THE VOICE OF THE PREACHER

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21991, 15 January 1937, Page 8

THE VOICE OF THE PREACHER

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PBESS. Sir,—l noticed in your issue of Saturday last a statement made by a noted English actor that there was a lack of decent elocution amongst the clergy in their pulpit ministrations. That there is such a defect among the majority of our preachers is a fact well known to those who are enttiled by experience to express an opinion. Very many of our clerics have not learnt the great essentials of voice production, especially in relation to its carrying capacity; they do not sneak so distinctly that all can hear. There is too evident a tendency to drop the voice towards the close of a sentence, making it practically or altogether inaudible. Very frequently people sit in their pews and miss important threads of an address because of this indistinct utterance. Listeners at public meetings and conferences adjure others to "speak up"; but in churches convention forbids us to ask our clergy to "speak out," and so otherwise good sermons are spoilt because of poor delivery. It is the preachers' bounden duty to let people know what they have to say. The influence of the voice in pulpit work is so great that congregations almost invariably classify preachers under three headings: <1) Those you "can't listen to"; (2) those you "can listen to"; and <3) those you "can't help listening to." Only a very few of our clergy have claims to be placed in the last category. A preacher may present very good matter in a wretchedly bad manner, the voice being indistinct and the delivery hesitating and slow; yet that sermon might earn an apparent compliment in that it was said to be soothing, moving, and impressionable; soothing, because it induced some of the congregation to slumber; moving, because before the finish some stole out quietly; and impressionable, because some of those who remained decided not to go and hear him again. One unfortunate tendency in the speech of the man in the pulpit is a deadly monotony in tone, and even in one set of tones, which grates on the susceptibilities of the hearers and causes the service to be flat and unprofitable. Sentence after sentence comes round with little or no tonal variation, but with a movement that is comparable to the pace of a well-rid-den rocking horse or to a boat anchored in a sleepy bay. Let our preachers cultivate a full, rich voice, capable of much modulation, in combination with a homely, forceful, impressive, even "breezy" style, and there will be less complaint that waning church attendances are due to poor pulpit diction.—Yours, etc., DISTINCT UTTERANCE. January 13, 1937.