VICARS: DEARLY BELOVED?
Thursday 9 September 2004 9.50pm-10.30pm; 2.55am-3.35am; Sunday 12 September 2.25am-3.05am (Saturday night)
Time Shift looks at the changing role of the Church of England parish priest over the last 40 years. This programme charts the role of those in the front line against dwindling congregations and funds: the vicars. Interviews with The Alpha Course's Nicky Gumbel, journalists Matthew Parris and Ruth Gledhill, and James Runcie.
DIRECTOR INTERVIEW
"Church-goers have become more demanding and discerning"
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Tom Ware
Time Shift Series Editor
Who'd be a vicar? The last half century has seen men of the cloth reduced from pillars of the community to figures of fun, while the Church of England seems forever divided by crises over women priests and gay clergy.
But as Julia Foot's thoughtful documentary shows, away from the sitcoms and headlines, Britain's vicars have been quietly working out a new role for themselves. In the 21st Century, your vicar is less likely to be the white, male, middle-class taker of tea, than a politically aware, spiritually motivated social reformer who may even (Heaven preserve us!), be a woman.
