Church Experiments With Radio

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 511, 8 April 1949, Page 17

Church Experiments With Radio

HURCH bodies are notoriously cau- = tious organisations, but a _recentlyformed broadcasting committee of -the Presbyterian Church is anxious to make the best use of radio. As they think that the possibilities of this medium are not always fully exploited by the usual relays of church services, they have decided (amongst other things) to make further experiments with Sunday evening studio services. The. first of these will be heard from 2YA at 7.0 p.m, on Sunday, May 1. Studio services had already been attempted with some success by the Rev. G. A. Naylor if Auckland, the Rev. J. M. Bates explained to The Listener last week, but these latest experiments were aimed at achieving excellence of production from a broadcasting point of view; now that ministers were © more familiar with the technique required. The general intention of the services, he said, was to achieve a more intimate atmosphere than was possible with an ordinary broadcast sermon. Broadcast studio services were already, of course, a familiar feature of American life, and in Britain the BBC had also experimented with them in recent years.

Two types of broadcast would be tried in New Zealand this year, he said. In one the instructional part of the service would come first, and be in the form of a radio discussion instead of the usual sermon. The devotional part, coming second, would consist of a period of meditation accompanied by a scripture reading and prayers, followed by suitable music sung by a choir actually in the studio. It was felt that this would be more effective than simply using records. The second type of service would be more or legs identical in form with the ordinary church service, he said, except that it would be made from the studio. Two studio* services will be heard from 2YA during 1949, and it is expected that two will be given from each of the other YA stations, making a total of eight for the year. The service to be heard from 2YA Sunday, May 1, will be in place of the relay of the St. Andrew’s Church service scheduled for that date, and the prayers at the studio service, will be taken by the St. Andrew’s Church minister. The date of the second service bas not yet been arranged. )