C.S. Lewis’ Complaint About an Easter Crowd at Church
Door Jam: April 6, 2026
A 2024 Lifeway Research study found pastors report Easter as the highest attendance Sunday for their church. Those of us who regularly attend church know this to be the case. Everyone shows back up on Easter Sunday.
Apparently, this was also the case almost 100 years ago because C.S. Lewis wrote to his brother about the crowd in 1940. From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949:
On Easter morning, we had the biggest crowd at the 8 o’clock that I’ve ever seen—I was one of four in our pew; trying to rejoice in spirit that there should be so many communicants but very far from comfortable in the flesh—my hip being tightly wedged against the pillar and my bottom resting on the angle at the end of the bench. Also slightly twisted, as one usually is in a crowd.
Lewis and his brother had a usual pew at Holy Trinity Headington Quarry. It was a few feet of bench divided from the main part of the pew by a stone pillar.
Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham, said Lewis liked to sit behind the pillar so the pastor couldn’t see his facial expressions. Lewis thought he was a good man, but often a boring preacher, so he didn’t want to hurt the pastor’s feelings with the looks he gave during the sermon.
But through it all, Lewis was a faithful member and encouraged regular church attendance because of all He believed God would do through it and the people you encounter there.
So if you had mixed feelings about the Easter crowd at your church this Sunday or have suffered through a boring sermon, you are not alone. Just don’t allow that to hinder your worship of God and your communion with other believers.
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
Eve’s and Adam’s son and daughter,
Sinful, weary, twisted, mired,
Pale with terror, thinned with slaughter,
Robbed of all your hearts desired,
Look! Rejoice! One born of woman,
Flesh and blood and bones all human,
One who wept and could be tired,
Risen from the vilest death, has given
All who will the hope of Heaven.
From C.S. Lewis’ “Easter Hymn” that was part of an October 6, 1958 letter to his colleague Francis Turner included in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy.
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