CINEMAS IN CHURCHES

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 3

CINEMAS IN CHURCHES

Probably one of the interesting subjects that .will come before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland next May will be a report on cinemas in the churches. Until a report is presented on the subject it is not possible to forecast what may be the prevailing view upon it in_ Scotland. _ The same question is giving rise to discussion south of the Border, and the Bishop of Winchester, who controls the practices in the churches of his diocese, whilst having no intention of discouraging the. use of the cinema, states that he is most anxious that its use should be so safeguarded that it does not lead to the introduction to the services of inferior films or to_ any of the churches becoming feeble rivals to the ordinary picture theatre. It is certainly undesirable that the churches should become places of free entertainment, and if the cinema is to be of genuine use much will depend on the character of films available to quicken the religious spirit of the worshipper. Unfortunately the number of suitable films is limited, and it will be one of the problems of the churches to devise means of increasing them 1 . —‘ .Weekly Scotsman,’