Evening star., 1951-11-01


Protestant, Jewish and Catholic
participation. CHS and Dumont
also have such TV shows going.
For the first time last summer,
the Catholic mass began going on
the air. Originating in Boston, it
is a regular Sunday TV feature.
zone priest goes through the
mass while another explains his
actions and prayers" said Mon
Isignor Thomas j. Mccarthy, Of
the National Catholic Welfare
Conference. 1T is of great value.
particularly in helping non-Cath-
olics understand the mass"
Vatican Ceremonies Aired.
American audiences during Holy
Year in 1850 also got their first
TV views of ceremonies at the
Vatican.
On a commercial basis, the
amount spent by religious groups
for network television jumped
from 1,271 in 1949 to $271 ,440
in 1850 to $402,392 for the first
six months of 1851 only. the Pub
fishers Information Bureau re-
ports.
Not included in these figures is
a $750,000 fund set up last month
by the Lutheran church, Missouri,
synod. to produce a series Of half
hour TV shows. This probably is
the biggest TV outlay by single
denomination to date.
DR.. Oswald C. j. Hoffman, head
of the Church Information Bu-
reau, said the shows will employ
dramatic and documentary tech
niques to get across ethical and
spiritual ideas of Christ.
The National Councils Com
mission is working on new pup
pet show" films for TV depicting
stories and parallels of the Bible.
1t already has turned out four of
these, which Mr.. Crothers called
"the most professionally, elegantly
done things you could ask for"
Program Is Enlarged.
In the older field Of radio, the
churches have branched out from
the standard sermons and music
to narratives. object dramas. COM
Imentaries, question and answer
programs. documentaries an d
problem counseling.
Individual congregations have
launched regular broadcasts, with
new slants. For example: The
ideas Unlimited" show Of the
First Presbyterian and st. John S
Episcopal Churches in Mason
City. Iowa.
State and city councils of
churches have started joint
broadcasting projects. Denomina-
tions are recording platters and
feeding them to local stations
across the country.
Catholics in some 40 commu-
mites have inaugurated in the
last three years church-produced
news broadcasts specifically on
Catholic and church-related news.
A similar Protestant undertaking
/ is the Religion at the News
Desk" program of the New Haven
(Conn) Council Of Churches.
| Early this month. the National
Councils Commission voted ap-
proval of four new religious radio
programs and seven TV series.
For the last four years, the
commission has been holding in
stitutes across the country to give
clergymen and laymen the know
how to carry on radio and TV
projects locally. More than 1000
have received such training this
year.
TV Workshops Set Up.
Most seminaries have started
radio workshops for young minis
terial students. Some of them, fol-
lowing the lead Of DR.. George
William Smith. of Mccormick
Theological Seminary, Chicago,
have set up Reproduction work.
shops.
This new interest has come
nearly three decades after DR.. S
Parkes Cadman pioneered the way
in religious radio by becoming the
first network broadcaster from his
church in Brooklyn in the 1920s
In succeeding years, church
broadcasters like the late Harry
Emerson Fosdick, in New York,
and Walter A. Maier, in St. Louis
and Father Charles E. Coughlin
in Michigan, made the radio pull
pit well known. Father Coughlin's S
controversial views drew a rebuke
from his Catholic Superiors. His