Volume 35 Spring 1999
Preaching in an Audio-Visual Culture
It is frequently argued that television has reduced congregations' capacity to listen; this can be too simplistic but it is true that our audio-visual ly saturated environment cultivates particular habits of listening. That is, it has not undermined but changed how people listen. It has influenced expectations about length, expects a more colloquial and spontaneous style, and has transformed the style in which we expect to be addressed (the rhetoric not of battle but reconciliation). People do not come with their minds a clean slate but have a whole range of images already engaging their attention. Also, the preacher is not the only educated voice in town. The paper argues that this changed context offers new opportunities for preachers. It first develops the analogy of the multi-camera approach, then explores that idea that the sermon is a conversation between congregation and biblical text (from the more conversational style of discourse of the media). Then is discussed the response to an image-saturated culture (paraphrase of Barth – need Bible in one hand, newspaper in the other, and the television on in the background) when the preacher needs to try to experience imaginatively the world of the biblical text. This may lead to more pictorial and multi-sensorial language.
Note on the Seal and Motto of the Society
Origin of seal unknown but first appeared in Euchologion. The motto is from a issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury in favour of a Scottish minister.
Good Friday in Alexandria
This is a description of the (Greek Orthodox) Procession of the Holy Epitaph with some historical facts and commentary.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
Many changes have been seen recently: move away from black vestments, crosses and candles on Table, use of lectionary and observance of church year. Other developments include the use of silence, greater variety in music, and a new subordinate standard in the document Living Faith. The Book of Common Worship 1991 incorporates the double epiclesis in sacramental services, ‘confirmation’ has been replaced with ‘affirmation of baptism’. It is loose leaf, and too large in the view of to the writer, and contains too much from other sources. The new Book of Praise omits its predecessor’s spoken and responsive psalms section. The writer questions some of the additions and wonders if they justified a new book. Living Faith joins the Westminster Confession and a post war statement on church and nation.
An Aberdeen Response to the Centenary Lecture
The proposal of a ‘choral square’ was not found convincing (Zwingli!). The focus in the C of S was not the Table; many are bi-cameral rather than uni-cameral. Why did Prof Reymond not consider Barth’s idea of a single focal point?