UK cinema agency bans Christian prayers at British cinemas this Christmas (vid)

A Church of England advertisements was rejected by cinemas. The advert was to promote Christian prayer in cinemas across the UK during the week before Christmas by showing a number of people from all walks of life reciting or singing excerpts of the Lord’s prayer including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, a police officer, weightlifter, class of school children and others.

The ad was to promote the Church’s justpray.uk, a “new website to promote the renewal of prayer in a digital age,” and was due to be screened UK-wide in Odeon, Cineworld and Vue cinemas before screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens before Christmas. But the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) agency found that the ad was unfit to be screened at the three major UK chains.

The company said that the ad was not in accordance to its policy of not showing political or religious advertisements in its cinemas for risk of upsetting or offending audiences. The ad had been approved by the Cinema Advertising Association and had a “U’ certificate by the British Board of Film Classification, however the DCM said it would nonetheless cause offence to those of different faith or no faith at all.