End times?

Anglicans Online has noticed a trend on church notice boards of not only listing when services begin but a new phenomenum of listing the time when services end. They wonder why this is happening:

It is understandable that people should like to know when they'll be able to breakfast after communion or join friends for brunch. Others are keen to use what remains of Sunday to get on with some form of recreation: walking in the park or on the beach, finishing or starting a livre du jour, helping children with an essay due soon, or taking part in one of that most hallowed Sunday custom, the early afternoon post-church-and-paper nap. A clue about when a service will finish, as well as when it will start, can be undeniably helpful.

And yet we prefer to see just the starting times of services on signboards and websites. The time we give to Divine Worship is too important to be circumscribed by calculations after the manner of railway departures and arrivals. In this all-too-human world, a sermon inevitably goes longer or shorter than planned; a hymn takes longer to sing than one thought; a baby wails to the point of delaying a baptism for several minutes.

Read it all here.

Add your thoughts on time and worship.

Posted by Ann Fontaine on August 30, 2007 7:00 AM | |
Comments (4)

IHS.


1 Hour Service.


Right?

At my last church we temporarily moved into a high school cafeteria for our services. The school's initials were IHS and were emblazoned on one wall along with the school's symbol, the yellow jacket. We positioned the portable altar so the IHS and the insect hovered right behind.

Posted by John B. Chilton [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 30, 2007 7:33 AM

Do we tell our kids' coaches that our kids can play only if games never last longer than an hour?

Do we accept invitations for dinner with our friends only if they promise dinner will last only an hour?

I could go on, but you get the point.

Why is it that if we believe worship is an integral part of our lives we are unwilling to commit ourselves to how ever long it might take?

I'm very uncomfortable with the notion that we should publish our "end times" and very much in sympathy with the statement that "the time we give to Divine Worship is too important to be circumscribed by calculations after the manner of railway departures and arrivals."

Posted by Kris Lewis [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 30, 2007 8:02 AM

Oh, please, let's not. I'm not a fan of overly long sermons or services, but let's not set time limits for the service.

The rector at my church already operates under the unwritten rule that he should be able to make his points in the sermon in 10 minutes, or at most 15. If he regularly goes longer, he will get feedback about it.

I'm not necessarily in favor of such brief limits, but they are there and perhaps serve as a good discipline, but let's not have a definite time limit on services.

-June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 30, 2007 2:09 PM

I notice on my way to church that the nearby Lutheran church lists the time Coffee Hour starts on its notice board.

That said, we have 2 morning services and a 1 hour Christian Ed/coffee hour in between starting September 9, so we'll be part of this trend, too. Oh boy! Trendsetters!

Posted by ginny gibbs [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 30, 2007 9:37 PM

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