Instead, he urged families to "show" love and affection rather than try to "buy it".

In his first comments on the festive period since becoming the Anglican leader, the archbishop acknowledged: "It's a cliche of modern life that someone gets up and says Christmas is becoming very materialistic, as though it wasn't 300 years ago."

In a formal legal opinion being circulated to peers, he savages the proposals as opening the way for the outright "suppression" of anything deemed "potentially annoying" with only "vague" justification.

The proposed safeguards to prevent abuse of the new system are "shockingly" weak, he writes.

Fortunately for Bishop Nick, this was not actually the case. The supposed source was a press release from the Church of England announcing their new Pilgrim discipleship course. The course has been designed in particular for new Christians who want to grow in their faith and become more mature disciples of Jesus. The press release mentions that the course offers an approach of "participation, not persuasion".

It is claimed the new oath would be fairer for everyone and make it easier to understand the importance of what they are saying.

But critics point out non-believers already have the option of promising to tell the truth without any reference to a sacred text, and that the change would further erode Britain's Christian heritage.