I was in a rush this ayem, and should have looked for the aforementioned bishops’ letter meself. I didn’t, but an NRO reader and blogger seems to have the goods: the Telegraph may have just been looking to make trouble (and I took the bait!).

From the inbox:

You are wrong about the Bishop of Lichfield and the terrorism comment. He
did not describe the three wise men as part of an assassination plot, he
followed the Gospel of Matthew in describing them as pawns. The Telegraph
got the story wrong by misreading his letter. The bishop’s letter seems to
me a fairly straightforward and sensible Christian interpretation of
Christmas.
The bishop’s actual letter is at
http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/pressr/articles/021213a.htm