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.

Christmas is not a season. Winter is a season.

Extremely odd

Well yes if there were lots of faiths. A works Xmas do isn't celebrating Christmas as the birth of Christ. It's just a secular holiday for everyone, and the party is to thank staff for their work over the year. So either include all or don't bother.

I'd prefer they didn't have anyone saying any prayers or anything.

Jehovah's Witnesses?

That’s probably where it will have to go in terms of naming it, if people are so insistent it has to be about CHRIST. And then they will have the usual suspects outraged that ‘Christmas’ is being removed from everything.

It is genuinely fascinating to me that people think because Christmas has a specific meaning in Christianity, that they get to dictate what ‘Christmas’ means in the wider cultural sense. If the majority of people were to answer ‘what does Christmas mean to you’ with ‘time off work, watching Christmas films (also not about Jesus but that’s another tangent) and stuffing my face with family - maybe having some drinks with colleagues at the end of the year before we go on leave’ then you putting your fingers in your ear and saying NO IT IS ABOUT JESUS is not going to change that.

You keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine ;)

It's bonkers. I'd assume they'd been on some sort of Alpha course. Certainly wouldn't have bowed my head and would have enjoyed the "WTF was that about?" conversations afterwards. I would assume someone would have a private word with them later in the office and it wouldn't happen the next year.

You are misunderstanding and unnecessarily limiting the meaning of the word. It has applications further and outside meteorological ones. Sports, television and horticulture come to mind.

No one is going to pray at you, ever.

Hopefully if someone of any religion wanted to share a prayer with you and you didn't want to participate, you'd sit respectfully quiet while they got on with it for a moment.

Regardless, if you don't believe in prayer it was just a moment to be thankful for the food. Surely no one can object to that.

I think that’s where you and I differ. I think it is a secular holiday for everyone but I don’t think it’s just that. It’s also a religious holiday, for a reasonable number of people.

I guess I think that the quid pro quo is that if a (secular) company wants to have a Christmas do (not just an end of year do) then that’s fine. But then objecting to Christians who want to mark its Christian nature too is a bit off.

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.

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.

@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.

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!”

“no, you’re all wrong, in fact it’s…”

[Richard Dawkins enters the chat]

It would be the strangest Eid ever.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.