`SUNDAY BREAK' SIR.—I think that Mr. Peter Forster has made
a point about religious broadcasting which should be heeded by the Church.
It wins to me that there is a terrible danger that we shall be so fascinated by the allurements of the glittering goddess of television that we come to believe that here is indeed a short cut to success in doing God's work. But we have already had a whole genera- tion of religious broadcasting, and who can say that this has had any positive effect in bringing individuals to accept the Christian faith?
There is, in fact, no possible substitute in evangelism for person-to-person contact, and no substitute for the personal fellowship of the local church community which is stimulated and nourished not by eternal dis- cussions and bright ideas, but by the Sacraments of God. In spite of the popular cry for the Church to 'use modern methods,' we should do well to think very carefully indeed about the implications of preaching at a television camera. There is a place for the tele- vised religious service in ministering to the sick and aged; but for the rest, the danger of creating an artificial substitute for the living fellowship of the Church far outweighs any hypothetical advantages which might come from staging religious acts or dis- cussions in front of the cameras.-- Yours faithfully,
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