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Sunday Morning Inconvenient for Church Services ... Says Church of England
The Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11/24/14 | John Bingham

Posted on 11/24/2014 7:02:50 PM PST by marshmallow

Sunday morning is an inconvenient time for church services because people are busy shopping and doing DIY, the Church of England has admitted.

Worshippers are increasingly turning their backs on the centuries-old practice of attending worship on Sundays because of other leisure and social “commitments”, it said.

The admission came alongside new figures showing that attendances at midweek services in cathedrals have doubled in a decade while numbers in the pews in parishes on Sundays continue to fall.

The Dean of Lichfield, the Very Reverend Adrian Dorber, said many people still crave quiet reflection, but are seeking out less “pressurised” times in the week to worship than Sunday mornings.

He said weekends are now “very committed” for most families in an era when life is “run at the double”.

The rise in cathedral congregations suggests many people are drawn by the formality and relative anonymity of a larger place of worship.

The figures show that the number of adults attending cathedral services rose by a third in the last decade to 30,900 last year.

Attendances at midweek services rose even faster with the number of adults doubling to 15,000.

Yet attendance at Sunday services in parishes has halved since the 1960s to below 800,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant; Worship
KEYWORDS: formerlygreatbritain; noenglandanymore; noenglandnow
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1 posted on 11/24/2014 7:02:50 PM PST by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Let me guess - they’ll change it to Friday at noon.


2 posted on 11/24/2014 7:10:26 PM PST by PGR88
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To: marshmallow

And we wonder why God is letting muzzies take over England.


3 posted on 11/24/2014 7:11:38 PM PST by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: marshmallow

Why don’t they just give up and admit they are nothing more than a social club, and their officers wear funny hats?


4 posted on 11/24/2014 7:19:20 PM PST by Defiant (How does a President reverse the actions of a dictator?)
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To: marshmallow

And God rested on the 7th day.


5 posted on 11/24/2014 7:30:30 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: marshmallow

One of the best things about the Catholic Church to which I converted was that there is such a thing as a “Sunday obligation”. If you’re Christian, we are obliged to worship God corporately on Sunday unless we have a good reason, it’s not just an optional extra. We are lazy creatures, and we need something of a feeling of obligation to do this. While in the past things were maybe overly strict, we have since the 1960s been at the other extreme of not having any rigor at all.


6 posted on 11/24/2014 7:31:57 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
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To: marshmallow

when I visited London I went to my brother’s church. It was non-denomination evangelical with lots of under 30s. Service was at 3pm on Sunday. A powerful bible based message was preached.

If you sound like a secular liberal from the pulpit, don’t believe Jesus is the only way to heaven and don’t condemn sins why should people go to your church since they won’t be challenged to live the Christian life???


7 posted on 11/24/2014 7:32:31 PM PST by RginTN
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To: RginTN

Indeed. I’ve never understood the appeal of liberal religion to anyone. If you’re a Bible-believing Christian you won’t want anything to do with it. And if you’re a liberal, why get up on Sunday morning and invest your time and money in a disbelieving organization when you can sleep in bed and disbelieve for free?


8 posted on 11/24/2014 7:44:39 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: Unam Sanctam
we are obliged to worship God corporately

Utter nonsense. The early church had no "corporation", no buildings, no useless rhetoric.

It was all small groups that worshipped in homes unless they were hiding from the Romans or, later, the Catholics. Then it was just in secret. No "corporations." LOL.

Philem 2: and to the church in thy house

1 Cor 16:19: with the church that is in their house.

The monstrosity that you allude to as Corporate Christianity is nothing but the teachings of men, councils and synods, et al.

And as the "corporation" in the above is simply the epitome of man made religion.

Matt 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

9 posted on 11/24/2014 8:02:19 PM PST by LouAvul (If government is the answer, you're asking the wrong question.)
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To: LouAvul

“Corporately” means as a body. This has nothing to do with a business type of corporation, or a building. It refers to coming together to worship wherever that may be, ie Christianity is not supposed to practised solo.


10 posted on 11/24/2014 8:21:10 PM PST by Diapason
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To: Diapason

So you’re saying a single individual cannot worship God in spirit and in truth? How about two people? Can two people worship God in spirit and in truth? (Hint: cf Matthew 18:20)


11 posted on 11/24/2014 8:35:29 PM PST by LouAvul (If government is the answer, you're asking the wrong question.)
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To: LouAvul; Diapason

What Diapason said. The Church is the body of Christ, and it is more than bricks and mortar. As St. Peter said, living stones make up the Church.


12 posted on 11/24/2014 9:27:08 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
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To: LouAvul

I think the Lord’s Prayer starts out ‘OUR Father’, not “MY Father”.

Just as sometimes Jesus prayed alone and other times, he prayed with his friends, so do we.


13 posted on 11/24/2014 9:53:47 PM PST by married21 ( As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: LouAvul

You can and should worship on your own. BUT, that’s not the only way you should worship. In Hebrews we are told not to leave off worshipping together. Also, look at the Epistles. To whom are they addressed? Churches and church leaders. Why? Because that is where the messages would find their intended audience - meeting together.

If you don’t want to worship corporately, why?


14 posted on 11/24/2014 9:54:28 PM PST by Diapason
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To: Unam Sanctam

Too many priests in the ‘60s had no concept of why they were doing what they were supposed to do. They tried to escape a empty formalism by resorting to theatrical display, forgetting that the people who came to mass did not really want that. The old lassies in the first row counting their beads during mass were often more attentive to the mystery than the worshipper singing hymns in the popular style even with lyrics taken from the psalms. I think it the height of frivolity that we did not turn to the Anglican liturgy of the day for examples of Chant. To be sure many of the hymns that have survived are pretty, but they are not beautiful.


15 posted on 11/24/2014 10:13:11 PM PST by RobbyS (quotes)
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To: marshmallow

Maybe now they will move it to the Sabbath where it belongs


16 posted on 11/25/2014 3:49:50 AM PST by TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed (Yahuah Yahusha)
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To: Salvation
And God rested on the 7th day.

That would be a Saturday...

17 posted on 11/25/2014 6:13:17 AM PST by Iscool
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To: Unam Sanctam
The Church is the body of Christ

You got that wrong too...There is no Church in the Bible...Church is part of the commercial name of your denomination...

The assembly in the bible is referred to as church...Not at all the same thing...The church(es) is the body of Christ...The Church is NOT the body of Christ...

18 posted on 11/25/2014 6:18:11 AM PST by Iscool
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To: marshmallow

Since we just had a new, new moon day ( pope Gregory Monday), according to scripture (ezekiel 46),
His Sabbath will fall on pope Gregory’s moon day for four weeks..

So sun’s day will be the 6th day for four weeks straight.
A work day according to scripture..

Not sure many will have those four moon days holy on their schedules..

Then the unholy day of December 25 pops up around the next new moon.

That will be also be an unholy work day on our Heavenly Father’s calendar but a holy day for most..

Prophetic considering scripture says times and laws would change.. Daniel 7:25

Our priests and ministers and leaders are to teach us the difference of what is holy and what is profane and what is clean and unclean..
They don’t know it themselves..
Israel had the same problem ..


19 posted on 11/25/2014 2:37:53 PM PST by delchiante
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To: Iscool

Thanks for that mash of illogicality. I feel dumber now for having read it.


20 posted on 11/25/2014 7:13:08 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
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