I'm not convinced of Pip's rote performances as anything more than a perpetuation of the modern phenomenon of Folk Revival, any more than I am of the Nicean Creed's ability to transport someone who was thinking about what they were going to have for their tea.

One answer is that it is a perpetuation of the modern phenomenon of Folk Revival - which is itself a folk art, like graffiti or line dancing.

More fundamentally, I'm suspicious of the opposition between routine and transcendence. Sticking to religion for the moment, I think leaving the house at the same time every Sunday morning, sitting in the same place for the same length of time and saying the same words - together with a lot of other people who are also doing it every week - is a religious experience, and quite a powerful one. The world collectively stops what it's doing for an hour or so, to come together and express a sense that there's something missing frm the rest of the week - a place for joy, grief, yearning for the world to be transformed. In practice, obviously, it's boring and meaningless for a lot of the time, but the constant ritual return and repetition builds up the charge of the sacred over time - a charge that resides in the location and in the congregation, as well as the ceremony. So when you get married you know that church is the place to do it - and when you've got problems you know that you can rely on 'church people'. Obviously that doesn't work all the time for everyone, but I think it does work for a lot of people a lot of the time.

I'm not suggesting you should go to church - I don't. But I think ritual is an important element of our lives, & that routine and ritual aren't all that different.