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 still we see thee lie’ were too far removed from life in Bethlehem.

He said where shepherds once used to watch over flocks by night now security guards watched over the people living there.

As a result the carol has been banned from all festive services in his Dorset parish of Blandford Forum.

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.

He said the Arab-Israeli conflict had destroyed its population and tourism and that he would not join in the singing of the carol.

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.

In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter, long ago.

And this:

See amid the winter’s snow, born for us on earth below,
See the tender lamb appears, promised from eternal years.

And if it’s cloudy, this:

They looked up and saw a star,
shining in the east, beyond them far;
and to the earth it gave great light,
and so it continued both day and night.