That prayer to Jesus is inappropriate at a company party?

Responses here are the usual binary bun fight. You know, there is a third option here between being grievously offended to the point of making a complaint, or believing that Christmas should only be celebrated with solemn prayer and that all other modes of celebration are an abomination.

Maybe, just maybe, you could bow your head, listen to the prayer, privately think "bit much that, these days" and just enjoy the rest of the party.

But hey, we have to ramp everything up and pick a side, so maybe not.

What harm did it do?
Wouldnt bother me in the slightest; I’d just respectfully ignore it.
There are worse things that could happen at a party.

While the UK has a Church of England and some Christian heritage from the last couple of thousand years, for much longer than that it was not a ‘Christian country’ and indeed well under half of people call themselves Christian. Most would see the UK as today as a pluralistic society with a broadly secular culture I think.

Christmas is a winter festival that predates the invention of Christianity by thousands of years - maybe tens of thousands :)

Well the blessings/thanks were said before a meal, not like she got up in the middle of a disco and took the mic of the DJ! Usually at the beginning of these type of events someone will say a few words and thank people for coming, hardly shocking.

I have been to a lot of Christmas events in my long life. There have been prayers/grace said at many of them. School assemblies, carol concerts,dinners in private houses, formal dinners, nativity plays, church services…But never, ever at a work Christmas party. Has anyone ever experienced this? Genuinely?

Surely, this is a Christian country you know.
if you lived in the UAE and they prayed before an event, im sure you’d had no objection. People like you only have objections when it’s Christianity being mentioned.
In any case, what do you think Christmas is about? The clue is in the name… Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ.

you’re being unreasonable. Get over it.

Its a Christmas party event not a church service. If you want a religious message, you go to church. At a Christmas event you want food and wine 🍷

Prayers or thanksgiving before a meal (Grace) used to be very common. My very ordinary grandparents said it every meal (they died 1990s); my brothers’ and my schools did it (70s/80s) as did my DC’s primary school - youngest only left 2 years ago, I imagine they still do.

I understand that it is common Muslim practice to say a private prayer of thanksgiving before and after eating.

In the time where Christmas has become so excessive, and the distribution of wealth so uneven; where a radio ad for a Salvation Army appeal for donations to keep shelters and soup kitchens open over Christmas, is followed by an ad for late night shopping at Leeds’ high end shopping arcade - then actually I think it’s totally appropriate to pause for reflection before eating. How that is done is personal, but I am struggling with how a Christian prayer in a Christian country is inappropriate.

Then the prayer should have been about Odin, Freyr or Saturn, they are also all christs who were celebrated at the winter solstice and who predate Jesus.

Haha, thanks for coming back. Yes it’s definitely moved on! Bart Ehrman does a pretty good podcast on Christianity (from a secular, scholarly perspective) if you are into podcasts: “misquoting Jesus,” I don’t listen to it super regularly, just every other month when a topic I’m interested comes up, as normally in into more straight up history ones. Thanks for engaging in good faith ;)

Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus. I don’t remember Santa, turkeys, trees, presents of electronic goods, getting pissed being part of the bible.

No it's not. It's up to people to make what they want of it. Its traditions, such as decorations, the significance of evergreen trees, and gift-giving are not even Christian in origin.

@Rhayader

Re our conversation on origins.

I have looked into it a bit more, and I promise I will not say Pagan as the single origin. I will say there are multiple theories of where it originated, with the weight of evidence leaning towards... what you said.

Happy you corrected me :-)

This is one reason I enjoy posting on forums. We often learn stuff.

A festival whose history precedes the story of Jesus by millennia! The Christians simply co-opted an ancient winter festival celebrating the return of longer days

I have been to a lot of Christmas events in my long life. There have been prayers/grace said at many of them. School assemblies, carol concerts,dinners in private houses, formal dinners, nativity plays, church services…But never, ever at a work Christmas party. Has anyone ever experienced this? Genuinely?

Dude you were at a CHRISTMAS party. I’m not religious but I’m fairly certain that mentioning Jesus at a Christmas party is allowed. The person going on about Yule- Yule is the winter equinox a few days before. If everyone is there to celebrate 25th then they are celebrating Christmas.

It’s generally respectful to bow you head and stay quite/still during whatever religious observance is happening- it doesn’t mean you are joining in.

Let it go.

Very sweeping bigoted statement right there, insert any other faith or protected characteristic in there and see how that sounds?

Just leaving this here…https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRzjiDWDbQH/?igsh=MWgyZW5iN3FsYmUxZg==

Well said @hihelenhibut every Christian I’ve ever met has never listened to reason or sense.

The uk is a secular country and Christmas is a festival the christians nicked in the first place, and, besides which, enforcing a prayer at a work Christmas party is just fucking weird.

“If” there was no Jesus, we would still be celebrating a pagan festival with eating, drinking, ….

Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of jesus. Christmas is a pagan festival, stolen by Christian to try to entice people to join the church. The only mention of jesus' birthday in the bible is that it was in the summer time.

'Mavis' obviously 😀

It’s a party. Who says prayers at a party?

Yeah, it's only deviating slightly from welcoming people and thanking them for coming, maybe praising them in some way for their work or whatever throughout the year and then just including Jesus in that.