Obviously, we would love to follow Tommy Robinson’s advice on the true meaning of Christmas in our north London Catholic parish church (C of E responds to Tommy Robinson’s carols event with ‘Christmas is for all’ message, 13 December).
Teeny problem though. Would we need to get rid of our Nigerian priests? Our Filipino altar servers? Our Nigerian readers? The African-Caribbean man who does the collections? Our admin staff from east Africa? And don’t even start me on all the Irish, Burmese, Congolese and Indian people who come to mass. Our local imam can always be relied on to attend our multifaith events – do we have to uninvite him, as well as our Jewish friends? And, dare I say it, we will be celebrating the birth of a Jew born in Palestine. Nollaig shona daoibh.
Dr Ronan Cormacain
Finsbury Park, London
• I was hugely relieved when some senior leaders from the Anglican church issued their response to Tommy Robinson’s “carols event”. Robinson’s latest attempt to shamelessly exploit his newfound Christianity to build opposition to our multifaith society should be challenged and exposed for what it is – the work of an evil man.
Given that there are 26 bishops in the House of Lords, this could and should run for some time – even through to the enthronement of the new archbishop of Canterbury in 2026. Perhaps these bishops could be joined by Catholic cardinals, free church moderators and the chief rabbi too. None of this should prevent those of no, or little, faith from confronting the falsehoods that Robinson peddles. He is bankrolled by some obscenely wealthy people and cannot be ignored.
Les Bright
Exeter, Devon
• Mainstream Christianity has tended to cite good works as evidence of repentance (In what sense is Tommy Robinson a genuine Christian? None that I can see, 10 December). Interestingly, when John the Baptist sees the Pharisees and Sadducees trying to muscle in on his repentance followed by baptism programme (Matthew 3.8), he tells them that they can forget about repentance until they “bear fruit worthy of repentance”. Perhaps that would have been an appropriate message for Robinson and his ilk.
Geoff Reid
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
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