Perhaps this explains, at least partially, the decline in Anglican membership by 267,000 in the last three decades, and the consequent closing of 523 parish churches. Perhaps because it is, well, contemporary. When it comes to communing with God the latest word is not necessarily the best word. Much of the blame, it seems to me, must be borne by the clergy. By encouraging triviality, they drain worship of a sense of the transcendent majesty of God.
Enforced jollity is the distinguishing feature.
The expectant listeners, desperate for a word of strengthening, next get Millie making her way up to the front, fumbling with her glasses, and asking for volunteers for the annual bazaar. I have found it to be an iron law of church-going that a service that begins in trivia is unlikely to end in majesty. Thomas Cranmer's prose was justifiably compared to Shakespeare's. Yet so great is the hunger of ordinary men and women for a word of truth and solace, that some still come, putting up with the soulless hymns and the desiccated liturgy. Next comes the sermon.