“WE came from all over and we’re drawn by different things, but we all had one thing in common: a sense that a long-forgotten saint had something that our contemporary world still needed.”

‘The Way of St Cuthbert’, the latest film by Saundersfoot-based documentary film producer, St Anthony Communications, airs tomorrow night on a global television network.

The 30-minute film will be broadcast on global Catholic television network EWTN on Saturday, January 17, 9.30pm, after the nightly news. EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world, delivering programming to 440 million homes across 160 countries.

Anticipating the broadcast, Christian Holden, 51, director of St Anthony Communications said: “Any film producer delights in having their film viewed widely. With the broadcast outreach of EWTN, this film will be seen by a huge audience around the world.”

Christian grew up in Saundersfoot (since 1984), and attended Greenhill School, Tenby. He currently lives in St Florence and attends St Teilo's Catholic Church in Tenby, with his family. He founded St Anthony Communications in 1995 and has worked in videography and post-production since 2009.

This latest film follows a US university professor and a group of Benedictine College students as they walk the 65-mile ‘Way of St Cuthbert.’

The team is accompanied by Canon Marcus Holden and Daniel Catone, as they walk the pilgrim route from Melrose, Scotland, to Lindisfarne Island on the Northumberland coast. Throughout the journey they consider the life of St Cuthbert, the history of the area, and his influence in the life of the Church during the 7th century and beyond.

Along the way they explore the dramatic beauty of the landscape, imagining what it would have been like for St Cuthbert and the people of that time. The trip ends with a visit to Durham Cathedral - the final resting place and burial site of St Cuthbert.

As part of the production, Christian sought permission from the National Trust to film at St Cuthbert’s Cave: “It’s a site with very specific connections to St Cuthbert - it is believed that he spent time here as a hermit, and for certain his body was brought here by the monks of Lindisfarne to evade the Viking raids.”

Permission to film there was refused, however, “due to its religious affiliation”, prompting Rev’d Lynda Rose, chief executive of Voice for Justice UK to say: “For the National Trust to turn down a request to film a documentary about the life of St Cuthbert on the ground of ‘religious affiliation’ is a rejection and betrayal of the heritage they ostensibly exist to protect.”

Talking to The Telegraph, Mr Holden said: “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.

The decision has sparked allegations of religious discrimination on the part of a charity that has already come into question on the subject.

The Catholic Herald recalls: “In 2023, the Trust released an ‘inclusivity and wellbeing’ calendar that omitted Christmas but included the Hindu festival of Diwali and the Muslim festivals of Eid and Ramadan.”

Christian told the Tenby Observer: “The email I received states that the refusal to film at the site was due to ‘religious affiliation,’ and furthermore that it was ‘mandated at the highest levels of the NT.’

“This is what was most concerning - that there seems to be an anti-Christian bias at the National Trust.”

During the December 7 ‘Sunday’ programme on Radio 4, presenter William Crawley posed the question: “Did the National Trust refuse permission for filming at one of its sites because the documentary being made was of a religious nature?”

He continued: “The independent filmmaker Christian Holden sought permission to use St Cuthbert’s Cave in Northumberland for a film about the saint; the reply he received from the National Trust mentioned concerns about its religious affiliation. That single phrase has sparked coverage in Christian and national media and some have already tried to frame that as part of a wider culture war.”

“The National Trust for its part says there is more to this story,” added the presenter as he asked Mr Holden to recount what happened when he applied for permission to film.

Christian had approached the National Trust in June 2025 - out of integrity rather than necessity. He later explained to the Tenby Observer: “In any filming project, I always seek permission from the owner(s) of private land or property. The site at St Cuthbert's Cave is not staffed by the NT, is easily accessible, and many people will take the opportunity to film and take photographs. As a professional videographer, however, I believe it's important to conduct my filming projects with the required permissions when on private land.”

Answering the question on Radio 4 he said: “The initial response I had was that ‘it is our policy not to allow any filming of a religious nature’ and we had some conversation back and fourth with that person at the National Trust. Eventually I had this final response that they would not be able to host the filming because of its religious affiliation, and that this is ‘mandated at the highest level’ of the National Trust.”

(The Catholic Herald reports that the Trust also expressed disapproval of Christian’s website, because of its religious themes.)

When asked about National Trust policy, Andy Beer, Director of Strategy and Places at the National Trust, told William: “No we don’t have a policy of that nature. What’s happened here is that we’ve made a bit of a mistake.”

When prompted to explain further, he elaborated: “We have thousands of requests every year for filming and actually, although it might sound easy to accommodate, our places are often managed by others, very often farm tenants and they’re very often very sensitive so in order to undertake filming we have to consult all sorts of statutory agencies and think about the protection of the site, so we usually say no to filming and we do it by exception where it meets our charitable purpose.

