A Church of England church is under fire for promoting a rewritten Christmas carol pushing “political ideology”.
All Saints with Holy Trinity Church in Loughborough changed the words of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen for a carol service, removing references to “Jesus Christ our Saviour”.
The altered version includes lyrics such as “God rest you, queer and questioning”.
‘Unbiblical’
LGBT activist and General Synod member Jayne Ozanne claimed the new words were “utterly Spirit inspired”, but Revd Matthew Firth criticised them for promoting an “unbiblical agenda”.
The former vicar of St Cuthbert’s and Holy Trinity Darlington explained: “Compare it with the real words. All ideas about Christ as saviour have been erased. Triumph over Satan’s power has been erased. And the whole nativity story has been erased.”
Sam Margrave, a General Synod member for the Coventry diocese, tweeted: “Absolutely disgusted an act of worship to our Lord & Saviour is being used to push political ideology contrary to @churchofengland teaching.”
The altered carol originated from the ResistHarm Movement website, which describes itself as: “A United Methodist movement of faithful resistance to anti-LGBTQIA+ policies and practice.”
Last Christmas
It was recently revealed that staff at the University of Brighton had been told not to use the word ‘Christmas’ for fear of offending people of “faith or no faith”.
Guidance claiming to promote a “diverse academic community” suggested the phrase “Christmas closure period” be dropped in favour of “Winter closure period”.
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