’d been going to a Catholic church the last few weeks, and while the reasons were varied, part of the cause was that I was watching Formula 1 in the morning. There was no F1 this morning. I went to my own church. The mainline protestant one. PCUSA, if you’re familiar with Presbyterian denominations.
In most of my experience, mainline protestants have services on Sunday morning. That’s when they do it. Other churches might have some on Sunday afternoons. Catholic churches usually have one Mass each on Saturday and Sunday night. There are more options. But the mainline protestants, at least in my experience (and it may be poorly representative of these churches as a whole, but I’m thinking of about a dozen here and the only one I can think of that was different was catering to college kids), do their thing on Sunday mornings.
Which is when the grands prix are.
Formula 1 races, which I’m a little scared to refer to as races and not grands prix because I’ve gotten the vibe that could bring me some flak, are on Sunday mornings in the United States. For the most part. I know some are in the afternoon. It looks like there’s at least one in the middle of the night. It’s a global circuit, but most of the races are in Europe and a good number are in the Middle East and Central Asia, and that means that here in the Central Time Zone, they’re happening in the morning.
They are only about two hours. But the overlap and the travel time are such that those two hours can sometimes block off every church service, or if viewed through the opposite lens, every church service can block off at least a part of those two hours. Which leaves me, and presumably other mainline protestants who are at least curious about F1, in a quandary. Do we convert to other denominations? Do we move to Europe? Do we lobby our respective churches to hold a specific service whose time is tailored to our needs, which differ week to week? Do we resign ourselves to only catching part of each grand prix? Is this only a Central Time problem?
I am stuck on it. But next weekend I’m at a wedding so we’re in the clear for that one, guys. Not going to my church or watching F1.
What you need to do is move to the West (er . . . Best . . . er . . . LEFT) Coast! Races start very, very early here. You can wake up at 5, cheer on Lando, don your Sunday Best, and make it to the religious service of your choosing, no problem.
F1 is my cathedral.
NASCAR is my synagogue.
just get of your high horse and call the “grand prixes“ like the rest of us