Booze in the pews: Pitcher defends drinking in journalists' church after charity carol service

George Pitcher, who conducted the journalists' carol service at St. Bride's in Fleet Street last week, defends drinking wine in the church in a column in today's Telegraph.
He tells how a woman objected to the congregation drinking wine in St. Bride's after the carol service, held in aid of the Journalists' Charity. "I explained that this was a celebration, that Jesus himself was described as a "glutton and wine-bibber" (Matt: 11:19) and the miracle of the wedding at Canaa set something of a precedent. "But this is a church!" she exclaimed as if that answered everything."
He goes on to defend drinking in general: "Like anything, drink might kill us, but it needn't. And if I snuff it in my sixties or seventies for the price of years of fun, that has got to be preferable to living into a mentally acute great old age with Harriet Harman.
"Hallelujah for booze."
Cheers, George.