Christians in India have been muted in Christmas festivity this year, following violence in Orissa, Karnataka and the tragic Mumbai attacks.

Confusing divine greatness with human notions of power and grandeur can end up justifying human rights abuses, says Savi Hensman. The Christmas story is a radical corrective.

Those who 'crusade for Christmas' will end up losing the very festival they would defend, says Jonathan Bartley, because they miss its true meaning.

Channel 4's decision to broadcast an Alternative Christmas Message by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has angered human rights campaigners. Ironically, it is about the love of Christ.

It is in welcoming a poor child into the world and into our hearts that we begin to meet a love that cannot be contained or used as a pawn in any war of position, says Simon Barrow.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has said that the first Christmas changed how everyone thinks about universal human dignity and points the way beyond theory to active love as the way forward.

The season of Advent is about waiting and anticipation. But what kind of Jesus is the church expecting by the way it behaves, asks Simon Barrow. What is it truly mortgaging itself on?

With just 31 praying days to Christmas, a Church of England bishop has penned a book which aims to be just the tonic for the frenetic activity of Advent.

As the Spirit of Christmas Fair opened in London this morning, its owners Clarion Events faced ridicule over their complacent assertion that they were "entirely comfortable" with their recent purchase of arms fairs.