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| The Church of England has been accused of ‘dumbing down’ after drawing up a new service in which worshippers use Post-it notes, clap like football fans and move their fingers like ‘twinkling stars’ - Source: Mail Online |
Informality has become the watchword in the Anglican Church in England and Wales.
From the Free Dictionary: Dumb (adj), informal
a. slow to understand; dim-witted
b. foolish; stupid. See also dumb down
dumb down
to make or become less intellectually demanding or sophisticated.
The Church in Wales has introduced little boxes, snakes and ladders, balloons and all manner of gimmickry as worshippers make for the exit, reducing regular attendance to less that 1% of the population.
The Church of England (CofE) is following suit. Yesterday was Godparents' Sunday. Probably the best Archbishop the CofE never had, the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, sums up the feelings of more traditional Anglicans in his new book 'Faith, Freedom And The Future', when he said: ‘When they come into a church, worshippers should sense the presence of a holy God, not the bonhomie they may experience at bingo.’
In his own inimitable style the Rev Dr Peter Mullen takes Bishop Nazir-Ali to task in No dumbing down in the Cof E. Brilliant!
Reminds me of the Christmas Tree Festival at a local Anglican Church, where adults and children were asked to vote for their favourite from the 10 lined up in the nave. And so the Church declines.
ReplyDeleteParishioner
Don't forget the big screens, projectors, dry ice smoke/fog and bubble making machines so beloved of ++Bazza.
DeleteThen there's the more traditional Donkeys that usually make an appearance in Llandaff on Palm Sunday.
But it seems that arrangement might be in doubt next year.
One of our hairy bridled four legged visitors was overheard quietly telling his chum that he was sick of having to follow on behind the Dean and Chapter picking up their sh*t with a shovel and putting it into a bucket to limit the stink.
I feel the same way about the "Instructed Eucharist" which is trendy in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteAt a church ' near you' (or me) ,you may have a beer festival, fish'n chip supper,horse racing, and all within the consecrated building. So when people attend for a Eucharist ,they cannot ' switch off ',so to speak and thus feel happy to see balloons and bubbles.
ReplyDeleteI used to regard concerts in church as a bit much.
Hold on there! It ain't all that bad. How's about a lecture tour by His Darkness(Commencing at Criccieth ) at £25 a ticket. Proceeds, Provincial Wedding & Funeral fees fund. Hit me again please - I can still hear him.
DeleteIt just might possibly be worse.
DeleteBut let's not go giving bully boy bazza any new ideas.
http://jesusislord.co.uk/reminder-swedens-and-worlds-first-lesbian-bishop-calls-for-church-to-remove-crosses-to-install-muslim-prayer-space/#
The Bishop of Stockholm has proposed a church in her diocese remove all signs of the cross and put down markings showing the direction to Mecca for the benefit of Muslim worshippers.
It may interest you further, that His Darkness, when bishop of Bangor, is on record to have said, (BBC Wales tape 31-1-99):
ReplyDelete"If, for instance, the bishop of Bangor were to robe a bank, then it would only to fair to expect him to resign".
My word, what a shiny little button he is.
What did the then Bishop of Bangor have to say about robbing Parishioners by dipping ones hands into the collection plate?
DeleteApologies 'Simple Simon', it should read, 'to rob a bank', of course. His Darkness was once to have moaned that it is sometimes good to step back and reflect on past mistakes. I thank you for reverently utilizing a mistake of one who 'Come's among you with much fear and trembling'.
DeleteTo answer your question SS, His Darkness did not normally have an explanation, save only the one we've always choked on with hysterical laughter over the years ' I, Barry, by Divine Permission, do hereby and here on......'.