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| Orthodox worship Source: La France Orthodoxe |
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| Latin worship Source: CatholicEnfield |
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| Anglican (CofE) worship Source: Telegraph |
These three photographs illustrate what, in part, has gone wrong with Anglicanism. Mystery and awe have given way to liberal secularism aided by technology.
The Church of England is encouraging clergy to embrace social media as it strives to make the church more relevant to society. In doing so it has lost its sense of otherness.
In church the focus of attention should be on the altar. In this example, which involves a presentation the Church of England's Learning Labs Road Show, a screen becomes the focus, not for spreading the gospel but for 'practical advice on using social media'.
Information is spread at the touch of a button but frequently it is not the Christian message.
Justin Welby has been enthusiastic about his 'pilgrimage' to India but it is all about politics. His performance is serverley put into context in the latest edition of Anglican Unscripted starting @28.50.
Liberal evangelist Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes recently shared the news on her Twitter account that she "Deleted slightly facetious last tweet. Read manifestos. Joined the Greens. Resigned from Labour. Let’s get changing the system not just tinkering with it, it’s the system that’s broken not just the individuals running it - unsurprising that they play the system. People do."
For others it is not so much politics but pride that matters as illustrated by this tweet about a visit to a neighbouring parish and the shared welcoming video.
Anglican clergy regularly tell us how 'very excited', 'thrilled' and 'proud' they are to share their daily experiences on Twitter as here:
"Very excited to be doing a placement at @ChesterCath as part of my curacy! So far I've met lovely people, seen parts of the cathedral that I didn't know existed (and probably won't find again) and had some really interesting chats... And been to two services and held an owl!" - Wow!
Ex-Communard, the Rev Richard Coles, who has a habit of popping up everywhere recently shared this experience on Twitter:
"In a fit of conscience I told my host that I had to pee in his jug because I was trapped in my room this morning (due to his poor maintenance of the door handle). He now wants the jug destroyed rather than just thoroughly washed. I think this is an over reaction." He might have been advised to micturate elsewhere!
This passion for spreading personal experiences is part of the Gif of God initiative reported in the Telegraph in 2016:
"In the age of instant communications, when some people are thought more likely to venture into their parish church in search of Pokémon than pilgrimage, clergy are being advised - gently but firmly - to keep up with the tide.
The Church of England has issued new guidance to clerics and congregations to help them navigate the seemingly bewildering array of new apps and sites to incorporate into church life...
...clerics with time on their hands after visiting the sick, conducting services and writing sermons are encouraged to make their own Gifs – animated images – to spread the Christian message online."
Spreading the Christian message online would be a novelty.
In church the focus of attention should be on the altar. In this example, which involves a presentation the Church of England's Learning Labs Road Show, a screen becomes the focus, not for spreading the gospel but for 'practical advice on using social media'.
Information is spread at the touch of a button but frequently it is not the Christian message.
Justin Welby has been enthusiastic about his 'pilgrimage' to India but it is all about politics. His performance is serverley put into context in the latest edition of Anglican Unscripted starting @28.50.
Liberal evangelist Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes recently shared the news on her Twitter account that she "Deleted slightly facetious last tweet. Read manifestos. Joined the Greens. Resigned from Labour. Let’s get changing the system not just tinkering with it, it’s the system that’s broken not just the individuals running it - unsurprising that they play the system. People do."
For others it is not so much politics but pride that matters as illustrated by this tweet about a visit to a neighbouring parish and the shared welcoming video.
"Very excited to be doing a placement at @ChesterCath as part of my curacy! So far I've met lovely people, seen parts of the cathedral that I didn't know existed (and probably won't find again) and had some really interesting chats... And been to two services and held an owl!" - Wow!
Ex-Communard, the Rev Richard Coles, who has a habit of popping up everywhere recently shared this experience on Twitter:
"In a fit of conscience I told my host that I had to pee in his jug because I was trapped in my room this morning (due to his poor maintenance of the door handle). He now wants the jug destroyed rather than just thoroughly washed. I think this is an over reaction." He might have been advised to micturate elsewhere!
This passion for spreading personal experiences is part of the Gif of God initiative reported in the Telegraph in 2016:
"In the age of instant communications, when some people are thought more likely to venture into their parish church in search of Pokémon than pilgrimage, clergy are being advised - gently but firmly - to keep up with the tide.
The Church of England has issued new guidance to clerics and congregations to help them navigate the seemingly bewildering array of new apps and sites to incorporate into church life...
...clerics with time on their hands after visiting the sick, conducting services and writing sermons are encouraged to make their own Gifs – animated images – to spread the Christian message online."
