Ship of Fools: The Mystery Worshipper

Frogmarched, abandoned, trapped, blessed... highlights of Mystery Worshipping

Mystery Worshipper Sunday gives a snapshot of what Christian worship was like on one day in a wide variety of churches across London. Our Mystery Worshippers were briefed to visit a church where they were unknown, so they could enter as a stranger. And we also asked them to try going to a church very different to their regular – so one Catholic reporter went to an Orthodox church, while an Anglican went to a Baptist church.

The Mystery Worshippers mostly enjoyed the challenge of covertly reviewing churches and traditions that were relatively unknown to them. Their insights are intriguing, thoughtful and wonderfully entertaining.

Here are 10 of the highlights, with links to the reports in question...

Sung with gusto – The Vatican National Anthem
A silence so profound you could hear your hair growing
A yelping dog sits through a sermon 52 minutes long
The 2.5 hour service where the preacher finally keels over
Rumbled at a Puritan assembly and frogmarched to the beak
Horseracing prayers where "As it says in the Bible" wins by a nose
After-service coffee? We were offered champagne!
Backrow bother - four old ladies heckle minister
Congregation member bemoans lack of Mystery Worshipper visit
Homage to "St George, forgotten saint of a nation"

Picture: Mystery Worshippers enjoy Sunday lunch at Belgo Centraal after the exertions of morning worship.