The Fish Story Documentary Depicts Activities of FISH Organization
Diocesan Press Service. August 1, 1968 [67-4]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- The Episcopal Church has gotten a lot of mileage from a one-half hour color television documentary called "The Fish Story," which was produced early this year. A lot of things are happening.
The program has been shown on 18 television stations throughout the country, but that's only the half of it. Around the same number of stations have previewed the program and are expected to use it in the near future.
The program also has received wide attention from newspapers and magazines, among them some of the leading publications in the country.
The magazines telling of "The Fish Story" make up a list of some of the great ones: "Time Magazine," "Guideposts," "This Week," "Woman's Day," "The Episcopalian, " "The Living Church," "The Chicago Tribune" and "Readers Digest."
An article distributed by the Diocesan Press Service was widely used by diocesan publications of the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Robert Howell, co-founder of the FISH movement in the United States and who appears in "The Fish Story," also has been a guest on "To Tell the Truth" and "The Today Show," both network television programs, as well as on Viewpoint, a radio program produced by the Episcopal Church and heard on more than 400 stations.
"The Fish Story" is an account of an organization formed at the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, West Springfield, Mass., based on an idea originating in Oxford, England, and which has spread to other parishes in England, the United States, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
It is also a simple story, of people helping people, through the development of a telephone answering service and the recruitment of a corps of volunteers who can come to the rescue of other people in time of need.
The documentary depicts some of the activities of the FISH organization in taking care of children, transporting patients to the hospital, providing meals for the aged and reading to persons who are blind.
Two of the most significant developments following the first showings of the FISH documentary have been in Chicago and Dallas. The Bishop of Chicago has included the use of the film as a part of the diocesan stewardship program, and in Dallas it has helped in the development of a suicide prevention program in which the Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church are cooperating.
Morehouse-Barlow will publish Fr. Howell's own account under the title "Fish For My People" this fall. Seabury Press includes an account of Fish activities in its new publication "It's a Great Time to be a Christian."
A minimum of organization and a small budget are all that is required to establish a chapter of Fish, so long as there are willing hearts and hands available to do the job. Needed financial support usually comes from the payment of dues and contributions from parish churches.
The movement is spreading rapidly, assisted in part by the wide media exposure given to "The Fish Story." As of August 1 it is now available for audio-visual use in dioceses and parishes.