After Mary was decapitated, baby Jesus was stolen, and now with just a week to go until Christmas Day, Joseph has had his head cut off too from the nativity scene outside All Saints Church in Ipswich.
The nativity display in the grounds of the church, facing the road on the corner of Chevallier Street and Waterloo Road, was vandilised yet again last night in what vicar Daniel Morrison describes as a ‘sad, nonsensical’ act.
“I’m annoyed because my wife and I have so many things to do to prepare for Christmas, we could really do without this,” he said.
Rev Morrison had decided not to replace baby Jesus after he was stolen last week, but had replaced Mary with a new model. “We wouldn’t risk putting Jesus out again for now, although we have had several local children who have kindly donated their baby dolls,” he said.
He says that CCTV cameras will be checked, and the police will be notified of this latest incident. But rather than feel anger towards the “brats” who committed the grisly act, Rev Morrison says he feels more pity. “It won’t put us off opening our church up to the community. We want out gardens to be a place people come to sit and reflect, and that comes with a risk - but that’s the society that we live in.”
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