From Peter Adams, St Marys Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, and member of the CTL committee:
You may have seen reports that Stephen Yaxley Lennon, former resident of Luton, popularly known as Tommy Robinson, and founder of the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009, has called for our society to “put Christ back in Christmas!” It is not clear if he has a protest in mind yet, but it certainly hit the headlines.
To be clear, I’m sure most of the Christians in leadership in Luton will join me in a resounding: “We never took Christ out of Christmas!” As for the community beyond the church, two short stories. Soon after I first started working in Luton in 2007 a Sikh leader working in a key role in the council said to me: “Peter, don’t ever hesitate to talk about Christmas!” That message was reinforced the following year when I joined a Muslim leader at a regional Christian communications event, where he had been asked to be clear that it was not offensive to our Muslim neighbours, colleagues and friends to celebrate Christmas openly! He and I still fondly remember that time! For sure, the rumours about “Winterval” were out there, but they were never a reality here, even when some newspapers and “Tommy” told a different story.
However lets make sure we remind everyone of that by celebrating the amazing story of Christmas more than ever! And just to help s, on the same day that “Tommy” told us his intention, a Luton Borough Council newsletter wrote that this year they had obtained sponsorship for a Christmas Tree and a lighting up ceremony in every ward in Luton. And even better, some of them are beside churches and churches are involved,
You can find a list here: 20 new neighbourhood Christmas trees to bring Luton’s communities together or on Facebook here
If you able to, get along. And even better why not make contact with your ward councillors and see if your church can get involved. If it’s too late this year, ask if you can do it next year. I am dropping a note to the council to make that easier.
Happy Christmas!!