Sentamu views gain support

10:32am Saturday 9th December 2006

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THE Archbishop of York won strong support today from senior churchmen after calling for Christmas to be saved from anti-religious extremists.

Dr John Sentamu spoke out in the wake of reports that Christmas celebrations were being banned from the workplace, nativity plays were being performed without Jesus and playgroups were staging "winter festival" parties from which Christmas had been removed.

He claimed there was a worrying trend for illiberal atheists to combine with "aggressive secularists" to create a ludicrous situation, in which those who did not believe in God had decided that a Christian festival offended other faiths.

He said they were trying to pretend it was possible to enter into the true meaning of Christmas by leaving out Jesus Christ.

"The person who is at the heart of the celebration is totally excluded. This really is a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, or in this case throwing out the crib at Christmas."

He said such people were behaving like the inn keeper on the first Christmas Eve and saying there was no room at the inn.

"It is like having a birthday party, the guests turning up and giving each other presents, forgetting why they came and totally excluding the birthday child. Have you ever known such self-adulation and hypocrisy?" He claimed such people were trying to undermine the country's cultural traditions by using flawed arguments about "multi-faith, multi-culturalism" whilst at the same time trying to negate faith groups all together.

The Archdeacon of York, the Venerable Richard Seed, today praised Dr Sentamu's intervention as "wonderful".

He said: "I am really grateful to the Archbishop, who has completely hit the nail on the head.

"He has this great ability to challenge what the country is doing, and what individual people are doing."

The Archdeacon said there was a danger of the church and Christmas being marginalised because of political correctness. The former Archdeacon of York, the Venerable George Austin, said: "I agree with him 150 per cent. I think that they are in a sense persecuting the church, but if that is so, they are shooting themselves in the foot, because the church always thrives when it is being persecuted."

• Mike Laycock asked people in York if they agreed with the Archbishop that religion should not be taken out of Christmas.

Molly Popplewell said: "I believe Christ is in Christmas - after all, it means Christ's Mass. It's ridiculous that people are trying to take religion out of it."

John Van Dijk, 51, said: "I think Christmas is obviously about the Christian faith, and to water it down to appease other people is not right. You wouldn't water down Diwali."

Patricia Shepherd, 78, said: "I think that Christianity is under attack from the media. I feel that the Archbishop is correct and is a straight-talker."

Mary Wright, 84, said: "I think it should be religious. After all, if someone in the family has a birthday you would celebrate, and this is Christ's birthday we are celebrating."

Carol service at Minster

MORE than 2,000 people are expected to squeeze into York Minster tomorrow for one of the city's biggest church services of the year.

Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu will give the address at St Michael-le-Belfrey Church's annual carol service.

He will preach around the theme of "peace on earth", which organisers thought was particularly relevant given the conflicts in the Middle East.

Mark Rance, the church's head of operations, said the service would include a series of sketches by Riding Lights Theatre Company. An 80-strong choir will lead the congregation in traditional carols and a handful of more modern worship songs.

"It's our biggest service of the year and we put an enormous amount of effort into it," Mr Rance said.

"We are thrilled to have the Archbishop joining us."