Anger at `Godless' Christmas

THE BBC has been accused of taking God out of Christmas by a Church of England bishop who is outraged that the corporation has no act of worship on television on Christmas Day.

In a letter to The Independent, the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, calls for an inquiry into the public service credentials of the BBC. He writes: "It claims to be a public service broadcaster. Nothing could be further from the truth as far as religious broadcasting is concerned. On Christmas Day on BBC television there is not a single act of worship."

Bishop Herbert said yesterday: "There has been an abandonment of religious broad- casting. You have to switch between bands to find anything on radio and on television it is all being pushed to the margins.

"Christmas Day is not just any day. But the BBC is saying you can stuff yourself with food, but forget about God... It is not good enough to have a carol service with Lesley Garrett and a five-minute reading late at night. It should be providing a service to the thousands of elderly and infirm people who would like to take part in a recognisable act of worship along with the thousands of others who will be attending church that day."

A BBC spokeswoman denied that religious viewers were being under-served on Christmas Day. "We are televising midnight Mass on Christmas Eve [and] an hour-long act of worship from Liverpool Cathedral on Christmas morning from 9am [on radio]. A more broad-based Christmas carol programme is on television in the morning and there is a bible reading in the evening. Often these criticisms come from people who are unaware of how much we do actually have on. The bishop is being disingenuous if he does not wish to include what we have on radio as well as television. There has not been an act of worship on Christmas Day on television for six years."

Letters, Review, page 2