Archive for category: General

This year’s Sandford St Martin Award winners will scarcely have had time to hang up their certificates before another religious broadcasting competition comes along. This time it will be the European Television Festival of Religious Programmes, taking place from 11–15 June in the Dutch city of Hilversum, home to many of the country’s broadcasters.

Even though it’s been going since 1969, the Festival is not as well known in the UK as it deserves to be. That may have something to do with the fact that it takes place only every three years or so, and in a different country each time. Perhaps some assume too that, given how different are the broadcasting and/or religious landscapes of some of the participating countries, there is little makers of religious programmes in the UK can learn from their European counterparts.

But make no mistake. The Festival is a must for anyone interested in television programmes that tackle tough religious and ethical questions, show the triumph of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity or enlarge our understanding of the world we live in. It’s also an opportunity to see such themes tackled by programme-makers who operate within a different set of social and broadcasting conventions from those we’re used to in the UK. For example, I’ve seen a number of programmes over the years on the subject of death or dying that took me a long way out my viewing comfort zone – but also moved and challenged me for that very reason.

Programmes at the Festival have a habit of challenging preconceptions too. I was fortunate enough to chair the jury at the 2007 Festival, where one of the winning programmes was a documentary from Irish broadcaster RTE about the impact of Catholic teaching on celibacy at the grass roots. If we jury members were expecting a less-than-tough approach from a programme made for a predominantly Catholic audience, we were wrong. Indeed one of the notable things about it was that the teaching’s strongest critics were not the disaffected, but devout Church members. Another winner was a programme I initially felt rather nervous about. Billed as a celebration of Christmas, it came from an Amsterdam synagogue – an audacious choice of location. But, thanks to the skill and sensitivity of the programme-makers, the broadcast proved to be a remarkable demonstration of how a festival ‘owned’ by one faith can also find resonance with people of different faiths, or no faith at all.

This year in Hilversum, in addition to the daily screenings of shortlisted programmes that form the backbone of the Festival, there will be an opportunity to reflect, with the help of eminent speakers, on how religious broadcasting can build bridges of understanding in a pluralist society. Among those contributing to this part of the programme will be the UK broadcaster and Sandford St Martin trustee Roger Bolton.

Both the Sandford St Martin Trust and the European Television Festival of Religious Programmes are committed to celebrating broadcast programmes that engage with the challenges and complexities of belief in today’s world. And this coming June – with the Sandford St Martin Awards, closely followed by the European Festival – there will be two opportunities for such celebration.

More information about the festival can be found at www.signis-wacc-tvfestival.eu

A Jesuit friend of mine commented that Call the Midwife is the best portrayal of religion he’s seen in a very long time. Why? Because it is non-judgemental, grounded in compassion and deals with real issues. Many think Secret Millionaire does a good job too in showing the world a glimpse of dedicated yet ordinary people who do good things for no other reason that it is right. They are not seeking wealth or adulation – they just do it in an unsung, un-fussy type of way and we are thrilled when they get rewarded. But are these two programmes religious? Can they be put in the same frame as Songs of Praise for example?

What constitutes religion is an interesting area in this fast changing and culture-merging world. It is not a new debate. In 2005 a report on issues facing the BBC looked at religious broadcasting and lauded the change in name of the religious programming department to the Department of Religion and Ethics to reflect a society more interested in spirituality in general rather than religion per se. The media articles at the time were full of debate on whether religious broadcasting should be about showing the doctrines and practices of the faiths of the world or more widely explore the abiding human fascination with good and evil, right and wrong, selflessness versus selfishness.

These eternal battles have been told in tales around Palaeolithic camp fires, sung about in ancient sagas, acted out in theatres, written about in books and now broadcast across different media for thousands of years. We will never tire of telling and re-telling stories about what is good and bad. But is that enough in itself to be classed as religious? If so then for sure Call the Midwife and Secret Millionaire fit the bill, but arguably so do Sherlock, Dr Who and perhaps some could suggest the likes of East Enders. Where is the line in the sand today between religion and a more “spiritual” stance on what is the right way to live? Should there be one?

The two schools of thought occupy well-trodden ground. The first is that religions are too important to mass together with more diffuse programming. Believers want to see their faith as it is. For Christianity for example, as numbers in pews fall, to show that traditional worship is alive and well is needed more than ever. People welcome the fact that what they believe (no matter how up front their beliefs are in public) is there in front of them and they can join in. It is surprising how many people say they don’t always manage to get to church but they do watch Songs of Praise every week. Pure, unadulterated religious programmes definitely meet a need for many people of faith. It need not just be programmes like Songs of Praise, documentaries about St Paul’s journeys or the life of the Buddha or observational documentaries on what is a Catholic or the day-to-day running of an Islamic funeral parlour are all in the same camp. They are about the stuff of religion and how the faithful live.

