A CHRISTIAN charity that provided resources for churches and school groups to discuss films has been brought back to life after it was shut down as insolvent.

The Damaris Trust, founded 15 years ago by Nick and Carol Pollard, created booklets and DVDs in conjunction with the release of Hollywood blockbusters to encourage Christians to engage with popular film-culture and consider how their faith interacted with the ideas on screen.

But in May this year, while the Pollards attempted to expand the charity to provide non-Christian film resources, the trustees decided to liquidate the organisation after being told by accountants that it was not on a stable financial footing.

Mr and Mrs Pollard, who did not agree with the decision to liquidate the Trust, began negotiating with the liquidators to buy back the resources they had created in order to continue their work.

A new organisation, Vox Caritas, decided to bid for the assets of Damaris, however, and won, not realising that the Pollards wanted to regain control of their resources. In a joint statement between Vox Caritas and Mr and Mrs Pollard, they explained that the Damaris school and church resources have been given back to the Pollards so that they can re-establish their ministry through their own website, www.nickandcarolpollard.org.

Vox Caritas, whose directors include the former national director of Youth with a Mission, Mark Markiewicz, and the former chairman of the YMCA, Tim Waldron, now intends to resurrect Damaris, and has hired some of the charity’s former employees.

Besides liaising with film companies to continue to produce cinematic resources, the new Damaris is also going to collaborate with the Museum of the Bible, which is under construction in Washington, DC, and funded by the Christian owner of a craft-store chain, to create a biblical religious-studies curriculum for UK schools.