Churches accused of Da Vinci ‘double standards’

-16/05/06

Churches in the UK have bee


Churches accused of Da Vinci ‘double standards’

-16/05/06

Churches in the UK have been accused of ‘double standards’ after profiting from the Da Vinci Code.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Adam Edwards lists a number of churches who are making money from both the book, and the film which is released on Friday, whilst the Catholic church, and the Archbishop of Canterbury have expressed their opposition to it.

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Edwards suggests that “a cascade of freshly generated cash is putting kindly theologians in a hilarious quandary. These gentlemen may not want to be bothered by believers in Dan Brown’s fanciful notions – but also, they don’t want to dismiss new spending customers out of hand.”

The newspaper reports that the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, the Very Rev Alec Knight, who, has branded the book “a load of old tosh”, agreed to let the film be shot at the cathedral after the producers made a donation of £100,000.

Visitor numbers have already increased and the controversial book, and a number of its spin-offs, are being sold in its shop.

Da Vinci Code books can also be found on the shelves of the gift shop in Winchester Cathedral. It featured in two of the film’s scenes and accepted a £20,000 location fee after several other churches turned the film makers down.

Part of the money has been spent on a lecture series on the novel which has included a point-by-point demolition of the book by the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Reverend Michael Scott-Joint.

Meanwhile, the Master of the Temple Church in London, which owes its name to the Order of the Knights Templar which plays a major role in the book, has taken a different approach.

The Rev Robin Griffith-Jones is presiding over a thousand extra visitors a week at his church. The Master is charging £4 a head to deliver a weekly one-hour talk on the subject matter of the thriller – a book that he cheerfully describes as “historical rubbish”.

He has also expanded the talk into a short book of his own, The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of The Temple.


Churches accused of Da Vinci ‘double standards’

-16/05/06

Churches in the UK have been accused of ‘double standards’ after profiting from the Da Vinci Code.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Adam Edwards lists a number of churches who are making money from both the book, and the film which is released on Friday, whilst the Catholic church, and the Archbishop of Canterbury have expressed their opposition to it.

Related Articles

Edwards suggests that “a cascade of freshly generated cash is putting kindly theologians in a hilarious quandary. These gentlemen may not want to be bothered by believers in Dan Brown’s fanciful notions – but also, they don’t want to dismiss new spending customers out of hand.”

The newspaper reports that the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, the Very Rev Alec Knight, who, has branded the book “a load of old tosh”, agreed to let the film be shot at the cathedral after the producers made a donation of £100,000.

Visitor numbers have already increased and the controversial book, and a number of its spin-offs, are being sold in its shop.

Da Vinci Code books can also be found on the shelves of the gift shop in Winchester Cathedral. It featured in two of the film’s scenes and accepted a £20,000 location fee after several other churches turned the film makers down.

Part of the money has been spent on a lecture series on the novel which has included a point-by-point demolition of the book by the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Reverend Michael Scott-Joint.

Meanwhile, the Master of the Temple Church in London, which owes its name to the Order of the Knights Templar which plays a major role in the book, has taken a different approach.

The Rev Robin Griffith-Jones is presiding over a thousand extra visitors a week at his church. The Master is charging £4 a head to deliver a weekly one-hour talk on the subject matter of the thriller – a book that he cheerfully describes as “historical rubbish”.

He has also expanded the talk into a short book of his own, The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of The Temple.