Religion On Television

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31320, 16 March 1967, Page 2

Religion On Television

Religious television was the most wonderful opportunity the Christian church had ever had—it was an opportunity of presenting the Gospel in modern form.

Mr A. Dingwall, a Methodist lay preacher, summed up the feeling of a panel of four speakers on the question— How can religious television be used to meet the problems and needs of old and young? —at the inter-church school for women in Christchurch yesterday. By its very “technical" nature, television could nuke an impact. “It can reach people we can never encounter, and it has been proved effective as a means of helping people to remember significant things,” said Mr Dingwall. The panel were unable to decide whether expense on church buildings was justified. The four speakers, the Rev. Mother Zoe, Mother Superior of the Community of the Sacred Name; Mrs C. C. Hol-

land, of the Canterbury Education Board; the Rev. L. Jones, minister of St. Paul’s Presbyterian; and Mr Dingwall, agreed that expenditure was not justified if the buildings were redundant. Mr Dingwall said the Church would present a bad image if the present buildings were neglected; new buildings were justified if they served a community need. He cited the Methodist Mission in Adelaide, which ran a seven-day-a-week programme, accommodating 900 people who were not church members, but members of the community.

Mother Zoe supported Mr Dingwall. Congregations should be more ready to make their buildings available for community activities, she said. In new areas, where there were four or five churches of different denominations, churches could “combine in their thinking about building.” The chairman of the panel, the Rev. R. M. O’Grady, asked if church buildings were essential. This was opposed by Mr Dingwall but supported by Mr Jones. “I cannot see the life of

the church continuing unless we have a physical structure,” said Mr Dingwall.

“I do not think church buildings are essential. The real worship God asks of us is not sacrifice on the altar, but one of ministering to our fellow men,” said Mr Jones.