{"id":1285,"date":"2008-12-11T12:46:12","date_gmt":"2008-12-11T16:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2008-12-11T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T16:46:12","slug":"a-very-anglican-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/a-very-anglican-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A very Anglican Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just what we needed: another deranged Anglican vicar<\/a><\/p>\n

Vicar bans Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rev Stephen Coulter told parishioners not to sing the carol after he visited the West Bank.
\n\"Add<\/p>\n

He told them the words ‘How still we see thee lie’ were too far removed from life in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

He said where shepherds once used to watch over flocks by night now security guards watched over the people living there.<\/p>\n

As a result the carol has been banned from all festive services in his Dorset parish of Blandford Forum.<\/p>\n

Mr Coulter told the congregation at North Dorset District Council’s civic carol service that he had visited the city in a recent pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine and was shocked by the devastation he witnessed.<\/p>\n

He said the Arab-Israeli conflict had destroyed its population and tourism and that he would not join in the singing of the carol.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So I imagine this is out too if it’s not snowing in Bethlehem. Of course, it will still be snowing in Rev. Coulter’s head.<\/p>\n

In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan,
\nEarth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
\nSnow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
\nIn the bleak mid-winter, long ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this:<\/p>\n

See amid the winter’s snow, born for us on earth below,
\nSee the tender lamb appears, promised from eternal years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And if it’s cloudy, this:<\/p>\n

They looked up and saw a star,
\nshining in the east, beyond them far;
\nand to the earth it gave great light,
\nand so it continued both day and night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just what we needed: another deranged Anglican vicar Vicar bans Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem The Rev Stephen Coulter told parishioners not to sing the carol after he visited the West Bank. He told them the words ‘How … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-angst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}