However despite all that Fathers Kevin Flanagan and Peter MacLeod-Miller have done through their endeavours to be inclusive, tolerant, understanding and respectful of all faiths with various multi church services, this did not happen when it came to Father Flanagan’s funeral last week.

What a miserable, mean-spirited act for the Church to deny Father Kevin's very good friend and mate Father MacLeod-Miller from officiating at this farewell.

So much for goodwill, respect and tolerance. To be “disinvited” the day before the funeral is just plain disgraceful, unchristian and certainly not a show of good will.

An explanation and apology is needed, especially when only a few weeks prior, Archbishop Frank Carroll officiated at the funeral of his friend the late Wal Fife at the Anglican Church in Wagga.

I am left wondering, just what is being a “Christian”.

According to a recent report, the United Nations adopted a resolution by the United States to cut petroleum imports to North Korea by 90 per cent.

On August 1, 1941, the US placed an oil embargo on Japan. The Japanese retaliated by attacking Pearl Harbor, and spreading a reign of terror across the entire Pacific that only ended with a lot of bloodshed and the first use of an atomic weapon on civilians.

I hope that US president Donald Trump and the hawks in the Pentagon know that they are doing this time.

I applaud Matthew Cummins' comments in web words (The Border Mail, December 20) in relation to a proposed exclusion zone around the Englehardt Street clinic.

Albury Council and many others have shown little understanding of the correct jurisdiction that can deal with peaceful protests. We need to uphold freedom of speech as it is a very important freedom. Good on Councillor Darren Cameron for his stand.

Every medical facility has a duty of care to its patients, they should be as open to scrutiny as any other medical procedure. As Mother Teresa so astutely pointed out, every decision we ever make, every day, began with the one our mother made to keep us.

The concerned writer of a recent letter about the absence of Jesus Christ in Christmas celebrations and public displays makes me reiterate: Why do we need Christ in this Pagan festival in the first place?

I believe it is an abomination, and sacrilegious for Jesus to be mixed up with Santas, presents, revelry, feasting and the ultimate unholy dysfunctional God-misalignment of profit and money-making.

There is no place in the scriptures that tell us to worship and celebrate Christ's birth, December 25. December is a Pagan marker that celebrates the birth of the sun in the northern hemisphere and was used to worship the birth of a number of Pagan deities and has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

If people want to revere and worship the Christmas festival then they should do the job right and call it by its correct name: Saturnalia. Let us return to Bethlehem in prayer and humility but not courtesy of Santa Claus.