After an interruption of 5 years the Royal Mail, the postal service of Her Majesty the Queen, will issue a series of Christmas stamps, six in total, with images of the Nativity. The citizens of the United Kingdom shall therefore be able to send their Christmas good wishes with first-class or second-class stamps bearing the image of the Madonna and Child interpreted according to the artistic forms and colours typical of all continents. “I was delighted to see the stamps produced with the traditional representation of the Madonna and Child. This will give very great pleasure to very many Christians in our country and throughout the world”, commented Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who has sent a letter of thanks to the Stamp Programme Manager of the Royal Mail’s Philatelic Sector Russell Hawkins. The last time that the postal service of the UK dedicated its stamps to religious themes was five years ago: a fact about which Cardinal O’Brian had complained. It is the intention, from this year on, to alternate religious and secular themes on Christmas stamps. To mark the occasion, the cardinal has decided to send Christmas cards to all 180 cardinals of the College of Cardinals and also to Pope Benedict XVI, together with a presentation ‘First Day Cover’ of the 2005 designs.
