The National Trust has come under widespread criticism after excluding Christmas and Easter from their 2024 calendar.
Members of the trust have complained after discovering their annual charity calendar failed to mark the Christian holidays, but did include Hinduism’s Diwali, and Islam’s Eid and Ramadan.
The conservation charity have been accused of being “too woke” after their “inclusivity and wellbeing” calendar failed to include any Christian holidays.
The calendar, which is offered to members, has sparked fresh concern amid reports that the Trust is “increasingly focusing on gay history and on the slavery links of its historic properties”.
Speaking to GB News about the exclusion by the National Trust, Director of Affinity at Gospel Churches Graham Nicholls said the decision “wasn’t right”.
Nicholls agreed with host Eamonn Holmes that the calendar is “wrong” to not include Christian celebrations.
Discussing Christianity in Britain today, Nicholls said: “The fact that we’re not a Christian country in a way makes it even more compelling that we should be included on a calendar like this, because across the world Christians are persecuted and in this country we’re not the majority.
“It’s quite good to remind people of our Christian heritage and lots of people want to celebrate that.”
In criticism of the National Trust, Nicholls said the charity are moving in a direction of “peddling an ideology”, rather than “being a repository for lots of buildings and lots of land that has historical significance”.
He added: “Can we really remember all these minority groups? It gets a bit confusing and I think it flattens it all out. So they will become meaningless where there’s a day for this and a month for this, another day for this. And no one can really keep up with it all.
“But particularly for religious festivals why wouldn’t you include Christmas?
“There’s lots of people who from other religions who’d be at least be interested, they’d be staggered that the Christian festivals are not on there.”
Host Isabel Webster also shared her thoughts on the calendar, highlighting: “It’s a heritage organisation, and it’s like they’re just ignoring traditionally the heritage of British people, it may not be the majority anymore, but go back 100 years in time and it would have been most of the historic buildings that they represent would have been inhabited by Christians.
“So just to elbow them out doesn’t seem to make any sense.”
A National Trust spokesman said in a statement: “This internal guidance is specifically designed to supplement the National Trust’s year-round programming that includes Christmas and Easter, which are national public holidays and which are celebrated at all properties.
“It enables our teams to mark more religious and cultural festivals, to serve local communities and allow everyone to learn about and enjoy different cultures.
“We’re proud to host some wonderful celebrations for Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah, and other occasions. The National Trust is for everyone.”
christians are still the majority in England. this leader must be talking about the cities. Just like in America, the cities are where all the trash goes.