Popular drama and Liturgy

[Gedackt flute]

I am a sentimental softie - I love cheesy dramas - Last of the summer wine; All creatures great and small; Heartbeat; Everwood; New tricks; Dr. Who; Dangerous Davies; Life on Mars; The ladies' detective agency etc.

These titles are all immensely popular, yet cheesy as they are, they often deal with serious subjects. In my view they have acheived the 'noble simplicity' that seems so elusive in our liturgies. People seem to have taken ownership of these stories (and surely the Gospel and the Scriptures are ultimately the source of all drama).

What have they got that we haven't?

[Eastern Promise]

[moderated]

[Calum Cille]

Doctor Who used to be inclusive family viewing that avoided party politics and religion except when the character of the Doctor travelled to a time in the past when there was religious conflict. Even then, no partisan viewpoint was expounded via the character. The nearest the character ever got to expressing any belief about God was one unscripted quip by the actors.

Things have changed. The two writers of the new Doctor Who are reported to be atheist. Conseqently, Christianity is now almost invariably presented in a partisan manner in Doctor Who and certainly never espoused or defended by the regular cast, unless you accept the instance of one companion praying to Santa as a little girl. Another of his companions opines, "You've got your faith. You've got your songs and your hymns. And I've got the Doctor." The first ever Doctor Who prom concert was turned into an atheist's night out by the reading of Let's Do the Time Warp Again by Justina Robson which basically said that you don't need God if you've got Doctor Who to believe in.

The Doctor is now a declared atheist, believing in nothing prior to the beginning of the universe, which must feel great for all the little children in the BBC audience brought up as atheists. One of his returning enemies for the last couple of seasons of the programme has been the Church of the future, headed by a "Papal mainframe" with the involvement of a religious order who literally surrender their brains. These are objective facts, not subjective conservative or liberal opinion.

Yes, people certainly have taken ownership of these particular stories.

[JW]

There has ever been a tension between Liturgy and popularity, exacerbated in my time by the teenage cry of "Mass is boring." I once heard a sermon saying basically that 'if you are bored by Mass, you don't come to be entertained, you come to worship, so get over it....'

Benedict XVI believes that the beauty of the Liturgy should attract people into the church, and I doubt many would disagree, yet what a octogenerian may think is beautiful liturgy is not necessarily beautiful to a teenager. However, some of these teenagers were prepared to spend hours waiting to see the Pope at Hyde Park and Cofton Park, yet will not spend an hour on a Sunday to receive and converse intimately with their Lord - who is infinitely more charismatic, holy and powerful.

People are not just 'bums on seats' and the days of being ostracised (or even imprisoned) if you don't attend Mass are long over. I think we all wish we knew what the answer might be. Certainly the 1970's years of what might be called lowest common denominator liturgy and pandering to the youth music of the time didn't result in more youngsters attending. Now we have the added problem that liturgy in our parishes can never match the standard of rehearsed and recorded media productions.

As for the media view of religion, it's not just Dr Who that exhibits cynicism in faith and I fear it may not be long before the situation gets worse. And the moral messages in the media are equally pernicious as those relating to faith matters: individualism seems to be rampant.

Even our musings, on another thread, of what constitutes the Church are hardly in line with secular thought. Our legislators aren't helping either: our bishops have fought several battles recently to try to stem the tide of anti-religious legislation.

[nazard]

... Certainly the 1970's years of what might be called lowest common denominator liturgy and pandering to the youth music of the time didn't result in more youngsters attending...

What was pushed as youth music in the seventies was already well out of date. If you remember, the Rolling Stones and others of that nature had turned pop around in the late sixties to a paradigm of "rock" music, sometimes unkindly referred to as "scream, twang and bang", which has persisted with minor changes ever since. By the end of the decade punk had arrived. Earlier on we had psychedelic music. It was the practice outside church to play youth music at volumes well into the pain level - remember those sixties discos. The seventies youth thing in churches was pushed by those rather older than youth and although everything was done in their name, youth were actually widely ignored. I associate the guitars in church thing with those born between about 1935 and 1945, who still seem to be the ones pushing it now.

As for the Doctor pushing atheism, that is probably just as well. A good space between Christianity and fantasy can only help.

[Gedackt flute]

Moving back to the original topic - The Heartbeat dramas are most certianly 'Christian' in flavour. They were
extremely popular in book form long before they appeared on the television when they were the 'Constable series' - initially as non-fiction, then becoming fiction. There is a sort of mini-parable feel to these stories.

The blurb to the 1996 book: 'Constable about the parish' is this:

For centuries the parish church has been the focal point for many activities within a village, and the Heartbeat village of Aidensfield is no exception. In Constable About the Parish, published in 1996, Nicholas Rhea turns his attention to the church and to the people who fill its pews; Catholics, Anglicans and those from other faiths unite to cause work for the village constable.

'Everwood' features a practising Jewish family.