Anglican archbishop says worship is now banal

LONDON — Archbishop of York David Hope has sharply criticized what he says is the Church of England’s loss of a sense of mystery in liturgy and its replacement with the banal.

Hope made his comments in a May 23 sermon at Pusey House at Oxford, the Church of England’s leading Anglo-Catholic theological college. Hope led the school from 1974 to 1982.

Exploring what he said was the paradox of a superficial society that increasingly seemed to be yearning for the things of the spirit but which the churches were failing to satisfy, Hope called on the denomination to be faithful in worship — worship that certainly needed to be accessible yet at the same time awesome.