24 January 2023

In mid-2022 I was blessed to be able to take four months of extended leave in between parish appointments. One of the things I did during that time was to visit a range of parishes on Sunday mornings. The worship almost always had something to commend it and, to be fair, I did my research first to choose places I thought I might find interesting and enriching rather than just choosing parishes at random or trying new things completely outside my comfort zones. I asked friends for suggestions of commutable parishes within the following criteria:

- The liturgy should have a feeling of energy and cohesion, and not be tedious or a mish-mash. Rather than “meaningful pauses” there should be meaningful content.

- The music does not need to be professional or spectacular, but it should not be dire and/or dirge-like. Nor should a choir or music group dominate such that the liturgy has become subordinate to it.

- There should be a good chance of hearing a halfway decent sermon.

- The liturgy should be one authorized for use rather than the vicar’s favourite experimental liturgy from the Church of Iceland.

- I should be able to answer the Ship of Fools Mystery Worshipper question “Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian?” in the affirmative.

- I must not be the youngest unpaid person in the congregation. (I’m 54…)

Sadly, whilst I visited quite a few parishes and often found the worship enriching and enjoyable, not one parish managed to tick all of my preference boxes. Surprise! The ideal parish does not exist!

For those of us who live in cities and have the luxury of choice (many in rural and regional areas do not) we are often confronted with a perplexing array of options, and in practice many factors other than geography come into play.

What are the elements of worship that might engage you in such a way that you are not merely entertained, but instead drawn into something that is positively life-giving; something that you simply cannot bear to live without?

It would be easy at this point to begin a long excursus about everything that is wrong with worship in the contemporary Anglican church. Instead, here are a few positive things; things that I regard as strengths of the Anglican tradition that we discard at our peril. More on each of them in coming weeks… 

1)    Consistency and Common Prayer

2)    The beauty of holiness

3)    Uplifting music

4)    Ritual that exults God rather than the minister

5)    A welcome that is honest and true