Thanks for the replies. I wasn't sure how my post would be taken.
The point I'd really like to bring out is that traditional Christian worship is, by modern standards, very undemonstrative and reflective. You basically read out loud from a book, and the things you read don't change much from week to week, allowing one to get into a contemplative rhythm. From what I know of Muslim worship, it's far more akin to it than, say, contemporary Christian worship in a Pentecostal church.
I hope that what I say next will not offend people, but the new Christianity that I observe replacing traditional Christianity doesn't value this contemplative, comparatively intellectual approach to religion - in fact it is quite often quite hostile, demanding uncritical acceptance of all manner of banalities, one example being denial of evolution - the average churchgoer 20 years ago would have laughed at someone who did that. Now, just about any growing church expects it. I don't think this form of Christianity is sustainable.
purdiepipesup
Excellent post, Toad. Is the vicar of your church one of the traditional, theologically-versed ones you mention in your post?
Yes - I did some theology and Biblical studies at an RG university, so I can tell when someone doesn't know what they're talking about. An awful lot of preachers in churches these days don't. My vicar does, and he's a great bloke (an ex-banker, as it happens).
His wife busts a gut organising the kids' and youth programme in the face of constant passive aggression from a phalanx of old ladies who object to children being present in the church.
The previous vicar was a very learned and decorative man who gave the impression that I was most welcome to attend his church, and my children (4 and 1 at the time) were equally welcome to stay at home. He's been gone for some years but numbers continue to decline, mostly through death.
I think everyone at my church knows we're on borrowed time, but no one has the first idea what to do about this, so everyone keeps on buggering on without really thinking about it. And I see the same problem elsewhere at every turn. For example, my DM says that her church gets the same numbers as it did 30 years ago. Problem is, it's the same people just 30 years older, there's no longer a Sunday school or enough collective energy to organise parish events or even anything more than the most basic administration. The church hall was burnt down by arsonists some years ago, and there's still no replacement even planned. She probably knows the parish is on its uppers, but she can't bear to think about it.
I take my own kids to church, but to be honest I just don't see them fitting in to churches like mine once they get above a certain age, and I simply don't see what alternative there is for them within Christianity. Of all the traditional churches, only the Catholics have young people in any numbers, and crisis is approaching for them too.
The desire to contemplate the meaning of life and 'be serious' certainly hasn't gone away, just as Philip Larkin says. So where does one turn?
Well, Islam......?