JERUSALEM.

Christmas Greetings From

Uncle Monty At Jerusalem.

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As a sinful Anglican, Protestant, and Christain, I have now

arrived at Religious Israel at this Christmastide to witness first

 hand the holy sites of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth,

among others, and to be devoted to the spiritual and historic

presence of our Christ Child's magnificent and all-splendid

birth that humankind cannot deny no matter how hard some

of them try in this age of dark digital disrespect for

His Holy birth and all that He stood for.

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I am humbled to be standing for the first time inside Israel,

despite all of its seizure mentality and Palestinian strife

and provocative threats against a future Nuclear Iran.

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I am here as a Christian and Western pilgrim first and

 foremost, but my Anglican eyes and Protestant ears will

not and cannot dismiss or ignore what I see and hear inside

Israel that is armed to the teeth and living under a military

 and police state that is disconcerting to

 witness to say the least.

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Of course, while here inside Israel, I shall endeavour to

visit the most ancient and most traditional religious sites

of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. From Jerusalem

to Bethlehem to Nazareth to the See of Galilee I shall

tread with great respect and no doubt much awe of

Christendom's memorials, monuments and edifices

 that mark here the glad origins of true Christianity.

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After Israel, I shall also be visiting Jordan's Amman

while staying very clear of post-Hosni Mubarak's

Egypt while in the Middle East for the next three weeks.

Lebanon's Beirut is also on my New Year's travel list.

On my flight back to London, I shall make a stop-

over at Rome for a couple of days if the winter

weather of Europe doesn't suddenly turn foul.

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Once I return to homebase, I shall continue my blog

stories - here at allaboutthebigissue - against The

 Rotten Big Issue and the vile Bird Brothers and

coupled with looking at the many issues and events

 impacting on the lives of the homeless inside

Broken Down Britain.

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In the meantime from Jerusalem on this Christmas Day,

and after being in Bethlehem for the rise of Christmas morn,

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas & A Blessed

 New Year, 2012, which will bring with it many important

anniversaries like the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic,

 the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, the

Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's

English reign, and the somber 40th Anniversary of the

Massacre of Israeli Athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics

 that coincides with our own London Olympics.  I shall no

 doubt be hoping to write and comment on such events,

 here and there, during the year of 2012 on my Google

blogz after my heart operation has taken place!

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So In closing the year 2011, I again wish one

and all a Very Happy Christmas from Israel ...

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Best Wishes, Uncle Monty.

+Christmas Day At Jerusalem, 2011.

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Old Christmas Carols At The Brompton Oratory.

By Uncle Monty.

Photos By Gary Day

& Alex Albion.

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Just a day or so before heading off to Tel Aviv via

Rome, I accepted the welcome invitation for me to attend

the Traditional Catholic Carol Service at London's famed

Brompton Oratory. With over 2,500 persons present, it

was an extraordinary event by any religious standard of

which I was delighted to be a part off even though I'm

not Catholic but purely Old Anglican.

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The Brompton Oratory's Marvellous Boys' & Girls' Choir.

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Of the 4 or 5 Xmas events I attended over the space of

the past 7 days in London, undoubtedly the Carol Service at

the Brompton Oratory was the most traditional - thankfully.

Many of the old Christmas carols came forth with O Come,

O Come, Emmanuel; Once In Royal David's City (one of

my favourite carols along with The Holly & The Ivy

and I Wonder as I Wander  ); O Come, All Ye Faith-

ful, and Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Those carols of

old I so much love and they can basically keep all the

 rest of the jazzed-up Christmas honky-tonky tunes

and modernistic Xmas songs for they do so little for

me. I'm a traditionalist first and foremost over all the

 trashy Xmas stuff of today that leaves me mostly

 cold and decidedly unmoved.

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Solemn Benediction At The Close of the Carol

Service By the Religious Fathers & Brothers of

London's famed Brompton Oratory. It was a fitting

close to the Latin Rite Catholicism I found at The

 Oratory Under The Foundership of St. Philip Neri.

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Just A Stone's Throw from The Oratory, I saw this

delightful English Merry-Go-Round going round and round

and with it all lit up as winter dusk fell at Old London Town.

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London Underground Busker at South Kensington

Tube Station All Dolled Up In His Santa Suit!

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While My Friend & Fellow Photographer Gary Day Spotted

This Impressive Menorah At South Ken Tube Station As 

We Headed To The Brompton Oratory.  From Our Jewish

Friends it declared "Happy Chanukah" to one and all ...

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In Memory Therefo ...

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