ALTAR wine from the birthplace of Jesus will not be served at Bolton’s Thornleigh Salesian College this Christmas after claims that it is at the centre of an international security scare.

The Israeli Army is stopping the wine being exported because the drink , it says, constituted a “security risk”.

According to the UK importer the organic wine, made at the Cremisan winery in Beit Jala, a suburb of Bethlehem, by the Roman Catholic order the Salesians of Don Bosoc, has been refused permission to pass the Hebron checkpoint into Israel.

Della Shenton, of 5th Gospel Retreats, in Liskeard, Cornwall, said the move meant that the wine cannot reach the Israeli port of Haifa, from where it is shipped to Europe.

Mrs Shenton said the wine was currently used by a number of parishes and religious houses across the UK, including Thornleigh in Astley Bridge.

She said: “What has happened is really very sad.

“It was all working like a dream. I have asked the Israeli Embassy if they can shed any light on what is going on. What this is doing is causing havoc and a lot of distress.”

Mrs Shenton added: “It is sad that this Christmas, Christians are being denied the opportunity to be at one with the people of Bethlehem by drinking its wine.

“The wine has always, until now, flowed across the borders of mistrust in this troubled land.

“There are many of us hoping and praying that church authorities as well as the British Government will ask the Israeli authorities to end this unjustified embargo.”

No-one from Thornleigh College was available for comment.