... and witnesses to the Gospel! God save her!

One comes away at the end of this fine message with a clear sense of Jesus Christ and his saving work. One could almost hope that the future of the Anglican Communion might reside with decisions this Queen would determine to make about the next Archbishop of Canterbury, voiding the processes in place and insisting we are in a crisis, and so “X” is now going to take the helm. Sadly the problems seem so large and so deeply entrenched it is difficult to hold out hope. One can firmly believe and know that God is finally all about victory on his terms and so rest in that. What form such a victory might take for anglican Christianity worldwide—should God want that—we cannot know. But it is reassuring that the Head of the Church of England is not creating a new form of Christian faith but articulating the basic message of the Gospel.

Amen.

God bless her.

Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message will in fact be two addresses featuring individuals from a number of its programmes from throughout the year.

People featured in Seven Dwarves, My Transsexual Summer, Beauty And The Beast and Katie: My Beautiful Friends will all give their take on Christmas in a festive message titled Just Be Yourself.

The second address will feature headteacher Vic Goddard and deputy head Stephen Drew from Educating Essex, who will talk about what Christmas means to them.

Could someone familiar with British customs please explain the “alternative” Christmas message mentioned at the end of The Telegraph’s article?

Channel Four was set up to be an ‘alternative’ voice, one of four (now five) standard terrestrial channels.  This was of course in the days before digital choice made the idea of an alternative channel redundant.  But they have always pursued something ‘edgy’, iconoclastic, etc.  They have something of a tradition of an alternative Christmas message, at one and the same time (a) implicitly mocking the official one; and (b) giving voice to views that would surprise or even shock, etc.  If this were the voice of the voiceless it might make some sense - but of course it is usually the voice of the slick, urban, metrosexual elite.

That quote in post #5 reads like a Monty Python sketch script. Es la verdad? Really?

A Christian queen!  Will she be the last in England?

Not only did the Queen’s message contain an excellent short summary of the Christian gospel, but it will have been heard by many millions of people around the globe. Many of these are of other faiths and would normally never listen to a Christian preacher. Praise our almighty God that she has sent such a simple and clear exposition of the Christian faith to them.