Christmas thoughts from my chair

While there seems to be determined effort in some quarters to remove the Christian message out of Christmas, such as items about trend towards secular carol concerts citing Raymond Gubbay's 120 Christmas concerts nationwide, not mentioning the astonishing fact that last year 41% of Londoners attended carol services, there was a welcome exception on BBC's Countryfile last night, which created a traditional village celebration with none of the sceptical airbrushing that we've become accustomed to. The Christian elements of the festival were straightforwardly explored, from the star to the God pie (three-cornered mince pie representing the Trinity) to the animals. It was thoroughly uncynical and refreshing. Thank you, BBC.

Coincidentally on Friday night David Cameron had hit a raw nerve with some in a speech in Oxford marking the 400th anniversary of the Authorised Version of the Bible, in which he talked about the importance of the Christian heritage of our country. He also said it was "easier for people to believe and practise other faiths when Britain has confidence in its Christian identity". "Why? Because the tolerance that Christianity demands of our society provides greater space for other religious faiths too.""Many people tell me it is much easier to be Jewish or Muslim here in Britain than it is in a secular country like France," he said. "And because many of the values of a Christian country are shared by people of all faiths and indeed by people of no faith at all."  


Sadly the speech wasn't quoted on the Radio 4 news that night, only a predictable sound-bite from humanist ex-MP, Evan Harris, saying that restating our Christian history was divisive of religious groups - and anyway such ethical principles as "Do to others what you'd like them to do to you" predate all religions by thousands of years. Of course he adduced no evidence for his view, merely that they were rational principles. (Isn't reason God-given anyway?) He's quite wrong, of course, about the divisiveness of a distinctively Christian stance. When I taught in a multi-racial school in Oxford, it happened to be a Church of England school, founded by the Cowley Fathers to bring education to the poor areas of East Oxford. (The Christian contribution to education and in social involvement, by the way, is something often ignored or airbrushed out by faith's detractors.) Significantly ours was the school of choice for local Muslims, because they preferred a school where faith in God mattered to one with no religion. We used to enjoy our 6th-form assemblies in which Christian, Muslim, atheist, black, brown and white shared and discussed their faiths. Divisive? You're joking!

For someone who has no faith in God, it's a simple mistake to make imagining that different faiths can't coexist harmoniously. (It's also a lie fraught with danger, if not inciting hatred.) For many centuries they did so in the near middle east, as William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain beautifully records. And just last week I read this fascinating news item from Jerusalem:
"This holiday season, many evangelical Christians and their families are using the Hanukah Tree Topper and Star of David Tree Topper to crown their Christmas trees. The idea was the brainchild of Morri and Marina Chowaiki who have sold many thousands of the decorative 'menorahments' after making one to put on top of their own Christmas tree because they couldn’t find one in any store. The couple say that they have received many orders from people who want a symbol of Israel and peace on their tree and have received, 'tons of positive feedback.'"

There's a trenchant (and often misquoted) comment by Ben Stein, inter al speech writer for Richard Nixon, which was broadcast on CBS on 18th December 2005.
"Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

"I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are (US reality TV "couple"). I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I'm buying my dog biscuits. I still don't know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They don't know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they've broken up? Why are they so darned important?

"I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I don't care at all about Tom Cruise's baby.

"Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I'm a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, not so bad.

"Next confession: I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.

"I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are — Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they're slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we're all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

"It doesn't bother me one bit that there's a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu.

"If people want a creche, fine. The menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too. I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way. Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and aren't allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to." 

Rather wonderful crib in Sorrento Cathedral

So to my friends, of whatever colour and creed, I wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year (I guess there's more hope of the former than the latter!). Hopefully you'll reciprocate in the way that suits you best.

Preparing for Christmas

Things at home are beginning to shape up for our family Christmas.  It's quite a strange feeling, I must say, not being 'in charge' of a parish with three churches (not that I was in charge, I hope) for the first time for twenty years.  Not that I'm missing the strain; probably just the power!  And also, of course, the community.  Anyway we're hoping our neighbours will be coming round on Tuesday for mince pies and mulled wine - which of course means Jane doing the preparations.  And she's been dusting down our environmentally friendly artificial Christmas tree, which is now twinkling in the conservatory.  And bringing out the crib.  And putting up the cards on the trellis in the 'lift room'.  And doing the shopping.  And wrapping the presents.  And... meanwhile I sit and watch, and think of past years when we did such things as a team and of how much is falling on Jane's shoulders now.  But she doesn't complain.  In fact she says she's enjoying it - and I believe she is.  The truth is that we are celebrating the birth of the serving God - and gratitude makes drudgery divine.

'News'

Traditionally the summer months were known as the silly season for news stories. It seems that it's extending into autumn this year. For me the big one is the hullabaloo about Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. I reckon it's a no-brainer. Even if nominations did have to be in a few days after his election, as I remember it even that soon he had changed the dynamic of global diplomacy from one of shooting from the hip to one of human engagement. It might be that the Iranians are not 'evil' and it might not be most productive to threaten to blow them out of existence. And he has redefined the US government's position on climate change. And started movement again on Israel and Palestine. Admittedly the fruits of his vision have yet to be realised. And, as I said when he was elected, there is a danger in pinning too much hope on one man. HE can't change human nature.

And then there's the media storm over Mr Anton du Beke's gratuitous use of a racist term - three weeks ago. First neither he nor the show deserve such media time. Secondly it should have been dealt with by an apology to Laila Rouass on his part, acceptance on her part, and leaving it behind by both of them. And the press hounds being told to get lost.

And there's the Grove Christmas tree, planted three years ago in the centre of the village - which was cut down by vandals, so everyone thought. It turned out in fact that county council arboriculturalists had felled it arbitrarily. Sorry! They've offered to replace it.

On a more serious note, I must say I agreed with Judge James Allen when he said it would be 'unconscionable' if Christine Gill, an only child, were not to inherit her parents' estate - in spite of the will assigning it all to the RSPCA. Apparently her father had bullied her mother into agreeing to the terms against her own wishes. There is a difference between animals and humans, and people should come first. Animal charities in this country are anything but underfunded. And great though the work of the RSPCA is, I'm really disappointed that they have said they will appeal. Have they, I wonder, been advised by predatory lawyers?