The Dominion THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1908. RELIGION AND JOURNALISM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1908. RELIGION AND JOURNALISM.

In his interesting address to the Anglican Synod in Ohristchurch on Tuesday, a summary of which wo printed yesterday, Bishop Julius touehed brieily upon the relation between roligion and journalism in terms that well deserve the attention of the clergy of all denominations. We have often heard complaints of the meagro character of the "religious news" published in the secular press. It is almost a standing grievance of the clergy. So far as The Dominion and one or two other journals. arc concerned, die complaint is hardly justifiable, but the fact remains that tho daily press as a whole does devote a quite disproportionately small amount of space to religious'chroniclcs. If Bishop Julius had merely lodged his complaint, and left the nmttor there, thero would have beon little to But he took guife an^

other line than that, and his observations are so pertinent and instructive that they must be quoted in full: "Why should we blame the press? Tho fault is ours. It would have been worth some trouble to prepare and send out news [relating to the Pan-Anglican Congress] tor which churchmen in every part of the world were thirsting, and which our daily papers would have gladly convoyed to us, but we have never yet learned to uso the press as wo ought. As it is, wo await belated information in religious newspapers which the mass of tho people neither read nor see. I do not love religious newspapers. Like religious seminaries, they provoke reaction. The tilings of Christ and His Church are at their best when they come in contact with a naughty world. Tho press of to-day is the world's pulpit, and with all its faults and inconsistencies the press of New Zealand is generally on the side of righteousness. It is a pulpit open to us as to others, and wo must not neglect it if we would bo heard by the thousands who never enter a church," Only journalists know the difficulty of obtaining "religious news." Here and there one finds a clergyman willing to take a little trouble to furnish news, and able to recognise what items of news are really of public interest. Other clergymen respond quite readily to a newspaper's desire to obtain reports of such sermons as can be printed with profit to its readers and to religion. But, speakings generally, tho Churches make no systematic effort to use the columns of the newspapers for the dissemination of the news and views which are buried in the religious publications the limitations of which Bishop Julius so clearly recognises. A newspaper that knows its business ;s always ready to print religious news, and to keep as nearly abreast of the pulpit as is compatible with the limits set by its function as a recorder of every aspect of life. But with the spreading of the boundaries of publicity—there are now practically no boundaries to the publicity that the press can give to the movement of thought, of life, and of events—the Churches have shrunk rather into the background. There was a time, as the London Times pointed out recently, when the Church was as prominent in men's eyes as tho newspaper is to-day. "The Miracle-play, tho itinerancy of the Friars, the sermons to the citizens at Paul's Cross, the masques enacted before an English Monarch on his or her first entranco to tbe City, were the , leading articles of the medieval world, just as much as the preaching of the Old Testament prophet was an appeal to tho King and his princes on behalf of the people for lack of justice." Churchmen everywhere are recognising that, since society has drifted very much out of reach, it is a waste of time to keep to tho old methods which were sufficient in older days. The Church must follow the world, and it has to its hand a platform—tho secular press—which does bring them in contact with it. To a great many people, we aro quite convinced, the occasional sermons that do contrive to get themselves reported — and more frequently reported now than formerly, ?t must be said—aro as interesting as the average matter that the newspaper can print. Bisnop Julius does not, we should say, ask that the cnorgy that goes to the production of the religious papers should bo wholly diverted towards reaching tho people through secular channels. He seems to ask that tho clergy shall divide this energy between the two causes. It is not for us to suggest the lines upon which the religious newspapers should reconstruct thcmsclvos in order to widen their audience. We can only endorse Bishop Julius's general advice to his vicars. The Churches are sufficiently concerned nowadays with tho actual problems of modern life to justify a secular newspaper in giving a good deal of attention to religious news and views. But the newspapers can do little without the assistance of tho Churches themselves.