Could you tell the Christmas Story in under 30 seconds?

10 October 2008

Church Army is part of a team helping the Church in fighting back against what they say is the rebranding of Christmas to a 'winter festival show' with a hard hitting advertising campaign.

The Churches Advertising Network is also challenging people to tell the Christmas story in under 30 seconds....and to discover the real Christmas story at their local church.

It comes as recent research shows just 1 in 8 of Britons have a detailed knowledge of the Nativity dropping to 7% of under 18- 24 year olds.*

CAN, an ecumenical group that includes representatives from most of the mainstream churches and Church Army, is targeting youngsters in a series of radio ads in the style of  football and horse racing commentaries.

Other previous controversial campaigns include a poster depicting Jesus as the revolutionary leader Che Guevara and one suggesting that Mary was having a "bad hair day" when she discovered she was pregnant.

Chair of CAN, Francis Goodwin said: "Political correctness has gone mad when some people are afraid to use the word Christmas, or stop Nativity plays in schools, or to even use Jesus' name. It is important for the churches to fight back and re-establish in this generation the wonderful story of the Nativity. We hope youngsters will write, text, record, video, paint the Christmas story in under 30 seconds. This campaign and the competition will be a catalyst for churches to get involved all over the country. We're confident they will use this to reach out to a new generation, that often isn't being brought up with the message of hope embodied in the news of Jesus' birth at the heart of the Christmas story". To read more about the campaign see inspiremagazine.org.uk/article.