RELIGIOUS broadcasting represents another kind of "reality"
television, which deals with "the big stuff in life", the
Archbishop of Canterbury said this week.
In an article for the Radio Times, Archbishop Welby
argued: "Religious broadcasting can, without embarrassment or
spectacle, tackle the big stuff in life: death, love, fear,
forgiveness, doubt, conviction, and how we relate to one another as
human beings."
These sorts of programmes, Archbishop Welby said, were
celebrated by the Sandford St Martin Trust media awards, the
shortlist for which was announced on Wednesday of last week. The
shortlisted programmes include BBC 2's Arena: Sister Wendy and
the art of the gospel, and Goodbye to Canterbury,
presented by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams
(
News, 4 January), and also broadcast on BBC 2.
Archbishop Welby continued: "While exploring the intimacy of our
human experience, religious broadcasting - at its best - does
something else equally important: it teaches us about each other. .
.
"For adults over a certain age, who have received little in the
way of religious education at school - especially of an interfaith
variety - religious broadcasting is likely to be their best guide
to the different faiths not just of the people they see on the
evening news, but of the people they meet at the school gates, or
queue next to at the post office."
The winners of the Sandford St Martin Trust media awards will be
announced at a ceremony at Lambeth Palace on 3 June. The winners
will share £10,000 in prize money.
The full article can be read here.
www.sandfordawards.org.uk