BOLTON vicars are turning Hollywood into Holy-wood by showing scenes from blockbuster movies to illustrate sermons.

Shrek, Spiderman, Babe the pig and Billy Elliot might seem unlikely allies in the battle to leave behind the Church of England's sometimes stuffy image.

But they are proving a hit with congregations at several churches in the town as vicars use movie clips as a springboard to discuss issues.

The Rev Paul Berry, team vicar based at St Elizabeth's in Horwich, said: "People can be quite surprised when half way through a sermon the lights go down and we watch a scene from a popular film for two or three minutes.

"My regular congregation have taken to it very well. Perhaps they are just resigned to a vicar who's potty about films but it's lovely to see visitors go away thinking 'they are really making an effort to reach us and speak our language'.

"It's not about dumbing down. It's about taking hold of the timeless truths of the gospel and making them contemporary."

Self-confessed film buff The Rev Berry, a regular cinema-goer, incorporates scenes from the silver screen every Sunday at the Chorley Old Road church. Those featured include excerpts from:

Spiderman: Used at a Christmas service to address the issue of how society would react to a 'saviour' figure

Billy Elliott: In a sermon addressing peer pressure

Babe: Pig in the City - tackling the subject of revenge

Shrek: To illustrate a discussion about 'listening to the right voice'

Among the other Church of England churches championing the use of movies are St Peter's in Halliwell, St Luke's in Halliwell, Emmanuel Church in Deane and St George The Martyr in Daubhill.

The trend is becoming so widespread that the Rev Berry has been asked to write a regular film review column in the Manchester Diocese magazine Crux focusing on how latest releases can be used in sermons.

He said: "We need to make worship more of an event. We are living increasingly in a visual age and I think the church is responding to that now." One of the very first churches to use movie clips, or "Hollywood parables" as its vicar The Rev Andie Brown calls them, was St Luke's in Halliwell.

"I think it would be fair to say we were pioneers. We've used film clips for a long time. They're earthly stories to illustrate heavenly truths."