FILMS INSTEAD OF SERMON

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 28

FILMS INSTEAD OF SERMON

NEW EXPERIMENT IN OLD CATHEDRAL

A new form of worship was introduced to an English cathedral last month. The congregation, which numbered 2,000, 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 denominations in the diocese. The dean, the Very Rev. A. 8. 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 centra] 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. “Turn out lights, 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 cinematograph in that way. We believe that it is sible 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 an extension of the old lantern service. It 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. Those which were to he shown that night had been prepared by the British Film Society and Gaumont British Instructional Limited. The films would take the place of the sermon in an ordinary service. They showed the application of the Gospel to everyday life. 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 film 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. On© 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 he 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 an old woman and a small hoy whose quarrel he turns to peace and love. A short breakdown occurred during the showing of this film, hut the congregation remained perfectly still and quiet in the darkened cathedral. The final film was ‘ Early One Morning ’; and th'f? morning is Christmas morning—in Sweden.