Towns cancel Midnight Mass over fears it would be disrupted by drunken thugs

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Churches have brought forward their traditional Christmas Eve service to avoid disruption by alcohol-fuelled intruders.

Clergy are also concerned about worshippers, including the elderly and families, trying to make their way home in the face of the threat of street violence and drunken driving.

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Brought forward: Several churches will hold their traditional Chrismas Eve service earlier in the evening to avoid any disruption

The shift of Midnight Mass was recorded by the Roman Catholic journal, The Tablet.

It said: "Gun crime, rowdy crowds leaving pubs and dangerous drivers have forced many churches to celebrate their first Mass of Christmas Day in the early evening of Christmas Eve.

"Some priests have been advised by the police not to hold Mass late at night, while others have decided it is too dangerous for parishioners to be out on inner city streets or are worried about Mass being interrupted as the pubs empty."

At St Teresa of the Child Jesus church in Liverpool the "midnight" service will be held this year at 6pm.

Father Dennis Connor told The Tablet: "In this area there has been a lot of trouble with gun crime. People won't come out any later than that.

"Older people are really scared of meeting teenagers and people coming out of the pubs."

Father James O'Keefe, of St Bede's in Denton, Newcastle upon Tyne, now holds his Mass at 8pm.

He said: "A lot of people, having been disgorged from the pub, were attracted to the light and music and used to disrupt proceedings."

Senior Catholics said that Midnight Mass was a tradition rather than a theological requirement.

The Church of England said that Midnight Masses continue unchanged in Anglican churches, but a number of CofE churches have announced that their Christmas services - particularly those to which children are invited - will be held earlier on Christmas Eve.