FILMS IN CATHEDRAL

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 153, 25 March 1938, Page 3

FILMS IN CATHEDRAL

Chichester Experiment

CONGREGATION OF 2000

A new form of worship was introduced to an English cathedral recently. The congregation, which numbered 2000. saw four talking films shown in Chichester Cathedral, which dates from the twelfth century, and was one of the first cathedrals in which a Nativity Play was presented.

The Bishop of Chichester was among the congregation, which numbered also ministers and members of churches of the several demoninations in the diocese. The Dean, the ' r ery Rev. A. St Duncan Jones conducted the service and commended the new form of worship in a short address from the pulpit.

The cathedral was filled, so that the doors were closed half an hour before the service began. Vergers carried torches, and many members of the congregation also brought torches with them. The screen—smaller than those used in cinemas—was attached to the chancel screen, and 60ft. away in the central aisle stood two film projectors of the portable type used in ships of the Royal Navy. The organ music to which the congregation had been listening died down, and the Dean entered the pulpit. “Thrn out the lights, please,” he asked. “This 'is a religious service,” he explained, “for which we are using instruments provided by the cinematograph. Our object is to show that it is possible to use the cinematagraph in that way. We believe that it is possible to produce films suitable for worship in church, and that such films can be of the greatest value in spreading religion. People learn so much more by the eye than by the ear.” Spirit of Devotion. This cinema service, he continued, was but nil extension of the old lantern service, ft was an experiment. They were only at the beginning of such services. Such films as they were to see must be written and produced in a spirit of devotion. The congregation had been listening in darkness except for a light in the pulpit. Now, after a short prayer said, by the Dean, even this light was extinguished and the first him was shown. It opened with a beautiful rendering by a choir of "Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven.” The congregation stood and joined in heartily. Effectively though the hymn was rendered, and the prayers which followed, the feeling

that “canned” song was a not altogether welcome innovation could not be resisted. One was seated next to the projectors, and their ticking obtruded quite often during the film; those further from them may not have noticed the interruption they made, and, of course, if films were to be given regularly in a church, a sound-proof projector box could be installed. The second film, “The Sower,” was a striking version of the old parable in a new medium. The next, “Where Love Is, God Is,” was a beautiful version of a story by Tolstoy, and shows how an old bereaved carpenter (played by Eliot Makeham) finds God in a down-and-out whom he fed, in a woman and her babe whom he cared for, and in 9 an old woman and a small boy whose quarrel he turns to peace and love. A short breakdown occurred during the showing of this film, but the congregation remained perfectly still and quiet in the darkened cathedral. The final film was “Early One Morning”; and the morning is Christmas morning—in Sweden.