[James]

The Sunday Times - October 09, 2005

Holy rollers set out their stalls

In an attempt to boost bums on pews and maybe even win over a few doubters, the church goes on show next week at the Royal Highland Centre.

Nick Thorpe reports

Has your organist left you in the lurch again? Could your Sunday sermons use a little extra pizzazz? Are you looking for eye-catching fashion to brighten up the pulpit? If you are, you need look no further than the travelling bazaar dubbed the “ideal church show”, which arrives at Ingliston showground near Edinburgh on Thursday. All the remedies are here, from a karaoke hymn machine to preaching puppets, multicolour vestments to non-alcoholic communion wines, everything you could possibly want from an ecclesiastical supermarket.

Organisers of the three-day Scottish Christian Resources Exhibition expect more than 3,000 visitors in Edinburgh this week, when hundreds of stallholders attempt to roll back the tide of unbelief with some ethereal blue-sky thinking.............

..........One of the bulkiest innovations quite literally takes the church to the people. Bibleworld SBS Studios is an articulated lorry kitted out as a multimedia classroom by the Scottish Bible Society in an attempt to inject what it calls the “wow factor” back into schoolchildren’s experience of scripture. Intended for use as part of the national curriculum, the expandable trailer features a mock film studio and a simulated flight over parts of the world where Christianity is on the increase.

Just to make sure Scotland’s unchurched youth is listening, the vehicle will be unveiled and sent on its national tour by Cameron Stout, the famously celibate 2003 winner of Big Brother.

“Some aspects of the technology stretched me a bit,” admitted the 34-year-old last week. “But young people will be in their element. I’ve often said that a lot of churches are their own worst enemies when it comes to attracting members. But something like this shows folk that the Bible can still be relevant today. We’re living in a very searching generation, so the church has to make itself more accessible.”.............

From here - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...815363,00.html