Award-Winning TV Series ‘Pilgrimage’ Bridges Faiths and Perspectives
(Photo: BBC)
The TV series ‘Pilgrimage’ has been honored with a Special Award for fostering interfaith understanding through its unique format of celebrity pilgrimages. This acknowledgment comes from the Sandford St Martin Trust, which champions excellence in religious broadcasting.
At a ceremony held at Lambeth Palace in London, Tony Stoller, the Trust’s chair, praised the series for its role in promoting respectful dialogue among individuals with diverse beliefs. “In our increasingly fragmented and fractious times, ‘Pilgrimage’ has consistently shown how, through thoughtful and respectful conversation, strangers from different faith perspectives and with very different world views can still find common ground and friendship,” he stated.
Broadcast globally by the BBC and produced by CTVC, ‘Pilgrimage’ has completed eight series, featuring participants from various faiths, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, alongside atheists and agnostics. The series chronicles the experiences of these individuals as they journey without modern distractions to sacred sites such as Santiago de Compostela, Istanbul, Portugal, and North Wales. A notable highlight was a private audience with Pope Francis during a series finale in Rome.
Daisy Scalchi, the BBC’s Head of Religion and Ethics, remarked, “What better way to embrace different perspectives and outlooks than walking with people who can open our hearts and minds to new ways of seeing the world. Pilgrimage is like no other show on TV.”
The Sandford St Martin Trust described ‘Pilgrimage’ as offering “space for genuine, reflective conversation,” an increasingly rare commodity in today’s media landscape driven by controversy and clicks.
The awards night celebrated diverse topics across four categories: journalism, TV/video, young audience, and radio/audio. Featured entries explored issues such as faith amidst the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the rise of Christian nationalism, among others. Winners included a program on the Christian Brothers in Ireland and a piece on the Falun Gong movement’s media takeover in China.
A special award, determined by public vote and presented by Radio Times magazine, went to a BBC program following journalist Amol Rajan on a pilgrimage during the Kumbh Mela festival in India. His journey aimed to explore faith’s potential in healing personal loss.
Krish Kandiah, a Christian social entrepreneur, underscored the importance of these productions, highlighting their role in fostering dialogue against the backdrop of divisive political and social discourse in the UK.
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
