No “word for Sunday”? – Church broadcasting rights questioned

It is a decades-old right: Churches are given space in broadcasters’ television programs for church services and sermons. But is this still appropriate given the decline in membership?

After the weather forecast and before the murder and manslaughter in the late films comes the church. Nestled between news and crime stories, the television program in the main public ARD program Das Erste suddenly changes speed and sound on Saturday evenings – as if you had accidentally switched on a different channel. You are reminded of a sermon in a church. And indeed. “The Word for Sunday” is a kind of sermon. And while the tone has changed slightly over time, it’s still essentially the same as it was when it was introduced 70 years ago. This year an average of 1.4 million people watched. This undoubtedly makes the format a “success story,” said Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at an event marking the 70th anniversary in Munich, according to the speech manuscript.

Thoughts for the day

The Protestant and Catholic Churches have several fixed slots in the public television program, both on television and on the radio. There is no reporting about them here; the churches are in control themselves. On Sundays, for example, church services are broadcast on ZDF. And in the early morning program on the ARD information channel WDR5, between interviews and correspondent reports, a pastor or priest expresses thoughts about the day.

The federal states granted the churches this privilege a long time ago in state broadcasting agreements. At that time almost all West Germans were either Catholic or Protestant. The churches were often viewed as the moral conscience of the Federal Republic; they had an almost unassailable status.

But the picture has now changed: today a slight majority of Germans are no longer church members. And the reputation of the churches has been severely shaken by the series of abuse scandals. Against this background, the question arises: Why should the churches continue to have their own broadcasting time on television?

RBB editorial committee questioned church broadcasting rights

There have already been a few critical voices. When the state contract for broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) was revised in 2023, the representatives of the program makers on the ARD station questioned the church’s broadcasting rights: It was “incomprehensible why the churches are still allowed to make programs themselves on the RBB – a right that is not granted to any other group.” And the statement continued: “Either other social groups also have the opportunity to make programs – or they are all equally the subject of journalistic reporting.”

A current survey by the German Press Agency among state governments gives a clear picture: the churches will continue to retain the broadcasting rights. A fundamental change is not discussed.

For older people who can no longer go to church

One of the countries’ main arguments is serving older people who can no longer go to church. The State Ministry in Baden-Württemberg states: “Since older people are largely members of the two large churches, a corresponding regulation is still justified with regard to the individual needs of older people and people with limited mobility and should not be viewed as a privilege of a religious community.” The spokesman for the German Bishops’ Conference, Matthias Kopp, points out that church service broadcasts have taken on additional importance during the Corona period: At that time, face-to-face church services were prohibited for a long time, so religious people could only attend online or via television were able to participate. At that time, the programs also made a contribution to social cohesion.

However, with regard to the “Word for Sunday”, the Catholic canon lawyer Thomas Schüller advocates that representatives of Judaism and Islam should also be allowed to have their say. “There are enough well-trained theologians from both Abrahamic religions in Germany who literally have something to say,” says the theologian in an interview with the German Press Agency.

Judaism, Buddhism, Jehovah’s Witnesses

Depending on the treaty, other religious communities also have a different right to broadcasting time on the radio; Judaism is often mentioned. There have been occasional adjustments to state contracts over the years. The Senate Chancellery in Berlin says: “The reason for the privileged status of the Christian churches and Jewish communities lies in their sufficient institutional consolidation, unity and representativeness, especially among older people and people with limited mobility.” However, the broadcasters are free to also benefit other religious communities from social influence to give airtime to meaning and ideological communities. Brandenburg’s government spokesman Florian Engels announced that the circle of those entitled to third-party broadcasting times in the new RBB state treaty had been expanded to include ideological communities that are important in Brandenburg and Berlin.

Also interesting: 70 years of “Word for Sunday”

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) lists several examples of communities that are currently receiving broadcast time. These include the Buddhist Society of Hamburg, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany and the Bahá’i Spiritual Council. According to the government of Hamburg, the NDR State Treaty was adjusted in 2021 to “take social developments into account”. The wording was made more open and not only applied to churches. From the ARD main program Das Erste we learn that the Protestant and Catholic churches are currently using third-party broadcasting rights. This includes up to 17 church service broadcasts per year.

Conclusion: Amen on television is certain – at least for now. In the long term, however, things could possibly look different: A study by the University of Freiburg predicted in 2019 that the number of church members – Catholic and Protestant – would fall by half to almost 23 million by 2060.

In his speech, however, Steinmeier pointed out one aspect that is independent of the number of members: We know from letters that among the viewers of the “Word for Sunday” there are also people who otherwise have nothing or nothing to do with religion in their lives and church had to do. Because it’s often not about faith in the narrower sense, but about a Christian perspective on what’s currently affecting everyone, what’s current. Steinmeier: “’The Word for Sunday’” raises ethical and socially relevant questions and develops ideas – calmly and in a warm and careful language. We cannot value this highly enough today, in a time in which we are experiencing an increasing brutalization of language, not only in so-called social media.”

Anna Ringle and Christoph Driessen, dpa

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