Two months after the shock of terrorist attacks jammed churches and synagogues with thousands of newcomers contemplating issues of death, hope, justice and community, much of the tide has ebbed.
A return to a pre-Sept. 11 state in places of worship is by no means complete. Conversations with more than a dozen New Orleans-area clergy members of many faiths indicate many still see some residual gains in the number of worshippers in their pews.
Still, the newcomers have largely disappeared into their old routines.
"That first Sunday was awesome. We got calls all during the week, and it was a wonderful opportunity to talk to people about the big questions in their lives," said the Rev. Fred Luter of the 6,000-member Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.
"But now we're pretty much back to business as usual. The further we get from it, the more we're getting back to normal, especially if the Saints keep winning."
The cooling is particularly disappointing to Protestants who understood the attacks to be a divine warning that called for an outpouring of personal and public submission to divine sovereignty.
"I told my congregation last Sunday (that) we're seeing a lot of religious ceremony but not a lot of repentance," said the Rev. Michael Claunch of First Baptist Church in Slidell.
"We're almost back to where we were before September 11, and that in and of itself is something to be concerned about," said Herbert Andrew, an assistant to Bishop Darryl Brister at the 20,000-member Beacon Light Full Gospel Missionary Baptist Church.
"What is God saying to us in the midst of all this?" Andrew said. And more important, from his point of view, "Are the people understanding and receiving the message God has been sending us?"
The fall-off apparently is not so pronounced among Muslim worshippers, whose services were affected little by Sept. 11, perhaps even slightly depressed in attendance as some wary Muslims elected not to be so visible, said Rafiq Numan, imam of Masjidur-Raheem.
Instead, in the rhythm of Islam, it's the pull of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting that begins Saturday, that brings larger crowds to daily prayer, he said.
Yet if early crowds have dissipated from local churches, some fraction remains, a significant number of clergy said.
Catholic and Episcopal clergy reported higher attendance that appears to have stabilized.
"I find that church attendance continues to be way up," said the Rev. Hill Riddle of Trinity Episcopal Church, not only at Sunday services, he said, but at other meetings for prayer. He cited a regular weekly healing service and an occasional Taize service, in which congregants alternately sing and meditate in silence in the darkened Trinity chapel, as examples.
Catholic clergy who celebrate daily lunchtime Masses downtown at St. Patrick's and Immaculate Conception churches report slightly higher attendance, indicating some workers are integrating more frequent attendance into their schedules.
And several Catholic priests reported a similar phenomenon in the much-neglected sacrament of reconciliation, or penance. Several described an early surge after Sept. 11, followed by a falloff to levels that are still a little higher than before the attacks.
That, too, may be sign of a deepening or rediscovery of faith among regulars that many clergy said they have witnessed.
"I think I'm seeing real changes in people's prayer lives," said the Rev. Munn Hinds of Woodland Presbyterian Church in Algiers. "Just talking with people, I find they're talking about their prayer lives. We're finding that this is not a time to be afraid, that God is with us as we look for his guidance and protection."
Rabbi Robert Loewy described a similar experience under way at his Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie.
"In terms of growth? We're not seeing anything significant," he said this week. But a deep reordering of values and a continuing psychological shift occurred in his congregation immediately after Sept. 11, he said.
"Those events are on everybody's mind, all the time. It affects everything we do now," he said.
In services on Sabbath eve and again on the Sabbath, his Reform congregation rises to its feet each week to recite the kaddish, a memorial prayer for the dead.
"You can't say that prayer the same way anymore," he said. "We don't."