Skip to main content.
« Previous entry: Presents | Main page | Next entry: Wrapping »

December 11th, 2007

Join the Christmas stamps hoaxbusters

At last a few news reports are coming out asking people not to believe the Christmas stamps hoax e-mail that is going around.

I’ve asked the Royal Mail to put something on their news releases page which would make life easier for us hoaxbusters.

Meanwhile the hoax continues to exist on various websites:

The Facebook group I mentioned has been edited to add the Post Office rebuttal, but another (very small it must be said) group still has the made-up information. This latter group claims that the Venerable Trevor Jones, Archdeacon of Hertford is the source of the e-mail, but I suspect he just pressed his Archdeaconly forward button.

I have written to Chris Sugden of the Anglican Main Stream to tell him that his post printing the hoax information is incorrect and should be abolished, [Update: post now removed] but he has not taken it down and issued a correction as of yet. Unfortunately this means that other people are still coming across the hoax - take this forum thread as an example (contains views some may find offensive). The untruths also go uncorrected on the Anglican Main Stream forum.

Let us be strong and not give up in the anti-hoaxing battle. Together we can convince Anglican Mainstream and various Archdeacons of the errors of their ways.

[Exits left as music plays: Who you gonna call? Hoaxbusters…]



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 11:31 am.

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy these (possibly) related articles:

Know someone else who might enjoy this post? Click here to send this to a friend. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

The technologically advanced may like to trackback from another site, follow responses to this post via the RSS 2.0 feed, or bookmark this post on del.icio.us or digg.

11 Responses to “Join the Christmas stamps hoaxbusters”


  1. Jason says:

    I went into my local Post Office in Hull yesterday and asked for Madonna & Child stamps. After some effort they found them and the lady said the reason it was hard to find them was that they were “supposed to sell the other ones first”!

    So it may not be the party line but that message is definitely out there in the local Post Offices. Someone somewhere in Post Office management must have said it.

    December 11th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
  2. David Keen says:

    I’ve had this emailed to me 3x this morning, and emailed back with some of the links from your site. One has since replied saying that someone went into a local post office (Dorset), which claimed they had sold out of the Madonna and Child stamps, and after being challenged they ‘found’ 2 large bundles of the stamps.

    So I don’t know what to think now…..!!!

    December 11th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
  3. Peter Kirk says:

    I contacted Anglican Mainstream, via the link on their site, pointing out the Diocese of Lichfield statement. Lisa Nolland wrote back to say that the post has now been removed, and I have confirmed this.

    December 11th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
  4. Peter Kirk says:

    Well, if Spanky’s correction on the Anglican Mainstream forum is not explicit enough, why don’t you join the forum yourself and issue a correction? When the people who know the truth keep silent, the lie spreads.

    December 11th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
  5. Sue says:

    I went out Christmas shopping yesterday, and on my travels I visited 4 post offices. (Not for any other reason than the fact that i really like the madonna and child stamps and wanted some and was passing by them, not some great spying-session) . I never found the 2nd class version. Everyone had sold out, including the main one in town. But I did find some first class ones at 2 of them, and some angels (which I don’t like as much but at least they have “peace” on them). I don’t think there is a conspiracy tho, especially as one of the POs is run by our local church’s church warden.Although if I’d been conspiracy minded I would have thought that the fact that the lady standing next to him at the counter telling me there weren’t any, when there were clearly a whole sheet of first class ones in her book might have made me suspiciousl (she did apologise as she didn’t think I’d want any 1st class ones). But I still wish I’d found some 2nd class ones too. ho hum, c’est la vie.

    December 11th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
  6. Spike Allibone says:

    Don’t think God needs protected.

    It seems laughable to me that people are trying to protect a stamp when the rest of Christmas is a total kitsch-fest.

    Looks to me as if this is a storm in a bone china, Sunday afternoon, middle class, Laura Ashley tea cup.

    It’s nothing more than a hoax. It’s ridiculous to consider that the Royal Mail would behave in an anti-Christian way towards their Christmas stamp issues.

    But so what if they were? The world is full of non-Christians celebrating their own version of Christmas. Get over it!

    God is.

    December 11th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
  7. Simon says:

    I bought some 78p stamps the other day to send cards to Australia and got pics of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh marking their 60th anniversary. Seeing as she is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, does that count as religious? If not I’d better go back to the local post office and complain…

    ps - I’m sending cards this year which were bought in support of the Toybox charity http://www.toyboxcharity.org.uk/ As I don’t have addresses for most of you, please check out their site and have a peaceful and happy Christmas.

    December 11th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
  8. Dave says:

    Peter - I would, but I’m a lazy good-for-nothing.

    Jason - choosing to sell the angel stamps first doth not a phasing out of religious stamps make. They might just want to use them up.

    December 11th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
  9. Sam says:

    Good for you with your hoaxbusting, Dave; I reckon lots of people will have found out about this from your blog.

    For my part, I’ve e-mailed my vicar.

    December 12th, 2007 at 11:39 am
  10. ken green says:

    Love your Church Times cartoons,
    but how about one showing the problems for lay communion ministers,
    such as kneeling lady with large hat,
    very tall chap who inssits on standing,
    man with protruding teeth who seems to chew the chalice,
    fly landing in chalice
    and lady who grabs chalice and drinks the lot.
    It has all happened, I know!
    ken Green

    December 12th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
  11. Craig Allison says:

    Apart from wondering exactly what is un-Christian or un-Christmassy about angels proclaiming “GLORY to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE, GOOD WILL toward men” [Luke 2:14 KJV] to say nothing of “JOY to the World” which “is one of the best-known and best-loved of Christmas carols”

    has anyone gone to the bother of pointing out the position and orientation of the Queen’s Profile on the 2nd Class “Madonna & Child” Stamp?

    Rather unusual (unique perhaps) to this stamp. The Queen’s profile is on the left facing right. This is not due to the available space — it could easily be on the right, facing left as is usual. Except that would entail the Queen looking at the back of Mary’s head as opposed to its current unusual position which is facing the Christ Child — as is fitting for He who is King of Kings perhaps?

    Isn’t it odd — the Royal Mail is subtlely spreading the message of Christ at Christmas and many in the Church are busy spreading a bunker mentality more akin to the Daily Mail (sorry ;-> ). Perhaps the “Royal” in Royal Mail is more of David’s Line than Elizabeth’s.

    December 13th, 2007 at 10:30 pm