Puppet preachers explore Christianity in films created by Inverness performance art group Out of the Box

Puppet preachers feature in a series of educational videos co-produced by young people at an Inverness church.

The Intro series is designed to help children explore and understand Christianity.

It has been produced by Inverness performance art group, Out of the Box, and has also involved Young Crown, the youth group of Crown Church of Scotland.

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The Intro series, aimed at seven to 12-year-olds, is designed to be used in schools as part of the Second Level RME (Religious and Moral Education) curriculum, and also in churches.

The 10 to 15-minute episodes feature humour, drama, animation and music to introduce the core beliefs of Christianity, the Old and New Testaments and what it means to live a Christian life.

They are supported by separate sets of resources for schools and churches, encouraging young viewers to look more deeply into the topics covered.

Out of the Box uses puppetry, music and various other forms of performing arts to share the Gospel.

But when the pandemic halted live events, creative director Chris Watt decided to use the time to make online films.

"I set up a studio in my living room, filmed our first episode, put it online and churches and families started using it," he said.

"We ended up producing almost 40 videos over the two years."

The response encouraged Chris and his colleagues Carol Hutchison and Matthew Todd to be more ambitious.

The Church of Scotland, which helped support the launch of Out of the Box in 2009 with a starter grant, also helped the Intro project with a £2500 award from the Novum Trust.

Churches in the Inverness area also supported the project in various ways including providing filming locations.

"The videos we made during lockdown were just myself and Carol so the Intro series was a massive step-up and the filming side was just a part of it," Chris said.

"Designing resources for the school and church section was a whole new sphere for us as well."

The series will be available free of charge and Chris and Carol are happy to talk to teachers and youth group leaders about the best way to use the resources.

"The school’s side is very much an educational resource showing what Christians believe which the Scottish Government says is part of the curriculum to be delivered in a classroom setting," Chris said.

"For the churches' side, we just hope it would inspire leaders and give them a resource they don’t really have to do much preparation with. They can pick it up and run it."

Filmed over three weeks last summer by director Philip Todd, the eight-episode series features guest presenter Alex MacQueen along with Chris and Carol, professional actors Stephen Corrall and David West, and interviewees who talk about their faith.

Alex, an Inverness primary school teacher, said: "Working in mainstream schools, we are aware that we are working in a secular environment so we want something that educators can see and immediately think ‘this is a really good resource’ and something that is age appropriate for schools."

Out of the Box chairman Matthew Donn was impressed with the quality of the finished product despite its limited resources.

"The team has created an eight-part TV series that is easily on par with productions you would see from national media companies," he said.

"It was a privilege to launch this resource to such an enthusiastic audience in Inverness. We are very grateful to our old and new supporters for their prayers and financial input."

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