Dr Hope: churches should provide 'space and silence' And he warned that the proliferation of committees and talking shops had strangled the vibrant spirit and quiet prayerfulness found among early Christians.

Dr Hope's blunt criticism, delivered in a sermon at Mirfield theological college in Yorkshire, reflects his fears that bureaucracy and internal divisions are undermining the Church's mission.

He said that the "makeover/ Changing Rooms/Pop Idol culture" exposed the superficiality of a society that "increasingly and paradoxically seems to be yearning for the things of the spirit - a yearning that apparently the Churches are failing to satisfy".

Dr Hope said worship had to be accessible, but also had to convey a sense of the awesome.

"The temptation, indeed the reality, I experience in quite a number of churches is simply to ape the passing styles of the times," he told the students.

"Worship as entertainment; worship as distraction quite other than what it truly is or should be, namely the giving of worth to God.

"It is ironic that just at the time when not only so many young people but older people too have been captivated by the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings genre of literature and film, the Church in its worship seems to have abandoned the mysterious in favour of the banal."

The archbishop, a leading traditionalist, also called on the Church to recapture the power of prayer and to offer people space to be silent.

"The most important witness that I believe is needed today more than ever is the witness of 'being' rather than 'doing'," he said.

"That is not in any way to minimise the quite proper role both of conversation, discussion and debate as well as what might be described as the Christian social agenda - the reaching out in service to those most in need around us.

"But the danger is that we are becoming too much a busy Church and a chatty Church at the expense of being an effective Church.

"No wonder that people are wary even of entering within in case they are so suddenly snapped up by some ardent vicar or churchwarden or PCC member and at once enlisted on to some committee, working group or tea-making rota.

"More than ever, people are looking both for space and for silence, the space and silence that our churches could and should provide."

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, broke ranks with his colleagues on Saturday to demand that the Church delay no longer in consecrating women as bishops.

He said a survey in local parishes had found a high degree of confidence in the ministry of women and a feeling that they should be appointed to many more senior posts such as archdeacons and deans.

Bishop Packer said women must now be allowed to break through the "stained glass ceiling" and the General Synod should start drawing up legislation to allow this within months.

There has been growing concern among liberals that the process is being stalled because of fears that it will prove almost as divisive as the introduction of women priests.

A report on the theological implications, chaired by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, has taken three years to complete but is not expected to be published until October.

However, as the report provides only a range of options, many suspect that it will lead to a further period of inaction.

Bishop Paker said the Synod must begin drawing up legislation as soon as it debated this report, either in November or February.

He added, however, that provisions should be made to protect those such as Dr Hope who opposed women bishops.

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