The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

WILLIAM S. HOCKMAN, Editor, 1616 Marlowe Avenue. Lakewood 7. Ohio THE FILM IN WORSHIP An Experiment by NORMAN A. McNAIRN* FiLMs have frequently been used as part of church programs, either educational or recreational. They have even been used on occasion in worship services in place of a sermon. The exceptional thing is to find them made use of as an integral part of church worship services in such a way that worship and sermon and film are knit together in a unified whole. Such an experiment in integration was successfully tried under the guidance of the Visual Aids Committee of Summerville Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y. It is their experience which forms the substance of this article. A good many films, even religious films, could not easily be woven into a church service with good results. Some are more adaptable than others. For example, a drama film tends to be artistically and emotionally complete in itself. Even an educational film is often designed tp say only one thing, and thus to have a somewhat narrow range of usefulness. Beyond Our Own is a dramatic film, produced Inthe Protestant Film Board. It is non-sectarian and greatly inspiring. Being a drama film, it says what it sets out to say exceedingly well, but it leaves no more to l)e said. To follow it with a serm(5n would be an anti-climax, for it is sermon enough in itself. Something less self-contained is desirable for integration into a church service. Another type of film altogether is represented by the J. Arthur Rank production known as the "Two Thousand Years Ago" series. It is the peculiar property of these five films that they are informational without attempting to teach any particular lesson. They do not tell a story. There is no plot, no drama, no climax, scarcely any emotion. What they give is a simple, accurate portrayal of every-day life in Palestine at the time when Jesus lived. The sound track carries only intermittent comments on what is taking place, such as: "The woman now goes out to prepare supper for the family." There is constant allusion throughout to situations referred to in the Bible, but the reference is always implicit, never explicit. It is left entirely to the audience, or a speaker following the showing of the film, to establish the associations between the film and the Bible. In a sense it may be said that the "Two Thousand Years Ago" series do not teach any more than a *Pastor, Summerville Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y. nniseum exhibit teaches. What they do is to provide in convenient and living form the materials for teaching. And the restraint and emotional flatness of the filni> add immeasurably to their versatility. The stage is set visually for a wide range of possible messages, cultural, moral, historical, religious or Biblical. It is the kind of material which demands careful integration with some kind of teaching program if it is to be effective. To indicate how this series of films was integrated into the church services, let us review one of the services. This one was built around the first of the series, whose theme is "The Home." It shows a carpenter^ family in a Palestinian village, their home, and tinactivities in and around the home during one day. The service developed around this theme was divided into three parts of about twenty minutes each : wor.shi]). the film, the sermon. The worship service followed fairly closely the customary pattern, centering about the congregation's approach to God in praise, prayer, and dedication. The Junior Choir sang "Memories of Galilee ;" and the people united in a familiar hymn containing the words : For the joy of human love, Brotlier, sister, parent, child. Friends on earth and friends above; For all gentle thoughts and mild: Lord of all, to Thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. Immediately the lights went down and the film began. .After the presentation of the film, the minister attempted to do three things in the sermon period, as follows : (a) To establish rajiidlv a series of associations between details of the film and passages of the Bible which they illustrated : (b) To associate the home life depicted in the film with the environment in which Jesus lived as a boy ; (c) To point up the spiritual values which make home life rich even when it may seem economicallx' poor, values which are being lost todav even though our homes are so much more attractive. Recalling how from such bare little homes came such cultivated spirits as the poets and prophets of Israel and Jesus himself, and how the little family shown in the film closed each day with Scripture reading and prayer, the service was concluded with prayer for the homes of the people and the singing of a dismissal hymn. From this experiment in the integration of films with church worshi]> some conclusions could be drawn. Though great care must he taken to keep the mechanical details of film presentation inconspicuous, it is definitely possible to incorporate certain films into 500 Educational Screen