Our Father...

It's Sunday, an appropriate day of the week to wake to a headline about the Lord's Prayer. Apparently the Church of England commissioned a cinema ad (at what expense, I wonder?) that the BBFC passed and which was cleared by the Cinema Advertising Authority but that Digital Media Cinema, the body that actually places the ads in cinemas, won't allow.

The word on Twitter this morning seems to be outrage - outrage at censorship, outrage at what can be advertised in the run up to Christmas and what can't, outrage at what is seen as an affront to free speech and another example of intolerance. 

But wait! Surely the rule book forbidding any religious content in cinema advertising was available for perusal before the Church in its wisdom spent £thousands (hundreds of them, probably) filming the thing? Shouldn't the outrage be directed at another example of CofE waste. There are churches with leaky roofs, not to mention hoards of the homeless and the hungry up and down the country. Is this the best use of the self-confessed impoverished church's money anyway? 

They say there's no such thing as bad publicity and - true - the so-called ban has certainly got people talking this morning. But I'm not so sure. Another example (there are plenty) of the established church getting its priorities wrong isn't good for anyone's image. If I were going to church this morning is certainly think twice before putting anything in the collection.

Store up your treasures in heaven, said Jesus. I'm not sure that needs any spin or advertising. But in the meantime here, again, is a letter from His Most Reverence-ness, the Archbishop of Titipu Canterbury that I like sharing...

Shows they care, doesn't it?