That prayer to Jesus is inappropriate at a company party?

[Kate8889]

I went with my husband to a company Christmas party and before we started to eat a woman came to the microphone and said a short prayer in the name of Jesus as thanks/blessings for the food. Everyone was expected to bow their head.

This is the first time I've been witness to something like this, it is a secular company with many Jewish, Muslim and agnostic people. We have been going to this Christmas party for 7 years and it's never been like this.

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.

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.

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 🍷

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.

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?

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

Christmas is a religious holiday. Without the birth of Christ it wouldn’t exist. I would have no issue if I attended an event that honoured a religious holiday of any faith. It just feels this offence is only afforded to Christianity

Another thing. Are the people yapping on about Christmas adopting aspects of mid winter pagan festivals in response to this question also the people that point out with glee that St. George was actually Turkish as a kind of 'gotcha' to anyone who dares take pride in England and Christian faith? And do you mock and pick holes with other religions, nationalities and cultural practices too?

‘Everyone was expected to bow their head’
yeah, right.

Exactly like everyone was expected to clap after any speech or performance. It’s called being part of polite society

I mean, was it a Christmas party? This is a Christian country btw, would you complain if you went to a petty in Iran and then said a prayer to Allah before a dinner?

This was in the US and it was called a holiday party on the invites.

I disagree. Clapping after a performance is polite and the done thing which includes everyone present, but no one is expected to bow their head piously/in prayer when other people are praying but you are not and it’s disingenuous of the OP to suggest otherwise. No one is expected to join in. It isn’t rude to not be religious, just crack on as you were if something doesn’t apply to you.

Oof. I’m a Christian myself but religion doesn’t belong in the workplace.

Tell that to those that work in slaughterhouses. Religion and its barbaric practices definitely doesn't belong there.

There was always a midwinter festival - Yule. The early Church grafted the birth of Jesus on to this. No one knows at what time of year Jesus was actually born.

I don't particularly have a problem with any company having some minor religious stuff like this, if the owners or whatever are religious.Particularly at a party type event, but also maybe at something like an opening or whatever.

The particular religion doesn't matter. I'm perfectly capable of sitting while someone does a short prayer. If I can support the prayer or sentiment in my own mind I will or I will just appreciate the intent.

I don't like being asked to participate in a prayer myself, and I think that's bad practice - this happened recently to me at a required work training event about indigenous reconciliation where there was a prayer and smudging. The prayer itself was fine from my own POV but I know smudging was not for some others. It's a little hard to put my finger on the differernce, but I think it real. One is more like being at a friend's for dinner while they say a grace, and the other there is an expectation that you buy in.

What's more unusual in the OPs case is that this is a change in the company practice. I'd be curious about that.

I might not have worded it right. I meant people may have done so to be polite. She was in America by all accounts who definitely respect freedom of expression

Yes, we know. But should the OP A) Kick off an complain, create work for someone else, ruin someone's party/week/Christmas/career, B) Go along with it and pray for a religious awakening, or C) Just STFU and dismiss it as a very small part of the festivities, something that isn't for her and enjoy the rest of the event, maybe safely in the smug knowledge that some traditions of Christmas are theorised to have origins in ancient pagan religions.

Tell me, do you take great delight in picking apart other religions and their traditions? Presumably Eid, and Divali have origins in earlier iterations, and we should be equally contemptuous of these festivities?

This has got to be the silly statement of the year, talk about historical illiteracy.

What on earth has got into you? Where have I picked apart any religion?

All this smug stuff about paganism, we all know. Congratulations. We all know that St George was probably Turkish (or even Palestinian!). Its just a smug effort to discredit Christians and show superiority. If you were the first to come up with it, good on you. But this is repeated time and time again.