The Lord's Prayer and bewilderment in the Church of England

By Jill Segger

November 22, 2015

The Church of England has expressed itself “bewildered” at the refusal of leading cinemas to show a short advertising film on the Lord's Prayer.

The film, which runs for just under a minute, shows a variety of people, including a man grieving at a grave, a farmer tending his herd of cows, and a weightlifter training in a gym, each of them reciting one clause of the prayer. It is quiet, gentle and, I thought, quite moving. But the reasons for which the film has been refused are entirely reasonable. The Digital Cinema Media (DCM) agency, which handles British film advertising for the major cinema chains, Odeon, Cineworld and Vue, has a policy of not accepting any political or religious advertising content for its cinemas. It should not be too difficult to see why.

This is neither an anti-Christian stance nor one which shows disrespect towards prayer. That it has been portrayed by the Church of England as having a “chilling” effect on free speech is a little hyperbolic. It would seem rather to reflect the expectation of special treatment which is often in evidence where Christianity in general, and the Established Church in particular, feels itself ill-used by not receiving such treatment. In a diverse society, this is not sustainable, nor should it be.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby – who appears in the film – has said: "This advert is about as offensive as a carol service or church service on Christmas Day." This is to miss the point. The advert is not in itself offensive – it is in the context of expecting to present one view of belief to an audience which is not there for that purpose that the difficulty lies. To illustrate this, consider the question which my colleague Simon Barrow has posited to the Church of England via social media: what would be their response if the Richard Dawkins Foundation made an advertising film telling people that they would be better off not praying? It is a valid belief stance. Would the Church protest if that was 'banned'?

There are appropriate and useful places for these debates to take place. A cinema – where people of all religious and non-religious beliefs go for entertainment – is not one of them. If those who have a faith and who practice prayer in some form (I am one of them) wish to reach out to others, they could begin by questioning the worship of consumerism to which advertising subjects cinema and television audiences, travellers and the general population during the waking hours of every single day.

I commend to all exercised by this debate the Quaker axiom “let your lives speak”.

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© Jill Segger is an Associate Director of Ekklesia with particular involvement in editorial issues. She is a freelance writer who contributes to the Church Times, Catholic Herald, Tribune, Reform and The Friend, among other publications. Jill is an active Quaker. See: http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TQig/Jill-Segger You can follow Jill on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.co/quakerpen