Archbishop of Canterbury: ‘Churches must not be too busy.’

In his sermon at St. Mark’s pro-Cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt, where he is chairing the meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury raised the issue of busyness in congregations today.  Is prayer a substitute for activity, or an activity for which there is no substitute?  From the sermon:

Many years ago I lived in a town where there was a very active church indeed. Outside this church was an enormous noticeboard. It must have been about 6 ft sq. It seemed every moment of the week was taken up by activity. But I’ve no doubt indeed it was a very good church and very careful and loving parish. And yet that noticeboard used to worry me and it still does. It seems to me it speaks of an idea of the church which supposes that the church is about human beings doing things. When you looked at that church you would have thought, what a lot of things they do there. But I’m still wondering if anyone ever asked, does God do things here? It seemed to be just a slight risk that there was hardly any room in the week for God to find his way in among all these activities.

(Ruth Gledhill has transcribed the sermon here).

HT to my brother Rob for this story.