70 years ago: Anglican layman advises the church to take a course in publicity

"The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it." Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

As the following item indicates, the methods advocated by the Church Growth Movement predated Donald McGavran, Peter Drucker, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren. As reported by Monroe Johnston of Toronto Daily Star, September 13, 1947, p. 17:

Saskatoon, Sask., Sept. 13--Taking the executive council of the Anglican general synod to task for excluding the press from a number of the deliberations held here, P.J. Burd, synodical delegate since 1893 and Vancouver publisher said: "Newspapermen are just as honest as any other body of people. Trust them and they will trust you. If they want to do it, real newspapermen can get a story 95 per cent of the time. If they couldn't, I wouldn't have them on my paper."

Suggesting a course in publicity be given to every candidate for holy orders, Mr. Burd declared: "Bishops and priests don't know what to hand out to the public that has news value. They should be educated to publicity. It is very advisable to sell the church."

Mr. Burd's view of the trustworthiness of the press is laughable to 21st-century readers, and probably wasn't true in 1947--or in the time of Sherlock Holmes. And of course, an education in publicity isn't among the requirements for leaders in the church of Jesus Christ mentioned in I Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9.