That prayer to Jesus is inappropriate at a company party?

It's strange to get worked up about this either way. Talk about religious intolerance

I would say the word "inappropriate" is used inappropriately these days. It should be reserved for actual harrassment

But "Christmas" is widely understood as a time of year and a time for midwinter celebration and gift-giving as well as the religious aspect (which actually has no link to December 25th). What have Santa or decorated trees got to do with Jesus?

No it's not. And I say this as a Christian myself.
Jesus was not born on 25th December. His DoN was not recorded.
For millenia before He was born, and on distant planets with similar cold and hungry seasons where His name has not yet been heard, people have held a big party at the coldest and darkest time of year. That Christians came along and culturally appropriated all the ancient Yule traditions to absorb into Christ's festival may be fair enough for how we have adapted that in the last 2000 years but the non-Christians have as much right to a midwinter celebration as Christians do and if they call it Christmas rather than anything else that's more due to centuries where it was culturally unacceptable to admit to unbelief more than any other reason worth sneering at.

I'm not religious, but I wouldn't care.

No it isn’t. There are a large number of Christians in this country, of many denominations, who celebrate the birth of Christ in December. The date was originally a pagan festival, but was used by Christians to celebrate Jesus’s birth from about the 4th century. Thats why it’s called CHRISTmas.
It is a random date through as although nobody knows the date when Jesus was born, most theologans agree it wasn’t in December!
Surely a quick blessing at Christmas isn’t forced prayer; people don’t have to agree or say Amen if they don’t believe.
Wishing you a blessed time with your family, whatever you believe.

@Kate8889jesus at a Christmas celebration is inappropriate??? Get a grip it’s literally his time of year 😂😂😂

Of course! I understand it's a conceptual social construct that different people define in different ways!

The woman wasn't celebrating her own Christian faith, if she was she could have said her own prayer over her food or whatever. She was forcing everyone else to celebrate her religion which is totally inappropriate.

If a Muslim did the same thing the next day the Daily Mail would be shrieking about the Great Replacement Theory.

Deeply weird. I would not appreciate other people imposing their religion on me in the workplace.

I think if a uk workplace did an all hands Eid celebration it would be very unreasonable to expect everyone to get down on their knees praying. If it’s a separate celebration explicitly for practicing Muslims that would be a different matter. I’ve worked in companies that regularly have Diwali, Eid, Chinese new year ect ect celebrations. There are normally decorations, food, sweets and a bit of information. There are never prayers.

Unless your work is based in a church, or a religious charity etc, prayer (of any kind or denomination) should not be included in a work Christmas party. It's a social gathering. Yes, it's Christmas, but for most people these days, that does not include a religious element.

No I don't think that. I'm not talking about this metaphorical Eid do. There is no other do as far as we know.

As I said, a works Xmas do is not a religious celebration. It's secular and to celebrate the holidays for everyone.

We very definitely do not live in a Christian country. In 2021 only 46% of people identified as Christian, and less than 10% attend church. And as that drops each census I’m sure it’s lower now.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. I'm not the one dictating anything. It's called Christmas, it's a known Christian festival. Yes it has its roots in pagan winter festivals and some winter festivals are still celebrated at this time, as are non-Christian ones like Hannukah. We live in a Christian country where Christmas is an official bank holiday and everyone gets to benefit from the time off at the end of December. It's still also a Christian festival and many people celebrate within that tradition regardless of personal belief.

You are the one dictating by saying this woman has no right to celebrate her own Christian faith at a party named in that faith's honour. We do not live in the USA where public events have to be secular. Read the Equality Act. People of faith are entitled to express that faith at work if it doesn't impinge on others rights.

I'm an atheist btw.

Completely agree with this. Midwinter festivals have existed forever, in particular Christmas was very intentionally designed to replace Sol Invictus which worshipped Mithras . Christmas is a secular midwinter celebration in the UK, it is not appropriate to bring religion into a work Christmas party unless it’s an explicitly Christian organisation or event (a carol service or something).

Oh give over. A company Christmas party in 2025 is not a "celebration of the life of Jesus" other than in the most tenuous way possible.

What’s alienating is the assumption either that all the employees are Christians, or that the ones who aren’t, aren’t worth worrying about. Presumably the company encourage all employees to come to the party and would (rightly) look askance at an employee who said they couldn't come because it was a Christian celebration and they weren’t a Christian.

Work Christmas parties are, in the main, about getting pissed with your colleagues. It's an employer's way of thanking people for the work they've done that year and giving people the chance to relax and have a laugh with each other.

It's got nothing to do with Jesus and it's inappropriate for someone to stand up and say a prayer at an occasion like this.

They could have said "Let's take a moment to reflect on the year and the things we are thankful for before we enjoy this meal together" and then had a few moments of quiet which would mean people who wanted to pray could and others who don't pray could have had a quiet moment of reflection but a public prayer to Jesus with everyone expected to bow their heads in a setting like that is not ok.

I'm 60 and I have only been to one house where they said Grace before the evening meal. One of the children said it. I just went along with it out of respect for them as they had invited me for dinner.

So a piss up and some grub is a celebration of Christ these days? I must be more Christian than I thought.

I wouldn’t be offended by the prayer. But I would do a big eye roll. Don’t worry, nobody would know. They’d all have their eyes closed.

@BillieWiper Also maybe I misunderstood you, but do you really think that at a work Eid do all other faiths should be invited to do their religious bit?

“…and Mohammad (pbuh) is his prophet”

”no, Moses is!”

”actually Jesus is god!”

“no, you’re all wrong, in fact it’s…”

[Richard Dawkins enters the chat]

It would be the strangest Eid ever.

If she wants to prey she can do that in her head. It's unreasonable to impose that on other people. I am not bowing my head for your prayers. The same why I don't expect you to bow your head for mine.

@BillieWiper Also maybe I misunderstood you, but do you really think that at a work Eid do all other faiths should be invited to do their religious bit?

“…and Mohammad (pbuh) is his prophet”

”no, Moses is!”

”actually Jesus is god!”

It would be the strangest ever Eid.

Goodness me, so many people saying Christmas was originally a Christian festival. This is just completely not true. It was a pagan festival (well, several pagan festivals) rebranded once Christians got political power. It is celebrated when it is not because the bible says that's the date Jesus was born, but because that's when the long-standing pagan festivals took place. As an atheist I do feel quite offended when Christians say I have no right to celebrate Christmas.

That might be the origin (or may be, we can go further back and there’s a pagan festival which inspired that, of course), but guess what! - many people do not engage in Christmas, because of Jesus Christ.
They do it because it’s part of their culture to celebrate on the darker days of the year with food, light and presents.