Anglican Friends of Israel (AFI) has expressed concern at an event being held at St James, Piccadilly, on 26 November.  From the Church Times :

'Sing in indignation' urge new Bethlehem carols

TRADITIONAL carols with distinctly untraditional lyrics will feature in a service of "Alternative Nine Lessons and Carols for Palestine", to be held at St James's, Piccadilly, in London, on Wednesday 26 November.

The service will highlight the current situation in the Holy Land, and the plight of the Palestinian people of Bethlehem, a place that, the organisers say, "desperately needs its share of peace and good will. Its economy is destroyed, and the population confined behind a ten-metre-high concrete wall, built by the Israeli government in contravention of international  law."

The carols have been written by a Jewish parody-writer, and have for six years been sung on the streets of London, notably in Trafalgar Square. This is the first time they have been sung in church. "People at this time of year think more about Bethlehem than at any other time," said one of the organisers, Deborah Fink, a professional singer and the founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods.

It might not be the best way to get through to Jews, she acknowledges, but she hopes it will be a good way of raising the awareness of British people who normally sing about Bethlehem at Christmas.

"I don't see carols as sacred music. Unless you're in a Jewish school, you're going to be exposed to them everywhere. We don't want to offend Christians, and wouldn't dream of parodying Easter stuff, or even proper hymns. There's a sense that these are more like folk songs."

Special guests at the service will include Bruce Kent, the vice-president of Pax Christi. Proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians and to Open Bethlehem, an international campaign described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a non-violent attempt to save a city that belongs to many in the world. It is unconscionable that Bethlehem should be allowed to die slowly from strangulation."

The carols will be interspersed with poetry and prose readings. Some of the lyrics are uncompromising parodies. "O, come, let's not ignore it" is the refrain to "O, come, all ye faithful", and it urges people to "sing in indignation". "Once in royal David's city Stood a big apartheid wall; People entering and leaving Had to pass a checkpoint hall" is one of many carols to feature the separation barrier.

Shepherds are described as watching their flocks among occupying soldiers and bulldozers. An uprooted olive tree is Ehud Olmert's gift on the First Day of Christmas, alongside "nine sniper towers, eight gunships firing, seven checkpoints blocking, six tanks a-rolling, five settlement rings . .  ." The herald angels sing: "Look what's really happening."

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, led a joint delegation of church leaders to the Holy Land in December 2006. Dr Williams described the wall on that occasion as "a sign of all that is wrong in the human heart".

He said of Bethlehem: "We are not here to visit a theme park. We are here to visit a place and people whose very existence speaks of the freedom of God to set human beings free."

AFI co-director Simon McIlwaine called the event an "appalling insult" and expressed surprise that the event was allowed to go ahead at St James Piccadilly.  AFI will lodge a formal protest.