Priest Idol (programme 3)

I’ve been slightly unwell today so no particularly in-depth analysis on tonight’s final programme in the ‘Priest Idol’ series.

Tonight we saw the preparation for the ‘Church Lite’ launch events. The PCC were trained in sales techniques and 3000 lightbulbs were delivered around the parish. All in all it was very successful, with 300 people coming to the launch social and a packed church and raving reviews for the launch service with a gospel choir and comedian Jimmy Cricket.

Overall a good programme which raised plenty of issues about how we communicate the Christian message and / or promote the church today. It will be interesting to hear how various blogs respond to the fact that the strategy did seem to work. Already posters on one fairly well known bulletin board have changed their tune somewhat, having started out condemning the programme out of hand and now… well… not condemning it out of hand. (I told you I was too ill to write anything decent.)

There was an interview with Fr. McCaskill on the Channel 4 website which was quite worthwhile. The transcript will be somewhere here shortly I think.

Update: Richard has some more useful thoughts. But then hopefully he is in better health than me.

Update 2: Some good thoughts from Steve Tilley, though this caused me to raise half an eyebrow:

I would love to have seen how a sensitive evangelical minister woud have made a difference, helping people to tell their stories and blending biblical teaching with catholic tradition and symbolism.

But perhaps he raises an interesting question. What do you think?