UK bakery chain Greggs has apologised for offending Christians after replacing Jesus with a sausage roll in a Nativity scene.
The scene depicts three wise men gathered around a manger but rather than looking down upon the baby Jesus, they gaze upon a half-eaten sausage roll.
The image, released to promote Greggs advent calendar, sparked criticism from Twitter users and religious groups.
Once in royal David's city
— Sean (@csi_bletchley) November 15, 2017
Stood a lowly cattle shed
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for his bed
Mary was that mother mild
Sausage Roll, her little child#Greggs pic.twitter.com/6qgw8pDgP8
The fact that people are fuming cos Greggs replaced baby Jesus for a sausage roll in their advent calendar, just makes me love Greggs even more
— Elise✨ (@elbroadley_) November 15, 2017
#Greggs I'm outraged that Jesus has been replaced by a sausage roll.....should have been a Festive bake!
— Barry Darkins (@kingofsawbo) November 15, 2017
Out of interest do you think the people at Greggs understand that Jesus was Jewish and serving up a pork sausage roll in the manger is unbelievably inappropriate?
— Beth Rosenberg (@bethvaughan15) November 13, 2017
Please boycott @GreggsOfficial to protest against its sick anti-Christian Advent Calendar. What cowards these people are: we all know that they would never dare insult other religions! They should donate every penny of their profits to @salvationarmyuk https://t.co/tAV7CRP7WM
— Simon Richards (@simplysimontfa) November 15, 2017
A Greggs spokesperson told The Irish Times: "We're really sorry to have caused any offence. This was never our intention."
Simon Richards, chief executive of the Freedom Association called for the public to boycott the bakery and claimed the advent calendar was “sick” and “anti-Christian”.
He tweeted “Please boycott @GreggsOfficial to protest against its sick anti-Christian advent calendar. What cowards these people are: we all know that they would never dare insult other religions! They should donate every penny of their profits to @salvationarmyuk”
Rev Mark Edwards, a vicar in Brunswick, UK, also called for boycott of the chain. He told chroniclelive.co.uk: “Perhaps we should vote with our feet - perhaps we should say, don’t go to Greggs.”
He added “To replace Jesus with a half-eaten sausage roll is just going to the lowest common denominator, and I’m disappointed with Greggs.”
Another twitter user Beth Rosenberg, said: “Out of interest do you think the people at Greggs understand that Jesus was Jewish and serving up a pork sausage roll in the manger is unbelievably inappropriate?”
Some twitter users however, have been seeing the funny side.
Barry Darkins (@kingofsawbo) said "I'm outraged that Jesus has been replaced by a sausage roll.....should have been a Festive bake!"
Elise (@elbroadley_) said "The fact that people are fuming cos Greggs replaced baby Jesus for a sausage roll in their advent calendar, just makes me love Greggs even more"
And Sean (@csi_bletchley) was moved to rewrite the lyrics of Once In Royal David's City,
"Once in royal David's city
Stood a lowly cattle shed
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for his bed"
Mary was that mother mild
Sausage Roll, her little child #Greggs"
