HELP is just a click away for vicars and preachers who struggle with their sermons thanks to a new website called "last minute sermon.com".
Visitors to the internet site can buy ready-written sermons for £8 a time but Worcester preachers prefer to put the personal touch into theirs.
"Sermons have to come from your reading of the scriptures and your reflection on that," said The Rev Jan Fox, who has been the vicar of St Mark's church, on Bath Road, Cherry Orchard, for two years.
"Your reflections will be formed in the light of current events, things you have done during the week, people you have spoken to."
Mrs Fox said she goes through the readings for the following Sunday at the beginning of the week and sits down to write at the end of the week
"At this point it might be tempting to go to a web site but then you are speaking someone else's words," she said.
Mrs Fox admitted that she had sometimes gone to church with half a sermon, but had always managed to find the words once she was there.
The Rev Ken Boyce, the vicar of St Martin's with St Peter's Church, London Road, said he would not be using any of the sermons on the website.
"I am not saying that I am not last- minute myself sometimes, but I don't think I would use it," he said. "I think, on the whole, the best sermons come from the community in which the preacher lives, works and preaches."
But the minister for Ombersley Road Methodist Church and Bromyard Methodist Church, on Bromyard Road, St John's, the Rev David Meachem, said last minute sermon.com would probably be used by preachers to help them develop ideas.
"I am quite good at thinking up my own sermons," he said. "This wouldn't help for sentence structure or whatever but what you might do is pick up an idea from it."
The web site can be found at www.lastminutesermon.com.
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