CINEMA IN CHURCHES

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 29

CINEMA IN CHURCHES

SPREAD IN AUSTRALIA. (From Otjb Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 17. Following the example of a Melbourne church, a Sydney church has 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 of the Australian Board of Anglican Missions. Ihe representative 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 9 place of amusement, nor was the Church’s purpose that of attracting a large congregation, and the danger lay there. On 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, and an undeviating order in pulpit pravers has long been obsolete, and is fast becoming an anachronism.” He advocates the abolition of the sermon, and suggests a Church based upon the modern tutorial plan. Members of the congregation had the right to ventilate their opinions, which was impossible With the practice of “a one-man service.