FOR THOSE WHO STAY AWAY FROM CHURCH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 325, 14 September 1945, Page 14

FOR THOSE WHO STAY AWAY FROM CHURCH

| Religious Broadcasts With A Difference URING the last four years the Rev. G. A. Naylor, of Knox Presbyterian Church, Auckland, has been developing experimental ideas in his periodical religious broadcasts from 1YA. Recently there has been a good deal of interest in religious broadcasting in general, especially in the question of the broadcast from the pulpit-the actual church service-versus the broadcast from the studio. Our Auckland representative interviewed Mr. Naylor to find out something about his ideas.

NE day a young man on final leave rang Mr. Naylor. "Mac speaking," he said. "Are you very busy or is it all right if I come and say goodbye?" "Sure, Mac. Come along up. Come any time. What about to-morrow evening?" There was a pause. "To-morrow evening all right, Mac?" "Yes, fine. But do you mind if Pat» comes too?" "Of course not. Bring her along by all means." "And I-say, there’s a thing I wanted to ask you about. Say I get in the tough stuff. and there isn’t a chaplain around I wondered if there’s any formula or something I could fall back on if I have to help out a chap who’s dying. You see what I mean? Would you have time to discuss it to-morrow night?" Yes, Mr. Naylor said, he’d have time. * Fe * HE first result. of that evening’s conversation was a broadcast made from YYA by Mr. Naylor and two friends a few Sunday evenings later. Mac had gone away, but another young man read his part and Pat was there to read hers, The broadcast argument developed very much as it had in the Manse study, except that Mr. Naylor had had to prune it of various vigorous offshoots to keep it within the time limits. "There we had an actual case," said Mr. Naylor when he told The Listener about this broadcast, "of an ordinary human being in difficulty and wanting to talk the thing out. Three of us sat down and became engrossed in a human problem, What could be better material for a broadcast? Look at the opportunity! You can take your. discussionwith both sides of the argument stated, the doubts expressed, all the ‘buts’ ar-|Tayed-right into the home of every willing listener." The Listener: And you think there are more willing listeners for this kind of discussion or argument than for the ordinary sermon? ' Mr. Naylor: Of course there are! Haven’t you ever been listening to a sermon and suddenly wanted to get up and refute an argument, say "Yes, but,’ and so on? Round the study fire Mac and Pat could and did. The broadcast of that discussion was something real, it was an experience from everyday life that actually happened, and a listener did not have to be a church-goer to be interested in it. One of the biggest troubles with religious broadcasting is

that those in charge simply will not distinguish between the two kinds of audiences to be considered, the normal church-goers who want to hear an ordinary church service and the non-church-goers who stay away from church because they want to stay away, but listen if their attention happens to be caught. : The Pulpit Plus the Studio The Listener: Does this mean that you favour the studio rather than the pulpit broadcast? Mr. Naylor: No, it*does not mean that. I think we should have both. But I think they should be entirely different to suit the entirely different audiences I’ve been talking about. It has been said-and "it’s been said much too often unfortunately-that a good church service, a well arranged one, can give the radio listener the illusion that he is actually in church. The illusion! That’s just what I don’t want; I don’t want illusion, I want reality. Look here, a man listening to a church service on the radio is no more taking part in the service than if were peering through the keyhole of the church door-not as much im fact. © Thé Listener: But if it’s illusion you object to isn’t the listener suffering from it just the same with the studio broadcast? Mr. Naylor: Certainly not-that is, if the studio broadcast is done properly. I want people to be helped to worship where they are; worship should be real, not based on illusion. Suppose it’s an (continued on next page)

(continued .from. previous page) argument of a discussion such as the one I had with Mac and Pat. Then the listéner is actually getting what he hears -a discussion that took place in real everyday life-the everyday life of a young man on final leave and his girl. Do you want anything more "real" than that? ° Control is Badly Needed The Listener: Well, what do you suggest should be done about it? Mr. Naylor: Um .. . that’s a big question all in one. First I want control and co-operation-all the Churches combining to discuss the whole problem and poo! their ideas. It was done for the BBC broadcasts and done very successfully. Then I want unselfishness and sacrifice if necessary-if it means serving the listeners better by dropping someone in favour of someone else. The Listener: You mean drop someone who hasn’t a good radio personality in favour of someone who has? Mr. Naylor: Yes; or someone’s idea if it is less effective than someone else’s idea-oh, there’d be sacrifices all right

if the thing were, organised and controlled properly. For instance, I’d happily give up one of my four broadcasts annually if I could have three on consecutive Sundays. As it is they are spread over the year so that I haven’t a hope of leading on from one to the next. Mac and Pat and I got on to an an interesting offshoot about the nature and efficacy of prayer-but in the broadcast discussion I had to lop that off, as there wasn’t time for it. By the time I could bring it up again there was’ no longer any sense in connecting it with the first discussion. The Listener: But still it made a good broadcast later on?

Mr. Naylor: Yes it did, because it is a subject that comes home to everyone. That’s the great opportunity of the radio -to present the Word in homely yet atresting terms that will appeal to everyone. Think of the original! Does anyone imagine. that the broadcasting of an ordinary church service can compare with the methods and language of the Saviour as He spoke to the people about themselves and about God in Palestine? There’s our lesson: we need to take our : message out of the clothes of ceremony and present it to the people simply and plainly with examples from the everyday drama of everyday life. And we can do this with the help of the radio. — —