“So in this instance the team member concerned has clearly quoted a policy which doesn’t exist in saying no and got into a debate by email which is normally ill-advised in my experience.”

This wasn’t enough to convince Holden, who in 2015 had experienced similar difficulties obtaining permission when he applied to film at the St John’s Jerusalem site at Sutton-at-Hone, Kent. On that occasion, having been informed by email that the Trust doesn’t allow filming of a political or religious kind, he followed up with a ’phone call and got the go-ahead to film.

This time, the refusal came from two senior members of staff. Christian told the BBC:

“If it was only one member of staff then I would say, okay fair enough, we could look at that, but when it’s a second, more senior member of staff comes in and backs up the same policy - and in fact both are, from my reading, fairly senior members of staff, one is a filming and locations executive, the other is senior filming and locations manager - these are, you know, not work experience employees, they’re fairly experienced staff members, so it is troubling that we’ve got this response consistently, with the more senior manager coming back to me and again reaffirming ‘we do not accept filming of a religious nature’ when in fact we can demonstrate that that’s untrue.”

(Christian has directed our attention to a YouTube film on the Trust’s own channel: ‘Enjoy the beautiful Peak District on a Ramadan walk with the Muslim Hikers’)

“It is a bit troubling that we’ve got this consistent response - this reticence to permit religious filming - when of course so much of our heritage; so many of the sites that the National Trust has management and oversight of; have a Christian history - not least at St Cuthbert’s Cave.”

It prompted a question from William Crawley about whether the National Trust has a ‘nervousness about Christianity’ that has played out in ‘culture war’ language.

It was then that Mr Beer apologised on behalf of the National Trust and committed to ensuring that “an issue like this won’t happen again.”

He continued: “In terms of our approach to Christianity, you have to remember one of our three founders was a vicar. Many of our sites have got churches in the grounds and I’d really invite everybody to visit a National Trust place this Christmas and just see how we’re celebrating the season.”

As the National Trust representative went on to mention a sold-out carol concert at Fountains Abbey and various houses that had been spruced up for December, the presenter congratulated him on ‘impressively turning the apology into an advert’ - nevertheless, Holden was glad to hear it.

“It’s certainly reassuring to hear that for any Christians visiting NT sites that there is this focus on recognising the Christian history and valuing that in our nation.”

Mr Holden recently told the Tenby Observer: “We’ve had further correspondence and an online meeting with Andy Beer, from the NT, which were constructive. Hopefully, there will be some reconsideration of the operating procedures at the National Trust and improved staff training to avoid any similar occurrences in the future.

“I think it is important for the National Trust to welcome people from all faiths and cultural backgrounds,” he added, “but not by downplaying the Christian heritage of so many of the historic sites they manage. I believe we should take pride in the Christian heritage of our nation.”

The apology came too late to include footage of the Cave.

“With the main cast members being from the USA, we needed to complete all the filming during that week in early August,” Christian explained. “Instead of the Cave, we filmed nearby around the rocky headland on the public pathway.”

It’s a shame, because: “St Cuthbert's Cave is a distinctive site, is atmospheric, and offers a very different backdrop to the rolling hills and valleys of the journey up to that point. It would have offered some great videography moments.”

In the trailer for ‘The Way of St Cuthbert’, the film’s lead presenter Dr Jason Baxter, a professor at Benedictine College, Kansas City, sets the scene:

“We live in a world of non-places, of fast spaces, of hidden faces. for the past 200 years, we’ve tried to see how fast we can go, how efficient we can make ourselves, how far we can extend our power.

“It’s strange then that although we’re more powerful and richer than ever before, our age is one of unprecedented anxiety, isolation and loneliness. An age in which we have lost touch with one another, lost touch with nature, lost touch with ourselves.

“If our language is full of dead metaphors, it’s probably because we spend so little time around what’s living.

“For our world then, beauty is not something nice or cute or quaint; we need beauty like the sick need medicine.

“We need to find all over again slow spaces where we can feel the rhythm of the wind, hear the sound of living water, cross bridges made for feet, climb the steep ways, follow the old signs, keep to the straight paths, enter by and over the narrow gate, learn to share all over again our world with others.

“And most importantly, we need the examples of those who knew how to hear the song of the world and give it back to its maker as a hymn.

“Fortunately, there are still some places like that left.”

Canon Marcus Holden, who features in the film, is Christian’s brother. He grew up in Saundersfoot. He’s a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark (South London and Kent) but has recently been appointed as Rector of the Pontifical Beda College in Rome. One of his first engagements was to host King Charles at the college during his visit to Rome last October.

Christian’s son Gabriel, 16, was part of the filming crew, acting as camera assistant. “He did a wonderful job, carrying quite heavy gear across all sorts of terrain!”

Following tomorrow night’s premiere, the film will be available for download/streaming from the St Anthony Communications website, www.saintant.com .