THE CHURCH’S DILEMMA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 10

THE CHURCH’S DILEMMA.

A startling picture was drawn by the Rev. Lionel Fletcher in a presidential address delivered to the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of New Zealand. The übiquitous motorist was held up to view, fleeing from church and church-going to the beaches and the hills, but pursued by the fervent peripatetic evangelist, resolutely armed with a. loud speaker. If Mr Fletcher is to be believed, the time is at hand when no part of the Dominion—not even the most remote holiday resort — will be free from the voice of the preacher; the church may be empty, but the influence of religion will be felt everywhere. Thus the principle of compensation is seen at work; owing to the well nigh universal use of the motor car for the week-end excursions, church attendance, even in so staid a city as Dunedin, is on the decline; to remedy •which, radio and the loud speaker is coming to the rescue. Not only so, but Mr Fletcher sees in the altering conditions a gradual decay of. denominationalism, a disease which in his opinion is responsible for “ disgraceful overlapping and waste of money and energy.” With the advent of radio eveiy creed will have an equal chance; all shades of belief will have the right to be heard. Anglicans and Unitarians, Methodists and Thcosophists, Baptists and Spiritualists, Presbyterians and Catholics, will contend for a hearing in friendly rivalry and the listener-in will have opportunity to detect the essential truth to which each denomination may contribute a part. The speculation is striking enough to induce meditation. A parallel to the existing situation may be traced back some seventy years, when organised religion was at a low ebb. Despairing of reaching the mass of the people by the ordinary methods, William and Catherine Booth gave a fresh start to evangelistic effort by standing on the Mile End Waste in East London, where, by dint of “ loud speaking,” they laid the foundations of what is to-day the Salvation Army. Denounced by Huxley as so much “ corybantic Christianity " the new movement spread surprisingly, thanks largely to what Mrs Catherine Booth described as “ adaptation of measures.” The old measures were not efficacious, new measures were demanded, and they justified themselves by their results. According to Mr Fletcher the time has arrived when adaptation of measures is once again needed in the interests alike of the Church and the people. The aid of the loud speaker and of the kinema must be invoked if religion is to be maintained as an abiding influence. It needs only a meed of imagination to foresee the day when the pulpit will bo replaced by the screen and when the facts and truths of the Scriptures will be visibly submitted to the understanding of the congregation. Deposed from their accustomed office, the energies of the ministers will be employed in preaching studio sermons which will be sounded forth in all parts of the land. Such a programme may be deemed to border on the fantastic or the extravagant but it is the direction towards which Air Fletcher’s utterances distinctly point. There is one fatal flaw in the picture, however, —the operation of the loud speaker makes no provision for the collection. The Salvation Army would never have reached its position of power and influence had it not sedulously practised the habit of passing round the hat on any and every occasion. And if Mr Fletcher’s vision is to be fulfilled some arrangement must bo made for taking up the collection. Much is heard to-day of television, and a lover has been able to secure a view of his sweetheart by wireless; whilst the transmission ot signatures to contracts has been similarly secured. Surely, therefore, the wonders of radio may be made to comprehend some method of taking up the collection while the loud speaker is doing its work. We commend the suggestion to Mr Fletcher as an essential to the success .of his scheme for the extirpation by radio of the vims of religious denominationalism.