Others say that any expression of good is a sign of God (any faith’s God) and so programmes like Call the Midwife follow closely what St Francis urged all Christians to do – always preach the gospel and sometimes use words. Religious programming is more to do with how people exhibit the undeniable bedrock of human goodness than concentrating on specifics of a faith. Watching how people struggle with life’s problems, make courageous choices or whatever, no matter what actual religion they are following, is as religious in content as any documentary of a well-defined faith. In today’s western society there does seem to be a consensus that traditional beliefs are a minority and airing issues of universal ethical concern appeal to more people. This is nothing new and this argument has been raging for years. Have things moved on? I think they have. 9/11, the paedophile priest crisis or the Arab Spring have changed the landscape. Also, in the West, climate change was still largely theoretical.

It has been said many times that 9/11 shook the world to its core. It made a complacent humanity realise that faith was not a minority hobby but a powerful force that could, when combined with politics and power, virtually bring the world’s most dominant nation to a halt. Who were these religious extremists who killed themselves and many others so audaciously? The paedophile clergy crisis has shaken the seemingly unshakable Vatican and rocked the largest Christian denomination so violently that sweeping reform is underway. Pope Francis is watched by the world as he tries to turn the old order upside down and change the institution that influences the lives of one billion people. From the Arab Spring emerged the factions and in fighting in the Muslim world which have confused the West about what exactly it means to be Islamic. In other words the religious world is not what it was and is still changing fast.

In times of distress and uncertainty people turn to religion. In a survey last year in the US 57% agreed with the statement “When a natural disaster occurs, my interest in God increases.” Church attendance rises and donations to religious relief funds increase. My guess is that this pattern is repeated around the world.

Many of us look on with increasing concern as weather patterns change and records for coldest, wettest, driest or whatever are broken. The earth is destabilising along the lines predicated and instead of being dependable has become a shape-shifter. It is now not fanciful to imagine mass migration away from unsuitable areas that no longer support populations. It is thought food and water will be the cause of wars, not oil, as our ability to grow food and supply water is increasingly stressed. To think that religion won’t play a major role in helping people face these realities is naive in the extreme.
Religious broadcasting, to my mind, is more important than ever. We need to understand and monitor how the faiths of the world are dealing with all these evolving situations. I believe there is a real interest in how religions are reacting to the many crises we face. Are they up to the job ahead? Do they have an opinion, a strategy, a vision? I will throw my hat into the ring and say I want more, not less, religious programming. I’m not convinced though my wish will come true.

Gerald Priestland, writing about faith and faiths, once observed that there are many routes up the mountain. He was a classic universalist – author, broadcaster, former atheist, prominent Quaker, and BBC religious affairs correspondent in a Christian-dominated broadcasting environment.

Priestland described his faith as one of “reasonable uncertainty”. What would he have made of religious broadcasting today? Well, it is, on the face of it, admirably inclusive. We have enjoyed no-table recent television documentary series on the history of the Bible, the story of Mohammed and the story of the Jews; and fine inter-faith radio programmes. This is what all those involved with religious broadcasting would expect.

But we need more than that. With religion playing such a major part in issues right across the globe – in Syria and Iraq, Nigeria, Indonesia, so many countries and conflicts – we need to understand the nature of individual faiths, their history, and why they have such impact today. It is pre-eminently the job of broadcasting, whether formally ‘religious’ or not, to offer that information and understanding.

The need for inter-faith awareness extends well beyond broadcasting. As the editor of the Friends Quarterly, a Quaker periodical, I have included in the current issue articles by Quakers outlining their approach to challenging the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and by a rabbi praising and explaining Simon Schama’s nuanced Zionism in his recent television series. Well before boosting ecumenism through his meeting with Pope Francis, Justin Welby featured in the pages of the Quarterly.

Helped by an enlightened media, we all can appreciate others’ routes up the mountain, and learn from them.
And yet, and yet. Intolerance of a multi-faith approach never seems far away. We know how incendiary are any media references to religion in Israel/Palestine, in the Arabic and North African lands, and even closer to home in Northern Ireland. People of faith face the aggression of the militant atheists, one tweeting recently that “we must respect the RIGHT of people to hold stupid beliefs. But that doesn’t mean we have to respect their stupid beliefs”.

There is not only sensitivity and insensitivity to contend with. There is also misunderstanding, whether accidental or wilful, which can be hugely damaging even where it has previously seemed safe to tread. Harvey Gillman writes in a recent issue of The Friend about mistrust, sorrow and even anger between some British Quaker and Jewish communities, over the question of the boycott of goods from the West Bank. Those who were so recently friendly neighbours can all too quickly become antagonists, whether – as TS Eliot put it – on the shores of Asia or in the Edgware Road.

In our re-casting of the work of the Sandford St Martin Trust, the trustees are placing stress upon the inclusiveness of our work to promote excellence in religious broadcasting, and therefore in the type of subjects for potential award-winning programmes. That is not a sudden departure. Award winners in just the past year have included Maya Vision’s Islam: the untold story for Channel 4 and Hearing Ragas made by BBC Bristol for Radio 4.
But in a time of rising militant religious (and atheistic) fundamentalism across the globe, it seems particularly important to stress our enthusiasm to look across the entire mountain range of religious broadcasting, and unlabeled broadcasting which still has much to say about religious and ethical concerns. Excellence in religious broadcasting is not only about production values, or popular appeal. It must also offer knowledge and understanding and context, and where necessary cast light into places that have remained obscure to those who know only their own ways of belief and worship.