EGN NEWS DESK
A senior Church of England cleric has praised journalists and TV and radio programme-makers for his or her work “within the seek for fact.”
Opening the celebrated Sandford St Martin Awards for one of the best in programmes about faith, ethics and spirituality, Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark, celebrated the work of artistic individuals working within the media.
He emphasised the essential function of “journalists, reporters, filmmakers, and writers who’re passionate and fearless within the seek for, and the sharing of fact.”
Dr Oakley described the present international context as “a time when we’ve got by no means had so many phrases however by no means been so disinclined to consider them, a time when the boundaries between details and opinions and lies, are publicly disappearing, and a time when there’s heightened self-promotion coupled with a low self-awareness.”
Speaking to the viewers at Southwark Cathedral, London he identified, “When many are attempting to be examples of energy, our journalists and creatives should present the facility of instance. And that is why we’re right here tonight, as a result of they do.”
Dr Oakley, an award-winning creator of books on poetry and spirituality, defined, “These awards are essential as a result of they have fun work that helps individuals perceive the philosophical, historic, political, and emotional intricacies of faith and ethics.
“There is way round in the mean time that would favor dishonest simplicity to an sincere complexity, however the work we acclaim this night refuses that impatient temptation.”
The Sandford St Martin Trust described the entries for this yr’s awards as “a showcase for the excellence of UK creatives producing content material that explores perception and ethics.
“Whether it’s by cutting-edge journalism, artistic storytelling or societal impression, they show that the viewers for good religiously literate content material and in-depth exploration of moral points is extra numerous and extra engaged than ever earlier than.”
Winners of the awards introduced this week included a radio celebration of Christmas in war-torn Ukraine, a TV documentary in regards to the debate round assisted dying, and a TV investigation right into a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.
The award, voted for by readers of the best-selling journal Radio Times, went to TV programme ‘The Holy Land and Us.’ The two-part documentary explored how a number of households’ histories had been impacted by the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
Author and broadcaster Tom Holland obtained the Sandford St Martin Trustees’ Award “In recognition of his contribution to the larger public understanding of religions and their function in modern and historic human expertise.”
The Sandford St Martin Trust “promotes thought-provoking, distinctive programming that engages with faith of all faiths, ethics or morality.” It believes “the media have an more and more essential and difficult function to play in deciphering what occurs on this planet, and that by their work, they’ll promote understanding, enhance tolerance, and assist construct neighborhood.”
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
