News Brief

Gibson film breaks as the prayers stop

-29/3/04

The theology of the powers was in the spotlight today with the claim that "Spiritual forcesî may have caused a projector to break down during one of the free screenings of The Passion Of The Christ laid on by a group of churches.

Organisers from St Lukeís Church in Maidstone, Kent, said the Saturday evening screening coincided with the only period during the weekend when there was no ìprayer coverî for the film.

It comes as figures showed that at least 2,500 people took advantage of the free offer to see Mel Gibsonís film at the townís Odeon ñ more than double the admission achieved by its nearest rival.

St Lukeís and several other churches in the area clubbed together to buy £20,000-worth of tickets for the first three days of screenings to encourage the public to see it.

The Odeonís manager, Christian Webber, confirmed that the projectorís bulb had blown halfway through the 5.15pm showing of the movie on Saturday, forcing around 300 to leave the cinema.

Mr Webber said: ìI have had about three films break down in the eight years that I have worked in the company ñ that shows what a rare occurrence it is.î

Russ Hughes, director of worship and prophecy at St Lukeís, said that throughout the weekend teams of people had been praying for the screenings, in order to ìprotectî equipment and boost their success.

He revealed that on Sunday, members of the church were even praying for nominated seats in the theatre. But he added that there had been a gap in the ìprayer coverî on Saturday evening.

ìWhile I definitely wouldnít say that it was a demon or the devil that did it, I would not rule out the possibility that there were spiritual forces involved,î he said.

Figures showed that 2,568 of the 3,000 tickets bought by the churches were used by people over the weekend. Around 13% of people who registered for a seat failed to show up.

The ìeventî pushed the Maidstone cinema up to 15th in the UK sales league table of Odeon cinemas for the three days. It normally ranks around 20th.

Mr Hughes said: ìWe would be naive to think that people would go in and then come out and say íI have seen the lightí.

ìI am just thrilled that we have had the chance, both in the cinema and media, to be able to talk about Jesus in a positive way. That doesnít happen very often.î