Anglican Mainstream

By Martin Beckford, Telegraph

Much-loved Christmas carols are being rewritten to make them politically correct, it is claimed. Verses are being changed by clergy and teachers to remove supposedly chauvinistic references to men, sons and kings, making them “gender inclusive”.

Many parishioners feel it is unnecessary to meddle with the words of carols that have been sung for centuries without causing any offence.

In many cases the new words do not fit the tune, causing choirs to stumble over them.

People who only go to church once a year to sing carols are also left confused when they find the words they remember have been changed.

Nic Robinson, a teacher from Derbyshire, told of his “bemusement and sadness” to find at a recent carol service that many of the words of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing had been tampered with.

The original – written by Charles Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement – included the lines “Born that man no more may die” and “Born to raise the sons of Earth” in the third verse.

But the version printed on the service sheets at Mr Robinson’s daughter’s school had “Born that we no more may die” and “Born to raise us from the earth”.

Another line in the second verse had been changed from “Pleased as man with man to dwell” to “Pleased with us in flesh to dwell”.

Mr Robinson said: “I am sure some bishop will write now, explaining, kindly, that hymns have been evolving throughout the ages and that this one, in particular, has known many versions. May I ask the bishop not to bother, but rather to spend his time in contacting the people who have defaced my favourite carol.”

A survey carried out by Ship of Fools, a satirical Christian website, found that many churches now sing “Glory to the Christ child, bring” in the same carol, rather than the better-known “Glory to the newborn King.”

Readers of the website found other “car crash carols” in which the word “Lord” had been changed to “peace” and “sons” to “stars”, for fear of appearing sexist.

Some churches have altered the words to Once In Royal David’s City, removing a reference to children “all in white” and replacing it with “bright like stars”.

Modern versions of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen have taken out the reference to a “pure virgin bright” and inserted a line about “David’s town tonight”.

Last year a Church of England vicar banned his congregation from singing O Little Town of Bethlehem because he believed the words did not reflect the plight of current occupants of Jesus’s birthplace.

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