Vicar who asked children to dress as ‘wise people’ accused of political correctness

A vicar has been accused of ‘crazy political correctness’ after the three Wise Men were omitted from a children’s Christmas performance.

Church of England Canon Freda Evans asked parents to dress their children as ‘wise people’ instead of the men who came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for Jesus.

Anita Neale, 49, who has a ten-year-old daughter, said: ‘You can’t change something that’s hundreds of years old. They are being silly. Where do you stop?’

St Barnabas Church in Erdington, Birmingham, where children were asked to dress up as wise children instead of wise men

And Debbie Makinde, 41, who has three children at the school, said: ‘To be honest, I think it’s absolutely stupid. The Wise Men were men.

‘I pray we are not heading for gender-neutral Father Christmas and Jesus. It’s getting crazy.’

A wave of complaints came in after a poster for the Christmas Eve service went up in St Barnabas Church in Birmingham, and on its website.

The poster read: ‘Children are invited to come along to the service dressed as angels, shepherds, sheep or wise people!’  

A wave of complaints came in after a poster for the service on Christmas Eve went up in St Barnabas Church in Birmingham, and on its website

Canon Freda said in a statement: ‘They are small children and they determine who they want to be — whether they are boys or girls they make the choice.

‘In fact the early biblical word would have been ‘Magi’ which means followers of Zoroaster, so it is later translations which used the wording.’

Canon Freda Evans was ordained 20 years ago following a ‘multi-faceted background working in politics’, according to the church website.  

Church of England Birmingham said she would not be making any further comment.