Archbishop to tackle ethical issues in TV debate

-1/5/03

Rowan Williams is to become the first Archbishop of Canterbury to take part in a television series disc

Archbishop to tackle ethical issues in TV debate

-1/5/03

Rowan Williams is to become the first Archbishop of Canterbury to take part in a television series discussing key ethical and moral issues.

The four-programme series to be filmed at Lambeth Palace this summer and broadcast on Channel 4 in the autumn, will centre on the archbishop’s views on potentially controversial subjects reports the Guardian.

The format will be a talking heads discussion between the archbishop and various experts and commentators, mediated by a chairman.

The topics are set to include the loss of childhood, the contemporary “obsession” with the rights of the individual and the morality of interventionist science, all of which the archbishop has written about in the past.

The fourth programme will debate the idea of absolute religious truth in a multi-faith world.

Dr Williams said: “It is rare to be able to take the opportunity to engage with a wide audience and at great depth. I hope the series will help us to tackle issues that have a particular contemporary edge.”

In December the archbishop gave the televised Dimbleby lecture and has appeared on Desert Island Discs. Sources close to the Archbishop suggest that this is a method of communication that he wishes to develop.

Chris Stuart, of the Welsh company Presentable, which will produce the series, said: “The format will provide a challenging television environment within which the archbishop can explore and explain his thinking on subjects that truly matter to him.”

Archbishop to tackle ethical issues in TV debate

-1/5/03

Rowan Williams is to become the first Archbishop of Canterbury to take part in a television series discussing key ethical and moral issues.

The four-programme series to be filmed at Lambeth Palace this summer and broadcast on Channel 4 in the autumn, will centre on the archbishop’s views on potentially controversial subjects reports the Guardian.

The format will be a talking heads discussion between the archbishop and various experts and commentators, mediated by a chairman.

The topics are set to include the loss of childhood, the contemporary “obsession” with the rights of the individual and the morality of interventionist science, all of which the archbishop has written about in the past.

The fourth programme will debate the idea of absolute religious truth in a multi-faith world.

Dr Williams said: “It is rare to be able to take the opportunity to engage with a wide audience and at great depth. I hope the series will help us to tackle issues that have a particular contemporary edge.”

In December the archbishop gave the televised Dimbleby lecture and has appeared on Desert Island Discs. Sources close to the Archbishop suggest that this is a method of communication that he wishes to develop.

Chris Stuart, of the Welsh company Presentable, which will produce the series, said: “The format will provide a challenging television environment within which the archbishop can explore and explain his thinking on subjects that truly matter to him.”