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November 11th, 2005

Priest Idol

‘Priest Idol’ is starting on Monday on Channel 4. According to the Telegraph:

In an experiment that will be watched across the Church of England, the Rev James McCaskill was given the seemingly impossible task of reversing the fortunes of the parish of St Mary Magdalene in Lundwood, a former mining community near Barnsley.

Less than a year later he has increased the average Sunday congregation from single figures to more than 50 worshippers.

The name is dubious and gimmicky, but the idea seems to be reasonable and it will be interesting to hear how he gets on. One does wonder, as with most of all these reality TV things, whether the same could be achieved without the TV cameras there. But in any case it will be good to see what will (hopefully) be a creative approach to improving the way the churches message is communicated.

Update: My comments on the first programme in the ‘Priest Idol‘ series are here.

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One Response to “Priest Idol”


  1. Nicola David says:

    Hi Dave

    I can assure you that Propaganda is not without its Christians! Whilst head of writing at Propaganda, I am a regular attendee at Holy Trinity Ripon, where I’m a lay youth leader and run a skater’s drop-in. I was involved in the early brainstorming around this project and can tell you that Propaganda was not only very sensitive to the spriritual dimension of this project, but that Steve, in particular, found the church at Lundwood to have real warmth – which is why he now calls himself an ‘optimistic agnostic’. I hope you continue to enjoy the programme. I’m too shy to watch it yet, because apparently I’m in it! So I’ve taped it.

    God bless;
    Nicola

    November 15th, 2005 at 1:25 pm