BROADCASTS ON RELIGION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27111, 6 August 1953, Page 12

BROADCASTS ON RELIGION

Anglican Ministers Confer

CHANGE IN APPROACH URGED

(New Zealand Press Association! WELLINGTON, August 5. More and more persons were becoming religiously illiterate, said the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan) at the Anglican conference on religious broadcasting at Lower Hutt today. Dean Sullivan appealed for a more informal approach to broadcasting. This, he said, was necessary if the broadcaster was to awaken the interest of his listeners. “People are no longer familiar with religious terms,” he said. “The Bible is a closed book to many of them, and the careless attitude of two or three generations is reaching dangerous levels of development. Children are growing up in this country to whom religion spells a lost dimension.”

Speakers on the radio must be aware of that so that they might present their material graphically and arrestingly. Simplicity, clarity, humility, and humour were notes which needed to be struck again and again. Dean SulliVan said that they must not imagine that material for broadcasts of talks and similar material should necessarily be imported. The Church was charged with reaching a New Zealand audience, and he assumed that a scheme could be devised whereby people in this country could provide the material. Referring to plays with a religious significance, he suggested that a New Zealand poet or writer be approached and asked to write one.

The Rev. A. C. F. Charles, of Auckland, said that the “Children’s Hour” arranged by the commercial stations was more coherent, better produced, and a more attractive programme for average children than that presented by the churches on YA stations. He considered the YA children’s service at 5 p.m. to be the wrong time, as most children were still outdoors playing.

“Severe” Competition Mr Charles said the devotional service at 10 a.m. might attract women at their morning tea rest, but he feared that the greatest number would be listening to commercial stations’ serials. “That competition is severe, and we must meet it,” he said. The Dean of Nelson (the Very Rev. E. A. Gowing) said it was most important that the Church use men who had gifts for broadcasting. Badly done, broadcasting grievously hindered the cause at which churches were aiming. “We feel that even within the limits of present policy, the standard of religious broadcasting can be improved,” ® a T ld , the Director of Broadcasting (Mr W. Yates). That policy, he added, was defined by a committee set up ih 1937 to represent all denominations. At present the service devoted 27 hours a week—2 per cent, of its total time on the air—to religious broadcasts, in the form of church services, relays, children’s services, and devotional sessions.

“We feel,” said Mr Yates, “that the choice is up to the churches themselves. We would like to make provision on our staff for someone to help and guide those, who wish to improve* the standard of religious broadcasting. It is the churches’ job to supply the religion. We will help you to make it good broadcasting.”