Live camels take the stage to attract festive worshippers

CHURCHES are increasingly putting on “bizarre” Christmas shows involving live camels and angels on stilts to attract worshippers over the festive season, insurers have reported.

Some churches in England have turned to live animals in an attempt to attract churchgoers while others are considering conducting their nativity service in a barn in the hope of boosting attendance.

Insurers Ecclesiastical, which insures most of the UK’S Anglican churches, said it has been inundated with unusual queries in the run-up to the Christmas period.

Helen Richards, a manager at Ecclesiastical, said: “We’ve had some bizarre conversations and some really interesting requests from our church customers. One customer called to ask if they would be covered if they held their nativity service in a barn and another wanted to know if angels on stilts would be covered under their policy.

“My personal favourite is definitely whether we had any advice on bringing real camels in to the church.”

Ms Richards added: “We are very much an enabler when it comes to things like this.”

A spokesman from the Church of England said: “We’re delighted to see such creativity during this magical season. It’s wonderful that the same God who gave his only Son to the world also gave finance professionals the intelligence and insurers the wit to underwrite these risks properly.”

Ecclesiastical said that it insured the requests after proper risk assessments.