|PIC1|Churches across the U.S. have already joined forces with Disney and Buena Vista, the film's distributors, in the run-up to the release of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Now it’s the UK’s turn, with churches across the country soon to be donning glossy Narnia posters.

Church ministers are also being encouraged to incorporate Narnia-related themes into their sermons, reports The Scotsman, in the run-up to the film’s UK release on 7 December.

The deal between the UK churches and Narnia has been arranged with Christian Publishing and Outreach (CPO), one of the UK’s leading publishers of Christian materials, supplying around 20,000 churches across the country.

CPO is providing churches with Narnia posters and sermon ideas, as well as DVDs featuring the official trailer of the £62million film, which stars Scottish actress Tilda Swinton as the wicked Queen.

Both the Church and Hollywood have buried the hatchet in an unprecedented display of unity, with the country’s churches leaping on the opportunity to put out a strong Christian message into British popular culture.

Russ Bravo, director of development at CPO, said the film is probably the biggest opportunity the Church has had for many years, reports The Scotsman.

“We have seen enormous demand. A lot of churches have been wanting to get on board with this,” said Mr Bravo.

“This is a family film that appeals across the board. Obviously a lot of churches are very keen on CS Lewis and his writings and see this as a good chance to maybe communicate something of their message in the context of the film,” he said.

The CPO ideas packs, already being snapped up by churches across the country, feature three sermons, “The Wardrobe – finding a way in!”, “The Witch – Escaping the Big Chill” and “The Lion – Long Live the King”, advising church leaders on how best to communicate the themes of the film.

The Rev. David Lacy, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said it was common sense to capitalise on the film.

“There is really no negative outcome at all for the church. The way we present it will be the way we present it, not the way Disney presents it. If it is going to happen anyway then the Church would be daft not to capitalise on any benefits it can get out of it,” he said.

|QUOTE|According to Dr Jolyon Mitchell, senior lecturer in media ethics at Edinburgh University, what is new is not the Church using films for evangelical purposes but rather Hollywood film companies seeing the lucrative opportunities afforded by Christian groups.

“The box office success of the Passion of the Christ has led film companies to work out that by galvanising a particular constituency they can increase the number of people attending a particular film,” he said.

“That is probably why Disney are interested because it is likely to increase their ticket sales. But the church groups that are involved in this want to use it as an opportunity to teach, to connect what will be a big, cultural phenomenon.”

Not all are embracing Hollywood’s newfound interest in the Christian film-viewing public, however.

Don Cupitt, author of the acclaimed Taking Leave of God, said: “The film companies will use the Church exploitatively and deliberately. The evangelical wing of the church is always looking for a handle, often very naively. It is a mistake. It would be much better if the evangelicals had some thoughts of their own.”

Former bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, said: “I would have thought that CS Lewis himself would not have been easy with this. While he is the darling of the evangelicals he was not really strictly speaking an evangelical Christian, he was quite a complex and subtle theologian. So I think he would be a bit bemused.”

The film will be premiered in the UK at the Royal Albert Hall on 7 December before its general release on 8 December.