This may lead to thread creep, but it's worth saying, I think.

Shambles told us, in part: Once the way these things were normally done was firmly in my young mind and this appeared to me miracle enough - you then were asked to struggle to accept the idea of imaculate conception.

Sorry, no cigar, Shambles. "Immaculate conception" does not mean "virgin birth". And the concept of "immaculate conception" does not apply (directly, at least) to Jesus.

The concept of immaculate conception has to do with the birth of Mary, not Jesus. It means that she was born without original sin, presumably in preparation for her later role as "the mother of God".

Dave Oesterreich