VUE CINEMA in Stroud is among those to have controversially banned a 60-second advert of The Lord's Prayer.

The minute-long clip produced by Church of England was due to be shown on screens across the county ahead of the new Star Wars film which is released on December 18.

The film shows Christians, beginning with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, saying one line of the Lord’s Prayer.

The rest of the lines are then spoken by a range of different people including a police officer, a commuter, schoolchildren and a mourner at a graveside.

But the Odeon Cineworld and Vue chains, which control 80 per cent of screens around the country, have refused to allow it because of a policy not to allow political or religious advertising.

They refused to show the ad because they believe it "carries the risk of upsetting, or offending, audiences".

The decision prompted an angry response from a broad spectrum of critics, from Christian and Muslim leaders to MPs and even outspoken evolutionary biologist and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins.

CofE spokesman, Reverend Arun Arora, said he was baffled by the ban, adding: “In one way the decision of the cinemas is just plain silly but the fact they have insisted upon it makes it rather chilling in terms of limiting free speech.

“We are hopeful the leadership of Digital Cinema Media would have the strength to recognise they have made a mistake and change their minds.”

But Digital Cinema Media, which handles most cinema advertising in the UK, told the church it has a policy “not to run advertising connected to personal beliefs, specifically those related to politics or religion. Our members have found that showing such advertisements carries the risk of upsetting, or offending, audiences.”

DCM added that it had received “considerable negative feedback from audiences” to adverts from both sides in the lead up to the Scottish independence referendum.

The short film has already been cleared by the Cinema Advertising Authority and British Board of Film Classification, the cinemas are still refusing to show the advert.

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