CHURCHES AND WIRELESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18642, 20 December 1928, Page 8

CHURCHES AND WIRELESS.

To the Editor. Dear Sir,—From what I can hear, the large churches which are represented on the 3YA church broadcasting committee do not show up too well in the arranging of the rota of church services. One would think that a committee of Christian gentlemen would be magnanimous in dealing with the smaller churches. Instead of that we find the more powerful squeezing the weaker ones off the air. If the Broadcasting Company would take a vote it would soon find out which churches were most appreciated by listeners. The voting in Christchurch would be Baptists first, Congregational second. In Auckland it would be Congregational first, Baptist second. Why? Be cause of the brightness of the services. The Anglicans, notwithstanding their supposed ‘‘census” strength, would be last in all the cities. Another big denomination would run them fairly closa. for thc.bopby. prize. This result

would be solely due to the brightness, or lack of brightnses. of the various churches, and it would be just as well to distinguish between churches and denominations. The quality of the broadcasts from the larger denominations is watered down by the poorness of some of the preachers who broadcast. It is, therefore, the best preachers and those w T ho put on the brightest service, who are the most popular with the great bulk of listeners to whom the difference between one denomination and another is the difference between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. There is no more popular preacher on the air in New Zealand than the Rev Lionel Fletcher, of Auckland. And who in Christchurch ever tunes out the Rev J. Roberteon of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church? It is only of late that the larger denominations have wakened up to the value of the broadcasting medium. They now come in and take from the pioneers, the small churches, “even that which they have.” It may be business, but it does not seem like Christianitv —I am, etc., CONFUCIUS.