We don’t need ‘ritual’ of nativity – minister

IT is joyfully performed every Christmas by schoolchildren.

But many people are fed up with the ‘annual ritual’ of the nativity play – according to a former moderator of the Church of Scotland.

The Very Rev Dr John Chalmers also claimed the question of whether Jesus’s mother Mary was a virgin is ‘irrelevant’.

He said he had ‘lost patience’ over the argument and bemoaned the fact the story is now taken too literally.

But other faith leaders have blasted him as a ‘sceptic’ and said the Virgin Mary and her story were sacrosanct.

Dr Chalmers, who is Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, said: ‘I’ve lost patience with the annual row about whether Mary was a virgin.

‘These questions are irrelevant when considered against the central message that God is with us where the poor get first dibs, where the mighty are brought to their knees and where the vulnerable are offered shelter and protection.’

The respected Kirk figure added: ‘The harsh realities [of the nativity] are sterilised, the story is taken too literally and its most meaningful elements are glossed over.’

Dr Chalmers made the comments in Life and Work, the Church of Scotland magazine.

But a Free Church of Scotland spokesman said: ‘Dr Chalmers’s scepticism over the testimony of the Bible is typical of those who don’t believe its plain teaching.

‘It comes down to the question, is the Bible true or not?

‘It is only in the historic truthfulness of this momentous event that the message “God is with us” is truly meaningful.’