Spreading the Christian message online would be a novelty.
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| #CofERoadshow Source: Twitter |
AB: your most penetrating article yet: an absence of awe in Anglican worship is what is so often lacking. If your child makes a noise we don't mind. It's far better to have him here than not.
ReplyDeleteWell, I mind. If a preacher has carefully considered the content and wording of his theme, it's outrageous for a toddler to ruin its effect for the whole congregation. Outrageous! He should attend Sunday School if he can't behave. Otherwise the main Sunday address will be brought down to the lowest level with cheap gimmicks introduced.
I sit back and await the protests from all those modern priests who have been brainwashed into believing that whatever youg children do in church, however badly they behave is fine. It is not.
Rob
"Absence of awe" because too much sermonising and too little worship, Rob. Try this for size: https://www.facebook.com/allsaintsnc/photos/a.443959276908/10154806365986909/?type=1&theater
DeleteRob - you mention a child making a noise and disturbing the worship. What about babies squalling and being pacified by breast feeding. Yes that is about to happen in the church where I worship. The vicar has declared on Facebook (without consulting the congregation or PCC) that mothers can breastfeed their babies without leaving their seats. One expectant mother, who usually sits in the front pew, intends to breastfeed her baby during the service if the need arises. Yes, breastfeeding is perfectly natural BUT in the front pew during a service of Holy Communion?
DeleteCymraes yn Lloegr
Excuse the double negative in my last, folks. I mean, of course, that awe is too often lacking.
ReplyDeleteRob
I think your analysis may be just a little partisan, AB, in one vital respect. Liberal secularists are not the only ones responsible for diminishing mystery in worship. Secularising evangelicals are pretty adept at it, too. Walk into any HTB-sponsored church plant (soon coming to a church near you in Cathays, apparently), and you will find all the latest technological gimmicks, superficial engagement with scripture, a naive conviction that there was nothing between St Paul and the Reformation, a complete absence of transcendence, and (what the Benedictine liturgist Aidan Kavanagh called) an 'unashamedly anthropocentric focus.' Single, middle-class young people come seeking friendship, with a Radio 2 ambience, and the chance for a bowl of vegan chilli-non-carne after all the meaningless syncopation they've endured for the previous hour and a half.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that intelligent young people (including lots of students) walk in a different direction on Sundays and head for St Martin's, Roath, where they can encounter the mysterium tremendens et fascinans - both in the quality of the liturgy and the music. If they want to be lured by the cult of personality, they know they can get in on the X-Factor.
I once saw an evangelical sermon where the pastor, wearing flip flops and a polo shirt attempted to articulate the 'anti-climax' of the crucifixion by comparing it to England's performance in the world cup!
DeleteBen
Athanaius: how dare you accuse evangelicals of having a superficial engagement with scripture? I don't know what you mean by "secularising evangelicals", but HTB and their like certainly are not 'scripture-light'. Detailed sermons, regular (i.e. weekly) bible study etc etc - a rigorous examination of what the bible actually says rather than what you think it says, or what the priest tells you it says, or what the press tells you it says. 'Preaching the gospel' is what is lacking from CiW, not the Eucharist, which they seem to do endlessly and pointlessly. Evangelical churches preach the gospel, and many see more young people coming to Christ than do the more traditional churches.
DeleteAnonymous Ben: are you confusing 'evangelical' with 'liberal'?
I come to this blog as a Minister from the Evangelical tradition, although I’m probably more “Open” or even (yes!) “Liberal” these days than some. I take the Bible extremely seriously in my ministry, although I do not opt for a narrow-minded and anti-intellectual approach to it. My aim each week is to explain Scripture from its ancient context and apply it to today’s very different one. This isn’t at all easy, so I have to trust in the Holy Spirit to guide my preparation. I’m sure there are many like me.
DeleteIn our services I seek to balance reverence with informality, old hymns with newer songs, liturgy with extempore prayer, even fun with solemnity. Yes, we do use visual images (and why not?) And we certainly take the Eucharist seriously, although our understanding of it may be different to that of some folk on these posts; however we don’t have it at every service and we wouldn’t consider it to be the be-all and end-all of worship. But I digress.
It's true that there are some Evangelicals who have quite unconsciously imbued a spirit of rational modernism; indeed it could be said that Evangelicalism itself is a child the 18th century Enlightenment. There are also some Charismatics who seem to have gone in exactly the opposite direction, eschewing rationality for mere spiritual experience. There must surely be a balance between these two positions. I also think that there are some Evangelical churches where Scripture doesn’t seem to have the central position as exemplified by Ed, and whose engagement with it is superficial. That’s a shame; but please don’t tar all of us with the same brush.
