Virgin Mirth

Published: Dec. 31, 2009, 3:31 a.m.

b'In his Christmas Day sermon Clay Nelson confronts head on the elephant in the pew--St Matthew\'s Christmas billboard juxtaposing it with Santa being arrested in England.\\n"The advertising team I work with is both gob smacked and over the moon about the worldwide reaction. \\xa0They are an international company and no one on the team has ever experienced this kind of reaction.\\xa0To some degree we are all a little bit mystified by it.\\xa0It was just a billboard after all.\\xa0The total time it was up after being vandalized and stolen twice was less than twelve hours, but the image will live on in cyberspace forever as well as in our imaginations."\\nFull text and video available at www.stmatthews.org.nz.'