Letters: Royal Albert Hall service was devoid of Christian content

For many of us, the annual festival of remembrance broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall by BBC1 has been very much a traditional part of the calendar.

While it has adapted over the years in line with changes and trends in society, in essence it has remained much the same, and the falling of the poppies during the silence is always moving and sobering.

This year’s event was the first to be held since the passing of Her Majesty the Queen, and it was encouraging to see this reflected in a warm tribute.

However, there was one area of very significant change on Saturday evening which is a cause for concern.

The religious service at the end has always been generally Christian in tone and content.

Sadly, this was most certainly not the case this year. Indeed, there was only minimal Christian input to a ‘service’ which was eclectic and quite secular in tone.

The overall feeling was that the organisers were determined to pander to wokeism.

We had a contribution from Jaspreet Kaur which was devoid of any Christian content.

In place of robust Christian hymns such as ‘O God our help’ and ‘Abide with me’ we had renditions of ‘Jerusalem’ and the pop-song ‘Hallelujah’, neither of which contains any meaningful Christian lyrics or sentiments.

It is interesting that this watering down has occurred just weeks after the passing of our Queen, and we await with interest the tone and content of King Charles’ coronation next May.

We fear that Her Majesty’s death has emboldened those whose agenda includes the destruction of what is left of our nation’s historic Christian foundations.

Wallace Thompson, Secretary, Evangelical Protestant Society, Belfast