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Catholic leader calls for St Andrew's holiday [Scotland]
Scotland on Sunday [registration required, then search] ^ | November 30, 2003 (St. Andrew's Day) | Nicholas Christian

Posted on 11/30/2003 7:29:36 AM PST by Eala

THE NEW leader of Scotland’s Catholics has called for St Andrew’s Day to be made a national holiday.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien also said he wanted to use his position "re-Christianise Scotland" and urged civic leaders to set up nativity scenes.

O’Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, was speaking at a Mass of Thanksgiving in St Mary’s Cathedral to mark his elevation to the College of Cardinals last month.

He told the congregation in Edinburgh, which included First Minister Jack McConnell and SNP leader John Swinney: "I ask you all to recognise the feast of our patron saint, St Andrew, on November 30 each year.

"Help would be given in this if our parliament recognised this day, St Andrew’s Day, as a national holiday. In this way, we bring to the fore the fact that as a country we have as our patron one of the great followers of Jesus Christ."

O’Brien, who said he wanted to work closely with other Christian denominations, also stressed the importance of making Scots more aware of the country’s 1,600-year Christian heritage.

"I believe the time has come for a concerted effort to re-Christianise Scotland while also being aware of those of other faiths in our midst," he said.

Today O’Brien was due to dedicate the nativity scene in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens.

At the mass he called for such scenes to be erected across the country.

"Aware of the memorials which are the focus of prayer on Remembrance Sunday and aware of the ways in which considerable sums of money are spent on Christmas displays, I think it only appropriate there be a nativity scene at the centre of the celebrations of our communities," he said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: alba; catholic; christian; christianheritage; christmas; creche; europeanchristians; holiday; nativity; patron; saint; scotland; standrew; standrewsday
At the mass he called for such scenes to be erected across the country.

How nice not to have an ACLU...

1 posted on 11/30/2003 7:29:37 AM PST by Eala
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To: Eala
On St. Andrew's Day everyone goes to church and then hits the golf links.
2 posted on 11/30/2003 8:25:03 AM PST by Mike Darancette (Proud member - Neoconservative Power Vortex)
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To: Eala
Scotland and most of Britain seems increasingly godless with more people attending worship at the coutnries mosques weekly than those attending Church of England/Episcopalian and presbyterain services
3 posted on 11/30/2003 8:29:44 AM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: Cronos
My 27 year old son is seeing a woman who is active in her parish. He's much more conservative than she is. She seems more concerned about boycotting Walmart and demonizing Bush than about Jesus. He was raised a Catholic but I don't see that as a home for him now.

I was in 10 Thousand Villages yesterday Christmas shopping. This string of stores is sponsered by the Mennonites and offers wonderful handcrafted items from all over the world which were not made by slaves and supposedly the bulk of the proceeds return to the craftsmen.

The books that they have, however, are very New Age, worship the earth sort of stuff though. sigh.

It's hard to find a church home around here.

4 posted on 11/30/2003 9:13:35 AM PST by Mercat
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