When Very Rev. Stephen Hance goes to the theatre, he first looks up the runtime of the play, just to know what he’s in for.
“If it’s a three-hour extravaganza, I know I need to psych myself up for this one,” said Dean Hance, who is senior priest at the Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto.
Dean Hance applies the same thinking to Merry Moments, a series of express services that St. James is hosting this Christmas, with clear expectations set out around duration. There are carols, short readings and prayers – but everything wraps up in 30 minutes.
That’s by design. Dean Hance conjured Merry Moments with busy people in mind, people facing all kinds of modern time pressures, their focus wafting like frankincense down a church aisle.
Running six times through December, the services offer a traditional holiday experience to those who probably won’t commit themselves to 70 minutes of worship on Christmas Eve.
“There’s going to be a song, a prayer, a very short reading from the Bible and a little reflection to pull the threads of it together. But it’s going to keep moving, like when you watch a late-night chat show. There’s some kind of variety in it. There’s some pace in it,” Dean Hance said.
“Our attention span has contracted,” he observed. “I’m kind of sad that’s the case, but it is the case. That’s the world that we live in, so that’s the culture we’ve got to engage with.”
For many in this distracted modern age, an hour-long mass might feel interminable. Forty-two per cent of Canadians said they never attend religious services, with 28 per cent going “only rarely,” according to a March, 2025, survey from the Angus Reid Institute and Christian policy think tank Cardus.
At the same time, there are more options to worship asynchronously without the presence of others, since virtual masses grew in popularity during the pandemic. Some religious leaders have been contemplating whether shorter services might draw people back through their doors. Last year, Pope Francis beseeched Catholic priests to tighten up their homilies to eight minutes, maximum, “because after that time, attention is lost and people fall asleep – and they are right.”
At St. James’s inaugural Merry Moments earlier this month, Dean Hance glanced at an ornate clock hanging beneath a 5,100-pipe organ, making sure the festivities didn’t run into overtime (they didn’t).
“We’re very specific about this, and we really stick to it. I absolutely drilled it into all my colleagues,” said the Dean, who thinks that keeping to a clear timeframe helps visitors plan their day.
“There are a lot of wonderful things about Christmas,” he continued. “But for a lot of people, it becomes about consumption of things they can’t quite afford. We have something else to offer, which is about community, transcendence and an opportunity to connect with something bigger than ourselves.”
Delivering the (brief) homily, sub-dean and vicar Rev. Canon Stephen Fields invited visitors to slow down, be still and breathe. “We are anxious, overburdened – many, very tired,” he said. “And yet, the invitation of Christmas still stands.”
While the Merry Moment ran like a Swiss watch, the mood in the Anglican cathedral felt breezy. People were invited to sit, stand or kneel, whatever felt comfortable. A trio of parishioners wearing festive red sweaters and scarves sang along to familiar carols with a small troupe of robed chorists.
“It has a relaxed vibe. Nobody’s going to mind if your child cries or runs down the aisle,” Dean Hance said. “It’s St. James Cathedral putting out a big smiley welcome mat.”
The institution opened its doors in 1853. Today, its Gothic Revival spires tower over King and Church streets in bustling downtown Toronto.
“People are on their way back from the holiday market at the Distillery, or down at the St. Lawrence, or on their lunch break from work in the financial district,” said Sarah Mole, an alto chorist singing at several of the short services this Christmas.
When Merry Moments launched last year, some 300 people attended, many of them new to the church. Taking into consideration people’s busy schedules, staff made sessions available during school pick-up hours, after work and on lunch breaks. Ms. Mole, a manager in communications and public relations, remembered office workers marvelling about hearing music “in a beautiful church” on their lunch hour.
“A lot of people are overworked and don’t have the capacity to actively participate in things. Sometimes a bigger Sunday morning mass can seem daunting if you don’t know all the words or how things work,” she said.
“This is a moment of stillness. You don’t have to know what’s going to happen. You can just go and enjoy.”
When St. James introduced the fast-paced services, Matt Jaeger, a member of the church, thought them appropriate for today’s world. He likes that they’re sprinkled throughout December, before the 24th and 25th.
“It says: This is actually a season,” said Mr. Jaeger, a human resources consultant.
“Society is moving faster and faster. Religious institutions are slower to move,” he said. “If we’re going to meet our neighbourhood, we can’t just do Sunday mornings. We need to be a little more available.”
For those who’ve managed to retain an iron-clad attention span, St. James still offers longer, more traditional Christmas services.
“There are some other church services we do that are the exact opposite of this – literally 20 minutes of psalms being chanted. Talk about your attention span being tested in a very different way,” Mr. Jaeger said.
“Do I personally wish we all had as much time as we needed to do things that we might find meaningful, like church or connecting to nature? Of course. I also realize that life is busy.”
Merry Moments will take place on Dec. 18 and 20, see stjamescathedral.ca for timings.
Richard Harrop, 79, entertains the child of another parishioner during a Merry Moments service.
