Educational film magazine; (January-December 1920)

but I believe it will be the solution of the so-called church problem. "Our organization (Community Motion Picture Bureau) always has tried to give only the best films, where ethical value stood first; now we are trying to put out films of a purely religious nature. I believe we will be able to put the churches back on a footing they enjoyed twenty years ago, when they were a power in the community. The church is being born anew, and its strength and power will come through what it feared and fought so long—the mo- tion picture. It is a strange case of the lion and the lamb lying down together." All Michigan Methodist Churches to Show Movies That the moving picture machine is now recognized by the Methodist church as an important asset and that it will not be long before every Methodist church in Michigan will use one as a part of its program of entertainment was the statement of Rev. Sidney D. Eva, pastor of the Methodist Church at Farmington, Mich. "We have found the moving picture show is doing something for the people that the church ought to do," he declared. "There is no reason because commercial interests seized the opportunity of giving the people something to amuse them that the church should not do likewise. We have obtained enough reels of films of wholesome plays to last this church for three years. The movies henceforth will be a regular part of the church. We can give you just as good entertainment as can the commercial place of amusement, and when you parents bring your children here you know they will see nothing that might tend to injure them. You cannot be so sure of that when you take them to a regular movie. "The church must make provision to operate all its activity in the interests of young life. The church that fails to do so will lose its place. It is the supreme task of the modern Christian home to make every provision wisdom can conceive and love can devise for the young life of the community. One of the great forces of today is play life. Play has greater evangelistic opportunities than anything we have ever thought of. You are wise in this church and have made provision for your play life. "One of the first rights of the young is to be happy. One of the first tasks of the church is to provide play life that has no possibility of danger. To take the play of youth and link it to religion will make it a holy, perfect, beautiful thing. The Price of "A Good Time" "The church of former years has caused our young people to en- danger their souls to have a good time. Your uncontrolled movies, dance halls, white lights, and poolrooms have been burning out the souls of our young people. Children have been obliged to leave home to have a good time. They are entitled to a good time both at home and in the church. The church can give you a better pro- gram of community play or recreation than can any poolroom or dance hall. The church with the community spirit can provide the kind of play that is character making." Rev. Dr. Joel H. Metcalf, pastor of the Unitarian Church, \^ inchester, Mass., declares that motion pictures have an "inherent power for good" and suggests that the churches form a film exchange for the distribution of films for churches and Sunday schools. "There is nothii.g wrong with the movies themselves," declared Dr. Metcalf. "They may be put to bad uses now and then, but that in no way prohibits their inherent power for good. On a Sunday niglit, for example, your churches are empty and your movie houses are filled. Why could not the church have movies and bring the people to herself? Time for the Church to Wake Up "I do not mean that the church should endeavor to compete with the theaters. I mean that the church should endeavor to bring itself up to the times and make itself attractive. The trouble with the church is that it is, as far as methods are concerned, back somewhere in the Stone Age. The men and women of today are modern children and they want what is modem. It is the church that is to blame. The church should step in and take the new inventions, the new triumphs and make them her own, and the moving picture, one of the century's achievements, should be one of her greatest instruments for good. "One would only wilh difficulty exaggerate the possibilities of the movies in the hands of the church. As a means to wholesome recrea- tion it is incomparable. The church, we know, should not separate itself from life and hold itself as something apart. It should inter twine itself with every branch of life. It should be social. So, if the church should arrange to exhibit good, up-to-date movies on evenings and Sunday afternoons, it would have taken a long step toward the quickening of her own life and the life of the people. Educational and Biblical Subjects "I do not mean, you know, that the church should exhibit problei plays and those thrilling dime novel dramas. Nor do I mean thai the church should cease to have regular church services. "We could start with educational films for children. They coul( be confined to Biblical subjects. Then we could branch out on broader educational field. One could have travelogs, studies foreign peoples and places, studies of the habits of animals and th( wonders of the mountains and the seas, and so on. Children wouli no longer be loath to come to Sunday school. They would be eager. .And it would be not only interesting but profitable. Suggests Church Film Exchanges "It is almost impossible for a solitary minister to put on the propi movies. He is all alone and would be unable to get the films hi wanted. Hence it is why the church, as an organization, sho undertake the project. Moving picture shows should be started i aU the churches. The church should organize, or at least superintend an exchange where pastors can get the films they wanted, whethi they are Biblical and religious or recreational. The exchange shoull have up-to-date pictures, healthy, stimulating pictures. It shoull have a method of quick and broad distribution. Once this is doni the first step will have been taken. This step will accomplish mucl toward the bringing of the world back into the church." A Unique Movie Service A unique movie service was that given recently at tht Universalist Church, Auburn, N. Y. Rev. J. E. Price hat as his topic "The Storm." The minister says that by an- other winter he hopes to have a complete motion picture outfit installed in the "People's Church." "God gave us eyes to see with as well as ears to hear with, and it is part of the church's duty, when everyone is more or less picture-minded, to help present the wholesome without the trash," says Mr. Price. The animated sermon, "The Storm," shows how a sermon may be illustrated and thus drive home certain truths in a much more forceful manner than spoken words. The lights of the church were turned out and little pointed preach- ments began to appear on the screen. One was entitlei "Respect for Mother." "The Storm" After several of these introductory sermonettes a by was sung. This was followed by Scripture reading and prayer, announcements and singing of old and new melodies, and then "The Storm"' proper. The pastor told the story of the picture as it was shown, and here and there pointed out some of the lessons to be learned from it. "The Storm" derives its name from a terrific storm in nature, which was produced in realistic manner, and also from a storm of anger and rivalry between two men who seek the hand of the same girl, but with far different mo- tives. The two fall in love with the girl, the storm which threatened their lives came and went because both of them listened to their cons'-ience and the promptings of true love. The storm came <)t,(i went because a higher power did not permit them to pe-i :-n. How CHMir--:.s .\LL Sects Everywhere Are Using Movies Early .u Jecei :faer Prof. Burton L. Rockwood explained the use of mo'ijr p'-turcs in the old John Street Methodist Episcopal Church, .\l-w Kvri-: Cliy-tl'e mother church of Methodism in America. He took ' I- iex! Ezekiel 1:14, "and the living creatures ran and re- turn?', i.s '' p appearance of a flash of lightning." ^vest S.I k.ui (N. Y.) Baptist Church recently installed a Delco lighting • ■ I and complete motion picture equipment costing $336. The 'J'' h Reformed Church at Kerhonkson, N. Y., has put in Powe'': '.i.cernational \ equipment. This church is in the heart of the ' kill Mountains and the pastor. Rev. Alex Paxson, will use me .1 ■ ,"1 Sundays and open air movie shows during the week for the b<- I'l, ■■! tourists and "summer boarders." I ilowing a talk by Prof. Rockwood at the Maple .\venue Meth- orli-i Protestant Church in Stamford. Conn., in January, the church ;nn'.orities decided to install a Graphoscope, Junior, projection MKichine. ■Humanity's Battle Fronts, in Picture, Song and Story," Prof. Rockwood's well-known lecture, was given recently in Olivet Baptist < ihurch, Hartford, Conn., as a preliminary step toward motion pic- ture equipment being placed in the church. First Presbyterian Church, of Bay City, Mich., is the first in that town to install movie equipment. Religious and wholesome uplift pictures are used. 16