CINEMA IN CHURCHES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 7

CINEMA IN CHURCHES

SPREAD IN AUSTRALIA.

(FROM ODE OWN CORRESPOM>IST.)

SYDNEY, 17th January.

Following the example of a Melbourne church, a Sydney church Eas now introduced the screening of films, and, despite opposition in some quarters, it is likely, that the custom will gain a considerable vogue.. There was no doubt of the success of the innovation in Sydney, for the congregation "was trebled for. the screening of interesting island pictures under the auspices oi the Australian Board cli Anglican missions. The representatives of the board explained to the congregation that motion pictures would be made a powerful agency in increasing the attendance at church and Sunday school, and would indelibly impress their message in the hearts and minds of adults and children. There was no suggestion that it should supplant any part of the church service, but it could be of invaluable assistance in promoting church activities. Opposition to the idea has come from the Presbyterian Moderator. He said he believed that the picture show had a function, but that function had no place in the Church. Pictures would have a great moral effect, if they were properly controlled; but the Church had never been intended as a place of amusement, nor was the Church's purpose that of attracting a large congregation, and the danger lay there. Pa the subject of church reform, the Rev. F. Pulsford, a prominent Congregational minister, has just declared that " the modern form of church service, ■with • its stereotyped arrangement of a regular sequence of hymns, Bible readings, mid an undeviating order in pulpit prayers, has long been obsolete, and is fast becoming an anachronism." He advocates the abolition of the sermon, and suggeas a church based upon the modern' tutorial plan. Members of the congregation had the right to ventilate their opinions, which ?<vas impossible with the practice of •'•' a one-man service. "-