Hopes of a 'flash mob' choir singing carols (sic) in Meadowhall have disappeared in a flash.
A Sheffield vicar said this week he believed it was because the centre did not want to show any religious bias - but managers insisted it was because they had been given too short notice at the busiest time of year and did not have space (December 23, p7).
In the light of this, Cranmer's Curate needs to make clear that he believed it because he saw it - in an e-mail. The firm refusal to allow a flash mob choir to sing from Handel's Messiah on Meadowhall's food court was e-mailed to cc on Monday by the centre management's public relations company, MK Things Happen:
Meadowhall Shopping Centre is open to the general public and therefore must remain impartial towards any one religion or political leaning. The Centre would therefore be unable to give permission for a flash mob choir - similar to the one in Ontario, Canada - to perform.
Your curate was not offering to organise a choir at such short notice before Christmas. He was merely enquiring whether the centre would welcome a choir proclaiming the Messiah, as did the one in the Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario, last month.
Incidentally, whilst doing some Christmas shopping in Meadowhall last night cc observed that a flash mob choir could easily have performed in the food court to the delight of staff and customers.
Here is the news story on the Christian Institute website about Meadowhall's initial refusal.
Cranmer's Curate wishes the youth group a blessed Christmas celebrating the coming of the King of kings and the Lord of lords (banned from the Meadowhall food court until the media got onto it) and a fruitful New Year in Christ's service.
As he blogs off for Christmas, back God willing in the New Year, your curate leaves the youth group with the BCP Collect for Christmas Night:
O God, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy Son, Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Next time, don't ask permission, just do it, and see if they have the nerve to send in the heavies to disperse you.
ReplyDeleteYou do not need to get permission for a variety of reasons, not least because the New Testament commands that sort of respect.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that they thought that Handel's Messiah had some sort of religious or political leaning, subversive work that it is.
ReplyDeletePresumably 'Selections from West Side Story' would be acceptable, or possibly not on account of its left-leaning sympathies towards the poor of Puerto Rico.
Or, more likely, they really couldn't be bothered to assess the case on its merits, and went for the usual excuses. Religion and politics, don't all reasonable people shy away from such things?