And may I make one point, forcibly. You constantly criticize many Christian leaders for trying to make the faith “relevant”, for losing touch with its historic roots, for replacing the grandeur and holiness of God for something lighter, even for making Christianity a laughing-stock. Well, there may well be some truth in that at times. But we must remember that our Lord communicated God’s message in the common language of the people using idioms they could easily understand (and got criticized by the religious establishment of the day because he wasn’t doing things “properly”). We are honestly trying to do the same as Jesus but in a vastly different context. And – unlike Jesus of course – we sometimes get things badly wrong!
Does not the paucity of responses to this most essential topic suggest that many of those who respond are superficial and merely fussily high church?
ReplyDeleteRobert
Or is it merely a result (as the recently published GB attendance statistics demonstrate) that the vast majority of anglo catholics have voted with their feet and given up on the stinking swamp that is now the Church in Wales?
DeleteThe harvest of Barry the Golfer's strategy of flooding the Diocese of Llandaff with Mumsies who decided they wanted to be ordained after getting divorced and finding themselves with little else to do, who never went near a proper theological college, and certainly have very little grasp of what historic Christianity might be, is now being liberally reaped. Literally. The standard of liturgy in those parishes where they have been imposed is abysmal. It is difficult to distinguish between the Holy Eucharist and a primary school assembly. Everything is explained in infantile terms (mainly because the Mumsies are not sure themselves what they are doing). You do not come to church in the hope of an encounter with the living God, but a cosy extension of Mumsie's domestic sphere, where bean bags, instant coffee and mind-numbing cliches take priority over word and sacrament, or any sense that worship is about anything other than Mumsie's need to be needed. Uugh.
ReplyDeleteThat's why, when I'm in Caridff most weeks, I see quite a few familiar faces in St David's Cathedral. It is a complete oasis - and you are left in no doubt that God is the undisputed focus of what is happening.
As for the plasma screens, pop groups and the rejects from the Alan Sugar Apprentice programme (all with the obligatory mono-syllabic names) who 'facilitate' a so-called 'time of worship'... if I carried on, this would not make it through the moderation criteria.
Excellent response.
ReplyDeleteRob
Spreading the Christian message online? When just 4% of CiW's total income is spent on outreach and the £10M evangelism fund seems to be for everything else but evangelism a massive shift in priorities needs to occur.
ReplyDeleteThe rot in the CinW is already deep and wide, and it accompanies the ordination of women to the priesthood. I can hear the squeals of protest, but it is so.
ReplyDeleteThe Church has no future in lying alongside the social services which do much more and with greater efficiency. Worse, it is at the expense of the established traditions of the Church, its dignity and separateness, tradition and order. Far from growing the Church as they expect the new clergy are likely to see a decline in their congregations as people ask 'what is the Church for' and 'why should I give it any money'(a very good question indeed)?
LW
PP. The Church should always be Christ in its community, therefore some social work is a mandate of the Gospel. But, this stated, we worship in spirit and in truth therefore, any social enterprise must be mirrored out of mission, in the churches teaching and spiritualality. We have some excellent example in CiW: St Catherine's Pontypridd, the Holywell community in Monmouth Diocese, The Lab, Swansea family centre and others. But, where it fails is, when the social part leaves the spiritual behind, or we copy another denominations project in the same area.
ReplyDeleteThe new Wrexham Burton project is to be commended, but, reading the core plan of its operation strategy raises some questions. There are two extremely similar established projects in Wrexham, The Salvation army, Ark project established 30 years ago, and Elim Church, not that far from Burton, running youth and family work. This raises the question, has the CiW project copied or, will compete with more established work. If so the competition for funding will be a tough battle.
The Holywell Community, a true legacy of Bishop Richard Payne, is a refreshing outreach that is growing, with strong spiritual devotions and much more.
The need to blend spirituality with social outreach is essential to further the Gospel and only mission minded churches seem to be doing Church rather than theorising Church. There are some excellent examples across denominations. But, it fails when one denomination copies another, in place of ecumenical collaboration. The key is to find the gaps that others are not filling. The Holywell Community is doing just that, taking a modern day build on ancient well founded principles of monasticism. This is why the model works.
So, social Work is part, of the Church's mission, but it must not surplant the core purpose of bringing people to faith. This is the conundrum that we face, how we do church in a modern age, our leaders need to heed the warnings of the present age, as Churches close, what is the mission strategy we can all sing from the same hymn sheet?