The Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield, said worship has become too complicated and time-consuming, leaving people who are not regular churchgoers feeling confused and excluded.
He said that services have become too long, recommending clergy should aim to keep them to no more than 50 minutes and make sure they are careful not to preach for too long.
So an Anglican senior bishop is now saying it’s too much to expect people to spend even one hour a week worshiping God?
Rt. Rev. Gledhill: sermons are too long, prayers are too long, and singing is too long. Also, please don’t pester the baptized with offering the Body and Blood of Christ.
We’re all waiting expectantly for the Rt. Rev. to castigate football matches for taking too long. That’s why the sport is so unpopular in England–it has to compete with sleeping in and shopping and whatnot. What nonsense.
An immense part of the current difficulty within the Anglican Communion is the simple fact that in its over-educated, over-fed white parts the sermons last but a few minutes and are neither expository nor inspiring.
Please give me a good 45-minute Baptist sermon … followed by the Eucharist.
I’ve always been troubled by sermons that are a series of random quotes by famous people, stitched together by supposedly humorous personal anecdotes. But that seems to be what they teach in mainline denomination seminaries as being a good sermon.
The good bishop says ‘you need a lot of stamina’ to get through those pesky Holy Communion services. With people like this leading the CoE is it any wonder why people are at the banks of the Tiber in speedo’s!!
This reminds me of a cartoon I once saw. Two clergy at neighboring churches are standing in front of their signs, which have removable numbers like gas stations do. One stands in front of a sign that says “55 minutes of divine worship” and is shaking his fist at the other. The other, grinning broadly, stands before a sign that says “Now only 54 minutes of Divine Worship!”