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January 27th, 2006

10 church trends for 2006

1. Liturgy
Non-liturgical churches will realise that they say the same things in their services each week anyway, so they might as well write it all down and be done with it. Excerpt:

Celebrant (Lively and smiling) : Hallelujah!!! Do I hear an amen??
Congregation (weakly - shuffling papers) : A… m… e… n…

2. Pew discomfort
These will become harder and more uncomfortable owing to the fact that the pieces of carpet laid upon them some time in the 1960s are beginning to wear dangerously thin.

3. Dreary new songs
These will become drearier, newer and less songlike. You’ll be asked to repeat the song until you know it. Really know it.

4. Coffee rota invitations
You’ll be asked to be on the coffee rota more regularly. Reasons for this shift include the fact that most of the good excuses for not being on it were used up in 2005.

5. Friday church office photocopying
Vicars will want more orders of services, youthworkers will want more pre-printed colouring pages and the music group will want more more-or-less legal copies of songs produced on a Friday in time for Sunday. If you want to loiter looking like you have nothing better to do the church office on a Friday won’t be the place to do it.

6. Sausage rolls
These will be on the rise at ‘bring and share’ lunches owing to the increased availability of pre-bought pastry items in our supermarkets. Incidents of quiche will remain largely static owing to various complex societal factors.

7. Church hall complaints
People who live near church halls will get grumpier about the noise. Take Ian’s Party Pooper Warning Light story as an example (Will open in new window as we’re only up to No 7 and I couldn’t bear it if you left the page).

8. Knitware
Rising costs of ministry will mean that the thermostats will be turned down by an average 2 degrees. ‘Don’t be foolhardy - wear a cardy’ will take off as a slogan in certain circles.

9. Lovely websites
Churches will discover that having a lovely website is a good idea. There will be a dramatic rise in up to date service information available online, up from 0.2% of churches to 0.4% of churches.

10. Back seats
You’ll need to arrive 12 minutes before the service to guarantee a back seat. The typical equivalent arrival time in 2005 was 9 minutes 30 seconds.

(Partially inspired by Pews in the News - Newsweek, found via Andrew Careaga.)



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 1:27 pm.

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6 Responses to “10 church trends for 2006”


  1. Ian says:

    It’s funny because (I fear) it’s true!
    ;-)

  2. Chris Clark says:

    Brilliant …I particularly liked the reference to having to learn banal new songs…
    Have a look at Nick Page’s “Now lets move into a time of nonsense” if you haven’t seen it yet.

  3. drmoose says:

    Ouch! Like most effective humour it works because it’s so close to the truth!

  4. winston q niles says:

    Enjoyed your writing. Nicely thought out

  5. Karin says:

    I took myself off the coffee rota in December. :D I could let you know how for a fee. ;0)

    I don’t like sausage rolls and while not keen on cold quiche would find it preferable. Cold veggie pizza would be better.

    If attending the parish church woollen undies under the cardi is advisable until they are able to put the boiler back - probably some time in the Spring.

    I’m told our church has a new improved website, but still no sign of it.

    Of course we’re not Anglican, so it may be a while before we adopt an official liturgy. I like it sometimes, but it can get repetitive and lead to unthinking mumblings. Maybe changing the liturgy fairly often, even if you go back to each version eventually, is the answer. ???

  6. Kristen (Thoughts from the Bus Stop) says:

    I invariably end up taking sausage rolls to ‘Bring and Share’ (and mini scotch eggs) as I get them from the Tesco Express a few doors down from church.

    The guy who runs fellowship lunches has banned quiche completely and instigated a £100 fine (for the building fund) for violation of this ban.