City officials in Kitchener, Ontario, are being criticized after they ordered the microphone shut off at a Christmas festival when a grandmother began reciting the Christmas story from Matthew 1.
The grandmother was from Trinity Bible Chapel, a congregation that was invited by the city last year and was invited back this year to take part in the Christkindl Market festival in front of City Hall.
The church’s worship team sang several songs. But when the grandmother began reading Matthew 1:18-25 in the German language — “Christkindl” is German for “Christ child” — organizers cut off her mic.
“Not only that, background music was played through the speakers to seemingly drown out her voice and embarrass her,” Trinity Bible Chapel associate pastor Will Schuurman wrote on a church blog. The church performed the same program last year.
It is ironic, the church said, that “about 15 feet from the main stage was a nativity scene set up by the City of Kitchener … pointing to the birth of Christ.”
The city did not set parameters on what could be said, the church added.
The city told CTV that “in its 22 year history” Christkindl “has never had scripture or sermons as part of its scheduled programming.”
The event organizers told church officials that if they continued reading the Bible or preaching from it, “they…
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