2017 Sandford St Martin Awards: Last Call for Entries
The Sandford St Martin Trust is calling for entries to the UK's most prestigious awards for radio, TV and online content exploring religious, spiritual or ethical themes.
Applications are encouraged from news, current affairs, drama, music, arts, children's and comedy genres, as well as from specifically 'religious' commissions. Stephen Fry's controversial interview for RTE in which he denounced God as "utterly evil, capricious and monstrous" was one of the programmes shortlisted for an Award in 2016.
Defending the place of programmes that challenge as well as support faith among those recognised by the Awards, Anna McNamee, Executive Secretary of the Trust said: "Religion plays a key role in some of the world's biggest issues today. Through recognising programmes that effectively explore those big questions encompassed by religion and ethics, who we are and why we're here, the Sandford St Martin Awards aim to highlight the growing importance of understanding people from all perspectives."
Speaking at the 2016 Awards ceremony, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called on broadcasters to treat religion "with the same seriousness as other genres like sport, politics economics or drama." The promotion of religious literacy, he said "should be a specific duty."
The deadline for entries is Friday 3 February 2017. Winners will be announced at a special ceremony at Lambeth Palace on Wednesday 3 June 2017.
There is a specific Children's Award, and entry forms and full criteria are available on the website.
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