Divine Service (1956 - 1987)
Mixed type series
Weekly x 60 minutes
Series synopsis:
Each week on Sunday morning, a religious service would be broadcast live on ABC television. The service was generally from one of the established churches around Australia.
Curator’s Notes:
Divine Service was produced by the ABC’s Religious Department, with the unit’s producers working across both radio and television.
From its formation, the ABC charter stated that the broadcaster was to provide 'adequate and comprehensive’ programs, which was immediately taken to include religious programs. When the charter was updated in 1983, it included new directives to innovate and to ‘reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community’. It was during the 1980s that some of the more unusual programs were produced for Divine Service, including one from a naval destroyer and another from the monastery at New Norcia in Western Australia.
These days the religious department of the ABC is called ‘Religion and Ethics’, which better reflects the diverse spiritual practices of Australians. It produces the high profile television program Compass, broadcast on Sunday evenings and presented by Geraldine Doogue.
Titles in this series
Divine Service – Mary Magdalene Roman Catholic Church, Rose Bay 1965
This program features a Roman Catholic religious service recorded in the Mary Magdalene Roman Catholic Church in Rose Bay, Sydney, celebrated by the Reverend Father Neil Collins with preacher Reverend Father Julian Miller from St Patrick’s College, Manly. The service ...
Divine Service – The House of Freedom Church, Brisbane 1986
A service is held in the House of Freedom in the inner city Brisbane suburb of West End, with a population of migrant, Aboriginal and working class Australians. This Christian community began in 1972 and its origins are explained by ...
