I heartily agree with their decision.  And I might add that while I am not saying a Christian could never have a beer etc; I do wonder at the propriety / good taste in hosting a “church event” in a public house.

It seems pretty obvious to me that if you want a debate between Christians and atheists, you host the event someplace where both groups are likely to be found. That place isn’t a church. If you lived in England during the 1940s and wanted to find vigorous evangelism, you could have gone to no better place than the Eagle and Child Public House in Oxford. We seem to have lost the confidence in the ability of Christianity to win a fair debate that Chesterton, Lewis, Williams, Tolkien, Sayers, Barfield, etc., shared.

Is the pub owner saying that “Irish Catholics” are so insecure about their faith that they are afraid of a robust debate? Hitchens is annoying, but ultimately unpersuasive. Suppressing this sort of debate sends the message that we Christians don’t think we can beat him at his own game.

Quite a comment on where the Anglican Church has gone when even a pub won’t host their film night fearing it will be so offensive to believers!

I’ll leave it to my friends at St Alban’s to further explain if they wish (I moved from Ottawa three years ago), but, without context, the preceding commenters have misunderstood the circumstances.  Research on what the Collision movie is about, and how it is being used an apologetic tool, would be helpful.  St Alban’s is willing to take the orthodox gospel where many churches are unwilling to go.

Having spent a goodly number of nights at the Heart and Crown, I can’t imagine that being a particularly good venue for watching a documentary, much less trying to have a lively theological conversation with more than a table of people. Now it was a GREAT venue for a little live music, a great selection of malt beverages, and quasi-theological late night conversations with 2-3 good friends!

It’s okay, though—I expect another pub or secular place of business will be willing to host the group, and they will gain the benefit of the extra customers and loyalty, and the first pub will lose it.

The pub must be doing well, and not need the business.  Nothing wrong with that.

I must admit to being puzzled.  The pub can do what it wants, but canceling at the last minute leads me to think that something more is going on.  I suspect that there are critical facts missing from the report.

The flyer featured two quotes from the film’s stars. The first quote, from Mr. Hitchens, reads: “[Christianity] is a wicked cult, and it’s high time we left it behind.”
Mr. Douglas is then quoted as saying, “There are two tenets of atheism. One, there is no God. Two, I hate him.”

The Pub may have agreed to a debate but the designers of the flyer referred to the wrong quotations if they really expected the event to be perceived as a debate. The (out of context) quotations they chose represented the event as an advertisement for Atheism.
I can understand why the Pub did not want to host this event.

I go to St. Albans, and actually, Chris, we are an ANiC parish.  We aren’t on the “far gone” side. 

#1 We are more interested in reaching people than in propriety and good taste.  The idea was that we could invite people to the movie at the pub who would have been reluctant to come to the church.  We’ve also held Alpha courses at pubs, for the same reason.

#2 Exactly.

”...he was told several times it was because the pub was an “Irish Catholic institution.”

What part of “Irish Catholic Institution” don’t you understand? ;o

Post # 9, Do you think the flyer represented the event properly as a civilized debate?
If the only thing a person knows about the event is that the flyer promises a “Collision” (I assume they meant a collision of minds) and that it gives an Atheist yet another stage to ridicule Christianity, can that person really be expected to think that the event will be a civilized debate about religion?

that it gives an Atheist yet another stage to ridicule Christianity

It did nothing of the kind, and the flyers don’t imply that.  Douglas Wilson is a very effective debater.  The event was a “bring your questions” event aimed at seekers and friends who are not yet believers.  I think we as Christians should be encouraging questions.  We don’t need to be afraid of them, or the people who ask them. 

The owners of the pub had a month to find out all they wished to about the movie.  We explained that we were a Christian group, and even offered them a copy of the movie to preview.  The offer was declined.  We called and confirmed our booking the day before. Our 7:00pm booking was cancelled at 2:00pm that same day. If the owners had genuine fears about the film, they had plenty of time to preview it.  They had time to give us more than five hours notice!

Bettcee (#11), since you raised the question, what do you think is wrong with the flyer (actually it is the official promotion for the film)?  John Piper hasn’t been afraid to use the film:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1954_watch_the_movie_collision_at_the_desiring_god_conference/

For anyone willing or wanting to go beyond the superficial newspaper story, here’s an interview between John Piper and Doug Wilson in which the value of the film as an apologetic and evangelism tool is discussed:

http://www.americanvision.com/collisionchristopherhitchensvsdouglaswilsondvd.aspx

A flyer is usually the first impression that a customer gets regarding an event and regardless of whether it is right or wrong many people rely on first impressions instead of getting to know the subject.
If the flyer had been a little less sensational and represented this as a serious debate I think people would have had a different, and possibly more accurate impression of the event.
For what it is worth, this is my first impression:
The title “COLLISION” with a lightening bolt “I” gives me the impression that it will be much like the sensational videos that are so common with celebrities today so get ready to see fireworks.
Then when the flyer quotes Mr.Hitchens as saying “[Christianity] is a wicked cult, and it’s high time we left it behind.” and also quotes Mr. Douglas as cleverly saying, as a reply to this major insult, that “There are two tenets of atheism. One, there is no God. Two, I hate him.” I get the same impression that the Irish Catholics probably did and that is that the debate will be kind of one sided. I realize that this probably is an erroneous impression but unfortunately that is what it is.

Kate Sanderson,

Thanks for correcting some of the erroneous ideas some of us seem to have assumed about this. Good on your church for daring to think a little differently where evangelism is concerned - I hope you are not discouraged from trying things like this in future.

You have certainly piqued my interest in this film and I will try to get a copy.

What I found the most interesting about it was the friendship that developed between Hitchens and Wilson.

It won’t discourage our assistant pastor (who ran the event).  Here’s the ministry to university students and young adults that he runs:
http://the-house.ca/

We (well, that’s the royal we, I personally don’t do much more than make the coffee sometimes!) run these sorts of events a lot.

Bettcee (#15), thank you for your response.  I can see your point, but there is more information that the newspaper story didn’t well communicate.  The Heart and Crown is in the Byward Market area of Ottawa - an area that is popular with tourists and university students.  Although the owner may try to replicate the atmosphere of an Irish pub (the advertising says nothing about Catholic), I suspect there are many evenings when few if any of the patrons are truly “Irish Catholics”.  It’s a smokescreen by the owner as far as I’m concerned and he actually got cold feet for other reasons.

I hope that my criticism of the flyer is not understood as a criticism of the debate, which I have never seen and would not comment on.