HOW nice it was to have a Christmas Eve message from our own local bishop (Oxford Mail, December 24). And Bishop John is clearly delighted by the thought that 50 per cent of us might have joined in some or other of Christmas 2009’s festivities.

But he seems blissfully unaware that celebrating, shortly after the shortest day in the year, is a tradition which almost certainly pre-dates Christianity by more than a millennium.

Indeed, it was probably the popularity of the northern hemisphere’s pagan midwinter festivities that persuaded the Christianised Roman emperors to make Jesus’ birthday almost co-incident with the Winter Solstice.

So, given that singing is almost universally a joyous activity, the Bishop really shouldn’t be surprised to learn that quite a few carol-singing adults are self-declared agnostics or atheists.

We humanists have no reason to object to the singing of carols – provided only that the more musically enthusiastic non-believers are welcome to join in this pagan hangover also.

On a less happy note, Bishop John’s claim that “Jesus’ song is somehow written on all our hearts” is offensive to the majority of the world who don’t consider themselves to be Jesus-followers.

Ethics make far more sense, when thoughtfully related to the central role of inter-relationships in human evolution, than from trying to extract them from some mutually contradictory texts written more than 1,900 years ago.

JOHN D WHITE, High Street, Chalgrove