Telegraph | News | Reclaim Hallowe'en as Lite-Nite, says bishop

Specifically, the Right Reverend David Gillett, Bishop of Bolton (Church of England), has recommended that Christians make a point of observing Halloween in a different way. Unfortunately, his interview comes off as incoherent. In one paragraph the bishop insists that Halloween was not originally an occult holiday--and then at the end he says that Halloween has reverted to its pre-Christian origins. Well, which is it?

I can answer that. Halloween is the Festival of Samhain, Lord of Death. The Roman Catholic Church tried to subsume it, and the Church of England continued that experiment after Henry VIII broke it away from the RCC. The experiment has failed. The bishop knows this, but will need to articulate his message far better than he has done to have any hope of success today.