However much the Church of England or Church of Wales infuriates me and tests my faith I have always attended Midnight Mass at Christmas. “Yea Lord we Greet You born this happy morning” I sing loudly and walk out into the cold night air filled with optimism and with my weak faith replenished. Gradually my own failings and the miserable state of the world weaken all those positive feelings and then it is Christmas again. This year I did not leave after the last carol I stormed out and I hope that our sparky new vicar understands why.
She says that her job is to preach the gospel. My job as a journalist is to deal with facts. The theme of her sermon was things that ruined Christmas. Her Christmas was ruined by the thought of all the migrants drowning at sea. Next up her Christmas was ruined by “43,000 people dying in Gaza, 70% of them women and children since Israel launched its war on Gaza.”
That got me. The 43,000 number is from the Hamas run Ministry of Health and Id nit bet the ranch on it. If a 15 year old carries a gun is he a fighter or a child? If combatants use civilians as shelter who is to blame if the human shields die? Above all Israel is not “launching a war on Gaza” it is responding to the worst pogrom since 1945, to the October 7 massacre with a war on Hamas because if it did not Hamas would re-run October 7 all over again.
The vicar did not add that balance, she did not mention the hostages, the rapes and sodomy of Hamas on October 7.
I stood up and ostentatiously threw my hymn sheet in a box and stormed out. My only regret is that I did not call out the vicar on the spot for her foul words. But my departure could not have not been noticed and I hope that this article is read by the vicar and taken on board.
The new vicar is of Jewish ancestry and lost many relatives in the holocaust. But that does not excuse what she said. The Church has tested my faith so many times in recent years, its cowardly reaction to covid, the fake history on its role in slavery and its wilful refusal to look at hard data as it signs up to the global warming cult while failing to preach what is actually in its bible have hardened my heart.
But this, for me, is the final straw. What was said was so unbalanced as to almost be a blood libel. As a Jew in Britain you are 40 times more likely to be attacked for your faith than you are as a Muslim. To have vicars preaching in this way fills me, this Christmas morning, with pure despair.
God, please forgive me. And to all readers celebrating either Christmas or Chanukah today, you have my best wishes.