CHURCH leaders are encouraging families to see The Chronicles of Narnia over Christmas because of the new Disney film’s Christian message.

The Walt Disney organisation has appointed Christian Publishers and Outreach, an evangelistic publishing company, to promote the Christian message behind the story in churches across Britain.

Premier, the Christian radio station, is running a Narnia promotional campaign, urging schools and churches to do a range of Narnia activites, such as holding parties, running family services titled The Gospel According to Narnia and organising plays based on C. S. Lewis’s classic book.

The Methodist organisation MethodistChildren has written a special Narnia service for churches across Britain to use, focusing on the theme of gift-giving and receiving that is central to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

One parish in Kent is to give away £10,000 worth of tickets to single parents and their children so that they can see the film over the holidays.

St Luke’s Maidstone, which witnessed a surge in churchgoing after it gave away £20,000 tickets to Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ, is offering 1,000 free first-come first-served tickets to single- parent families across Kent.

The church has also set up a website aslanisJesus.co.uk to promote the Christian message of the film described as “Passion of Christ for kids”. “It is a way of communicating the Christian message to the wider public,” a spokeswoman for St Luke’s said. “As a church they want to give those less fortunate a Christmas present. If people can make a connection between the film and Jesus and how he can transform lives, that is great.”

A Methodist spokesman said: “Churches are encouraged to explore this theme by engaging with the journey of Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan, as through the wardrobe, they enter a world of ice and snow where it is always winter, but never Christmas. Congregations are asked to consider what the world would be like if Christmas never came and are reminded of the importance of the gift we are given at Christmas, past, present and future.”

Doug Swanney, Children’s Work Development Officer, said: “Christmas is a time associated with presents and giving and this service aims to highlight Jesus as the great gift of God for our salvation. But it’s not just for Christmas — it’s ideal for inclusive worship at any time of the year and the format is so flexible that it can easily be adapted to suit different congregations and styles of worship.”

However, not everyone will applaud the churches’ attempts to use the first film of the Chronicles as an evangelistic tool. Colin Duriez, author of two new books on Narnia and C. S. Lewis, as well as previous studies of Tolkien, noted that Tolkien would not have approved: “He didn’t like the Narnia Chronicles. He thought they were too allegorical, too specific in their Christian meanings.” The Royal Albert Hall is to be transformed into a glittering ice palace, mimicking the white winter world of Narnia, for the world premiere next month.

The Royal Film Performance of the epic The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe will be held on December 7 in the presence of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

The cast, which boasts some of the industry’s leading A-list actors, will attend. They include Liam Neeson, Rupert Everett, and Ray Winstone.

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