I Have Nothing Really, I Have Nothing…

Anglican leader makes Christmas plea for children

The leader of the worldwide Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, has used his Christmas sermon to criticise the damaging effects of modern life on children.

Dr Williams said they were being forced to grow up too quickly, crushing their experiences of childhood.

"We shall test you relentlessly in schools. We shall bombard you with advertising, often highly sexualised advertising," he said.

"We shall worry you about your prospects and schools from the word go.

"We shall do all we can to make childhood a brief and rather regrettable stage on the way to the real thing, which is independence."

The Archbishop said in countries wracked by civil war, children were often abducted or turned into killers.