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The children chitter amongst themselves like a little bundle of puppies, squealing and yipping with excitement. The recession, despite its impact and inevitable consequences, has yet to affect this group of seven year olds who, when asked about Christmas, struggle to contain their excitement.
“Mum says I am getting a new pony,” Molly announces, in that matter of fact manner that only little girls with long yellow hair and huge blue eyes can truly master.
“My whole family are coming over!” Sahib shouts.
So what does Christmas mean to our children? Many have worried that over the years this once pagan and always spiritual celebration has been lost to Disney and Toys ‘R’ Us, but now a competition organised by Ecclesiastical Insurance aims to discover the true meaning of Christmas.
www.Ecclesiastical.com, a leading insurer of religious buildings, is inviting children of all ages and all faiths to come together and create videos illustrating what the true meaning of Christmas is to them. The videos will not be judged on their technical prowess, more the sentiments behind it. All videos must be endorsed by church or youth group leaders and the entries will then be uploaded on the site www.truemeaning.co.uk. The competition is to be judged by a panel including Peter Ball, Head of Youth Ministry for the Church of England and film-maker Dominic Green. The top prize of £3,000 going to the winning church or faith group.
The films, which you can view on the website, vary from a black and white cine-film featuring a little girl kneeling in front of a tree in a church, set to classical music; to a Plastiscene nativity animation with a little boy’s narrative.
Supporting the competition is Dr Sentamu – the Archbishop of York. He sends a message to youth groups: “It’s your film. It’s your story. It’s your chance to express your thoughts.”
John Coates, Church Insurance manager for Ecclesiastical explains that: “Many video clips posted on the web are the sort of things that give teenagers a bad name, but we wanted to harness a medium that young people relate to, enabling them to produce a message that is central to the Church.”
He goes on to acknowledge that: “There’s no escaping the fact that Christmas has been taken over by the commercial world, but particularly this year, when so many more families will struggle financially to afford all the trappings of Christmas. We’re giving young people the opportunity to promote what they believe is its true meaning.”
Film-making has become a fantastic way of raising awareness of issues and with the meteoric rise of YouTube and phone cameras, there seems to be nothing stopping our children becoming the next Steven Soderbergh, for example, who shot his first 16mm films at the tender age of 15, and went on to win 22 awards for his films (which includes the Oceans 11 trilogy).
People can make any kind of video they want – a poem, song, play or a piece of reportage. Children and teenagers are being given an opportunity to let their creativity run wild, while gaining exposure and perhaps a nice award!
The closing date for entries is October 10 and full details of the competition can be found at www.truemeaning.co.uk. Winners will be announced at a finalists event in Manchester on Friday 21 November.
Jo-Rosie is writing on behalf of Ecclesiastical, an expert www.ecclesiastical.com/ourproducts/insurance/index.aspx>insurance provider and www.ecclesiastical.com/ourproducts/financialadvice/index.aspx>financial advisors working on behalf of individuals, families, groups and organisations that care about their communities and the environments in which they live and work. They’re also a company that donates a significant proportion of our profits to charity and has launched the TrueMeaning competition. Ecclesiastical was founded in 1887 by Churchmen, largely to protect churches from the consequences of fire.
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