Forum Debating Society - Tuesday November 10th

Date: Wednesday 11 November 2009

M5 pupils in Set 1 debated the motion, ‘This House believes that the celebration of Christmas is more Pagan than Christian’. Representing the House were Ana Vandepeer and Theodore St John-Stevens whilst the opposition consisted of Jacob Nicholson and Joshua Best-Shaw. Daniel Gladwin, as the chair, provided the audience with essential information as to the format for the debate.

Ana opened the debate for the House with discussion about pre-Christian traditions linked to the Winter Solstice, worship of the sun god, evergreen trees and how the Roman Church wished to adopt practices already practised before Christ’s birth. Theo also elaborated on Ana’s points, working very closely as a team to argue their case. After three minutes, Jacob and Josh both provided crucial Biblical links to how pre-Christian traditions were adopted by the church to symbolise the Holy Trinity, such as the shape of the fir tree, the link between Father Christmas and Jesus, the giving of presents and the Magi and also the star in the East and its importance at Christ’s birth.

Questions were then taken from the floor which included how we should teach our children about the pre-Christian traditions and their relevance in the celebration of Christmas which was answered by the House in their closing statement. After both teams summarised for one minute, a vote was then taken with three in favour of the House, one in favour of the opposition and four abstentions, from all the members of staff who were present.

The arguments put forth by both teams showed research, thought and careful planning and we look forward to hearing more debates from the M5 in due course. Thank you to everyone who attended this lunchtime Forum Debate. The next such event will take place in January 2010, between St. Edmund’s and Kent College; this will be hosted by Kent College.

Many thanks to Dr Caiazza for this detailed report on a very promising start from our junior debaters.