John Downing's Take On Christmas

The universal message of Christmas
By JOHN DOWNING

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I love to call the holiday that, despite the contortions of politically-correct yahoos who should be embarrassed by the ridicule from comics, most of my neighbours, and all who savour this season and point to the country's Judeo-Christian history as justification not to play semantic games. It's not just a time out in the hubbub of a multi-cultural city.

I went to a Christmas concert in a church, so it hadn't been renamed as it is in the schools. It was for a worthy cause, the Out of the Cold program at All Saints Anglican Church.

I've been moved by these church programs where the homeless are fed and sheltered. The nice parishioners who sacrifice sleep to help are a cross-section of the community, from waiters to judges. (I remember the authors' dinner when one of our most prominent justices slipped away to spend the night in a church basement with the needy.) The Kingsway churches around All Saints come together for a concert to raise money for the program. Local merchants cover expenses.

Before the choirs from Sorrows and three United churches sang in soaring harmony, the host priest, Father Nino Cavoto, read a long greeting from David Miller.

The good father was tactful when I grumbled about how the Toronto mayor had avoided writing Christmas as if the title was filled with plague. A friend, who was also raised in the Baptist church, agreed that obviously socialists have forgotten the NDP/CCF party was founded by preachers, and Tommy Douglas, an able orator, would have made mince meat out of the PC forces. Unfortunately, even churches have been afflicted by the PCs. Some stirring hymns have been dropped, like Onward Christian Soldiers. At the concert, we sang "Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice." The old Latin carol translates as "good Christian men." That's the way I sing it.

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