Moderator's Christmas Message

The Right Reverend David Lacy, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland described his Christmas message, given to the congregation of his home charge at Henderson Church, Kilmarnock, as "very non-PC".

Rev Lacy described the American habit of renaming the Christmas season as "the holidays" as "ludicrous" and he warned against allowing the meaning of Christmas to be diluted in Scotland.

He explained if he was to give a politically-correct sermon he might say:

"Please accept, with no obligation implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally-conscious, socially-responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday."

"I hope we never get to the ludicrous political correctness of our American cousins who now call Christmas 'the holidays', he said in his sermon.

Rev Lacy, a member of the Scottish Inter-Faith Council on which sit representatives of all the faith communities in Scotland, emphasised that other religions and faiths in Scotland were not offended by Christmas and were happy for Christians to celebrate "our festivals".

He reminded his congregation that Bashir Mann, a leading Glasgow Muslim and Scottish Politician, was on television last year saying he loves to receive Christmas cards from Christian friends and often returns the complement.

said it was important to protect the meaning of Christmas.


Rev Lacy said that, being the Moderator and a Christian, his Christmas message "very non-PC" and came from the Bible itself, from St Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus.

'Jesus was born at Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of Herod'

"What's so deeply religious about that then? It's only a simple statement of where and when he was born. It's like Jesus' birth certificate," stated Rev Lacy.

"Jesus was not a nice idea, some kind of mythological figure the stories of whom it's nice to repeat. He really was born in a real place and a real time.