Air Worship

The resignation on Jan. 1 of Dr. Charles Stedman Macfarland as general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America incidentally emptied another major job he filled in U. S. Protestantism -- supervision of Protestant broadcasting Co.'s two chains. Last week the Federal Council half filled the radio job by appointing Dr. John William Langdale, 56, chairman of its radio commission. It is to this commission that Protestant ministers who want to talk over N. B. C.'s national radio hook-up must apply. Dr. Langdale is book editor of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He lives in Brooklyn. The commission's paid executive secretary, who actually handles radio appointments, continues to be Frank C. Goodman, at N.B.C.'s Manhattan offices.

The other half of Dr. Macfarland's radio work was chairmanship of the Committee on Religious Activities of N. B. C.'s potent Advisory Council. Judge Morgan Joseph O'Brien of Manhattan is Catholicism's representative in that committee. Julius Rosenwald, now in Europe, is Judaism's representative. Dr. Macfarland was Protestantism's. Last week Dr. Macfarland and Judge O'Brien were seeking a new Protestant member.

Religious Broadcasting. Enterprising evangelists and regularly employed clergymen snapped at radio's religious opportunities quickly after Westinghouse began broadcasting ten years ago. Three years ago first N. B. C., then Columbia systematized radio religion and offered time to Protestants, Catholics and Jews. The three creeds took advantage of their opportunity as detailed below. Apart from such chain broadcasting are individual stations operated by churches, societies and evangelists. They number about two score.

Protestants. Protestants have taken fullest advantage of chain broadcasting. Last summer the Federal Council's (that is, N. B. C.'s) Sunday preachers were Dr. James Stanley Durkee of Brooklyn, Dr. Ralph Washington Sockman and Dr. Charles Leroy Goodell of Manhattan. This winter they have been Dr. Daniel Alfred Poling of Manhattan, Dr. Samuel Parkes Cadman of Brooklyn and Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick of Manhattan. Their selection depended largely on their nearness to the main broadcasting office in Manhattan. Besides them, 286 other Protestants have taken part--occasional Sundays, at morning devotional periods, at "hymn-sing" Thursday evenings, during Lent and at Thanksgiving. They represented all major Protestant denominations and all parts of the U. S. None was paid. Singers and musicians, however, were paid--$67,247.23. In the daily devotional programs they performed 736 hymns taken from 19 different hymnals. They reached from ten stations (Hymn-Sing) to 75 (Sunday Services).

If a Protestant wants to hear Protestant national services on Sunday, he may tune in thus:

8:00 a.m.--Heroes of the Church; Dr. Samuel Trexler, Evangelistic Committee of N. Y.; Columbia, 19 stations.

2:00 p.m.--Cathedral Hour; musical; Columbia, 43 stations.

3:00 p.m.--National Youth Conference; Dr. Daniel Alfred Poling; N. B. C., 33 stations.

4:00 p.m.--Dr. Samuel Parkes Cadman; N.B.C., 43 stations.

5:00 p.m.--National Vespers; Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick; N.B.C.; 28 stations.

5:00 p.m.--Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia; Columbia, 20 stations.

11:00 p.m.--Back Home Hour; Churchill Tabernacle, Buffalo; Columbia, 29 stations.

Catholics, if they want Catholic programs, have on Sundays:

6:00 p.m.--Catholic Hour; National Council of Catholic Men; N. B. C., 45 stations.

7:00 p.m.--Golden Hour of the Little Flower; Shrine of the Little Flower (St. Therese), of Detroit; Columbia, 17 stations.

Catholics have been dilatory in accepting national hookups. Although N. B. C. offered its free services in 1928, not until last March did a Catholic organization accept.

Jews got on the chained air very early. Rabbis and laymen gave talks which were not, strictly speaking, sermons. They used 15 N. B. C. stations. But their interest was irregular. Jews lack a strong cooperating, representative organization in the U. S. That lack is the presumptive explanation of Jewry's abandonment since last September of broadcasting over N. B. C. However, The Day (Yiddish daily) now sponsors a Jewish Art Program Sundays (12:00-12:30 p.m.) over 29 Columbia stations.

A Mission. The World Wide Christian Couriers, an evangelical group (Paul Rader of Chicago's Gospel Tabernacle, president), seem to have stolen a march on other foreign missionaries. Through Clarence W. Jones of Oklahoma City, missionary scouting in Ecuador, they gained a 25-year permit for a powerful station HCJB at Quito, Ecuador's capital. Programs will be evangelical and educational. A concession to the Ecuadorian Government: four hours a week for agricultural data, weather reports, political news.

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