Ludicrous false claims that celebrations of Christmas have somehow been outlawed in London seem to start sooner every year. Or have they simply become louder due to the growing viciousness, weirdness and audacity of the Far(age) Right, a spectrum of dark belief encompassing violent racism, seething ethno-nationalism, Nigel Farage’s own political party and its Conservative kindred spirits?
Such people and those led by them from the path of righteousness would have been amazed by the grace and enthusiasm for the Christian celebration demonstrated last night at Southwark Cathedral, where Sir Sadiq Khan once again led the Mayor’s Christmas Carol Service before a full house of London congregants.
Khan himself read from the gospel according to St Luke, the section where shepherds are “keeping watch over their flock by night” when “an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them”. They brought good news, the Mayor reminded us, of a baby “born this day in the city of David, a saviour who is the Messiah”.
Later, he delivered his Christmas message, which contained humour along with a warning about “forces of division” trying to erode harmony and peaceful co-existence among different faiths and communities. “We will stand up and defend London,” the Mayor said.
Referring with sadness to the antisemitic terror attack in Australia, he urged his audience to draw hope from Jesus Christ – who, he pointed out, knew about marginalisation – imploring people to “love thy neighbour”. Khan wondered, gently rhetorically, if London’s comfort with its human diversity explains why “some people don’t like us”.
The sentiments of the Mayor, a Muslim, of course, chimed precisely with those expressed by the Dean of Southwark, Doctor Mark Oakley, in his welcome and bidding prayer, in the final blessing of the Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun, who has just announced he’ll be retiring in August, and in the pulpit address of Doctor Rosemarie Mallett, the Bishop of Croydon.
The three clerics each warned against the rise of what Oakley termed a “so-called Christian nationalism”, which Mallett said “is not our message”. She applauded the Mayor’s campaigning against division and the aims of City Hall’s Loved and Wanted Fund, which supports civil society organisations that promote community cohesion across the city. Chessun paid tribute to Khan, who has had close links with the cathedral since he was first elected Mayor, in 2016. His formal signing in took place there within a multi-faith ceremony. There were other speeches, a selection of carols were sung and the famous London Community Gospel Choir performed.
The service took place just a few days after Farage, hoping to move on from offering a diversity of non-denials of allegations of years of public schoolboy antisemitic and other forms of racist bullying, said on television: “We have a Mayor of London who is happy to celebrate every other religious festival around the world, but just not Christmas.”
This untruth, uttered on the barely-regulated infotainment television channel GB News, came a good fortnight after Khan had presided over the annual light-up of giant Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, maintaining a tradition dating back to 1947 when Norway presented one of its giant firs to the capital to thank Britain for its support during the World War II with defeating Nazism.
As Khan said of Jesus’s message about neighbours, the light shines on.
Follow Dave Hill on Bluesky. Photos courtesy of City Hall.
OnLondon.co.uk provides unique coverage of the capital’s politics, development and culture with no paywall and no ads. It is funded by subscribers to publisher and editor Dave Hill’s twice-weekly newsletter On London Extra. To receive it, become a paying subscriber to Dave’s Substack or follow any Support link on this site.