I have now received on a circular an official statement from the Company Secretary of the Royal Mail concerning the rumour of the last few days. It is prefaced by some words from a non-stipendiary Anglican priest who works for the Post Office. (I have edited out some of her references to particular individuals.) I think this confirms my initial suspicions, namely that there was no official conspiracy. It feels like the old false allegation that Procter and Gamble were in league with Satanists.
The rumour that the Royal
Mail may be encouraged to stop printing religious stamps at Christmas is completely
unfounded; and the request to circulate it has been extraordinarily unhelpful.
I and other colleagues involved with the Church have now received copies of the
‘offending para’ from outside of St Albans
diocese; (I don’t know where it started from but it is doing the rounds). And
it has probably taken the best part of the the last 48 hours to contain this –
as the Mail on Sunday got hold of it too. ……I think what concerns me most is that the
email came from and was circulated to Christians/ ministerial colleagues – and
until [names] got in touch, there was an assumption that the note was
true. No-one in Royal Mail group gets up in the morning with the negative
motivation implied – and certainly not the directors who take these decisions.
You would not believe the contortions we go through to try to support and to
please the particular community we are trying to serve – in this case the
Christian one. (Many of us are Christians and our faith is critical to the way
we do business.)What follows below this note, is our response
statement. We took a decision after last year, to have Christian stamps every
year at Christmas (see below for a brief explanation). It is difficult to
ensure that our external communications reach all audiences and so I would be
happy to answer any queries on this; and time permitting, come along and speak
to the diocese, if you feel people may like to know more about the Christmas/
postage or community impacts (Post Office closures, etc) of the Post Office/
Royal Mail Group.But in the meantime, as we say below, any help
you can give in restoring the balance would be much appreciated. I don’t have
all the addresses of those who received [the] original mail …… Please could you
pass on the statement below (and this note if it helps) to anyone you or they
may have copied the original mail to.Thank you in anticipation of your support and
best wishes for a very Christian Christmas!Paula.
The Revd Paula Vennells, Network Director, The
Post Office(Incidentally, we were rather surprised at the
suggestion that the angels were only “vaguely Christian”. I’m sending
you a presentation pack of the stamps. Have a read inside and let me know what
you think.)Royal Mail statement:
‘We have become aware of an incorrect
assertion being made about the motives behind the sales of our Christmas
stamps.
There is absolutely no intention on our part to suppress sales of the Madonna
and Child stamps in order to be able to claim there is low demand for religious
stamps in future years. Indeed, we have produced tens of millions of
them, and we want to sell them!! We have given publicity to both types of
Christmas stamps, and the availability of both has been widely covered in the
national and local press. Furthermore we plan to have the Madonna and
Child stamps available every Christmas in future, alongside each year’s
“special” set, which will continue to alternate between religious and
secular themes.Any help you can give in restoring the balance would be much appreciated.
Jonathan
Evans OBE, Company Secretary, Royal Mail Group
Big Circumstance 
What Do You Think?