Prohibition on Christian documentary filming at St Cuthbert’s Cave ‘mandated from the highest level of the NT’

A Catholic filmmaker was refused permission by the National Trust to film a documentary about St Cuthbert at St Cuthbert's Cave in Northumberland. The National Trust said ‘we will not be able to host your filming due to its religious affiliation’ and that the decision was ‘mandated from the highest level of the NT’.

The Telegraph reports,

The National Trust has been accused of anti-Christian discrimination after banning a Roman Catholic from filming at a religious site.

Christian Holden was blocked from filming at St Cuthbert’s Cave in Northumberland last year for a documentary about the 7th-century monk.

He was told by executives at the heritage charity that the “religious affiliation” of the film, which centred on the long-distance St Cuthbert’s Way footpath, meant it could not go ahead.

The trust has now been accused of religious discrimination by Voice for Justice UK, a Christian campaign group.

Mr Holden, 51, told The Telegraph: “To have someone say we can’t host you because of your religious affiliation, that’s really stunning.

“We’re trying to tell the story of St Cuthbert, that site is very specific to St Cuthbert, and it’s relevant because of St Cuthbert’s history with the place.

“To say: ‘You can’t tell the story of this Christian heritage site because you’re a Christian...’ I was really taken aback by it.

“For myself professionally, it’s almost like I’ve hit a brick wall just because of my religious background. I’m stunned that I can’t fulfil my role, my job, as best I can to tell that story.”

Mr Holden, from Tenby, Pembrokeshire, was commissioned to produce a documentary following Dr Jason Baxter, an American academic, and students at Benedictine College, a Roman Catholic private university in Kansas.

In August, the group walked St Cuthbert’s Way, a 62-mile route from Melrose, Roxburghshire, where Cuthbert was prior, to Lindisfarne, Northumberland, where he was bishop.

Mr Holden requested permission in June to film at St Cuthbert’s Cave, where the body of the monk is thought to have been hidden from Viking raids in the 9th century before later being taken to Durham, where it remains to this day.

“Their immediate response was that they don’t host filming of a religious or political nature,” he said.

Mr Holden said that he followed up with a phone call and subsequently received an email from a trust employee to say that the trust would maintain its initial decision not to allow the filming because of the religious affiliation.

“I was a bit stunned, to be honest, with that, not least because they host a site which is only of real significance because of its relation to St Cuthbert.”

Emails seen by The Telegraph show the employee telling Mr Holden that the refusal had been “mandated from the highest level of the NT”.

“Thank you for the email and clarification on the filming,” they wrote. “We will however be following through with our initial decision that we will not be able to host your filming due to its religious affiliation. I’m sorry I know this is disappointing, but this approach has been mandated from the highest level of the NT.”

Mr Holden said he asked for the decision to be reviewed – only to be told by a more senior employee that “they believe they have the right to refuse access to their site and they’re not bound by legislation”.

“He said that because they’re not receiving public money, they’re not beholden to some of these regulations, which again is bizarre,” he said.

The film went ahead without St Cuthbert’s Cave being featured.