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 On Wednesday, bee-it took a trip to the impressive Lambeth Palace in South London for the launch of four new educational videos examining the theme of the ‘Sacred’...
Based on the work of Gordon Lynch, the Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology at the University of Kent, and developed by educational charity and online resource, TrueTube, the Sacred Films examine what the term 'Sacred' really means in modern society by merging historical and religious information with current day sociology.
Addressing the assembled audience, Stuart Porter, Innovation and Development Director at TrueTube, began:
“Launched in 2007, TrueTube is dedicated to providing informative short clips to help schools teach about social, ethical and moral issues across a variety of subjects. We have now produced over 750 videos, animations and other media content that teachers up and down the country are using in their classrooms to help engage and encourage discussions amongst their pupils.”
To date, the not-for-profit company has won numerous industry accolades, including awards from ERA in 2008, BETT in 2009 and The Jerusalem Trust in 2007, 2009 and 2010. TrueTube focuses on producing videos for young people and, where possible, involves them in the creation of films to make them more appealing to their peers. Little over a year ago, two London teenagers filmed their trip to Auschwitz, capturing their experiences in a short video diary. On their return to the UK they worked with TrueTube to edit and produce the final film, ‘This is our Story’, which later won a Jerusalem Award.
Stuart continued:
“Gordon Lynch had been looking for ways to bring his academic research into what 'Sacred' means in the modern society to a wider audience and approached TrueTube because of our track record in delivering videos on moral and ethical issues to schools. After much discussion about what Gordon wanted to get out of the films and what was physically possible to achieve, we created four short clips which examine various aspects of what may be considered to be sacred.” At the launch, the audience were treated to a look at two of the four videos. The first clip entitled ‘What is Sacred?’ features numerous vox-pops, or snippets of opinions from people on the street, interspersed with comments from Gordon Lynch.
Gordon begins:
“Often when we hear the word ‘sacred’, people naturally think of religion, so we think of sacred buildings being churches or mosques, or sacred texts being the bible or the Qur'an, but I think it is helpful to think about the sacred in a broader way than that...”
Throughout the video, the viewer is given a fascinating insight into the varying perspectives of what people consider to be sacred. For example, in the film a child suggests that sacred is “something to do with religion”, followed by a lady who comments that, to her, “sacred is community”. Click below to view the 'What is Sacred?' clip.
Adopting a completely different approach, ‘The Cult of the Child’ video takes a satirical look at how children are ‘monsters’ and deprive their parents of their own social life. This suggestion – whilst highly entertaining – seamlessly moves into examining why children are deemed sacred and looks at the different ways in which crimes are reported by the press when they involve children.
Gordon explained:
“The media play a really important role in terms of reminding us of the sacredness of the care for children, and one of the most important ways that they do this is through their coverage of stories about child abuse. When we see the stories of cases like Baby P, we feel appalled, we feel sickened about what has gone on in those cases, and that reminds us of that very deep moral commitment to the care of children.
“The moral reaction to paedophiles now seems to be often stronger than the moral revulsion that is shown towards murderers.”
As questions which delved deeper into our own beliefs about what sacred means were fired back and forth between the audience and Gordon and the TrueTube team, it became clear that Sacred Films is an excellent resource to kick start debates in lessons. Perhaps unexpectedly, the videos manage to bring together the subjects of RE, PSHE and Citizenship by taking a modern approach to asking the question, ‘what is sacred?’
As with all TrueTube videos, Sacred Films are completely free to view and can be found on the TrueTube website. Lesson plans to help with ideas about how to use the videos in class are also available alongside two of the films.
To view the whole series of videos including ‘What is Sacred?’, ‘The Cult of the Child’, ‘Is Nature Sacred?’ and ‘One Hour to Save the Nation’, click here.
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