NO ROOM IN MEADOWHALL FOR THE KING OF KINGS

Sheffield Station last week allowed a flash mob choir to sing Christmas carols in its main concourse. Last month Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario, Canada, famously allowed a flash mob choir to sing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah in its food court. But the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, one of the largest in Europe, does not want a choir singing ‘the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever’ in its food court.

A spokeswoman told Cranmer’s Curate:

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.

An old friend of your curate sent him the YouTube video of the Ontario flash mob choir as his family Christmas card. It is the best Christmas card cc has ever received. The joy on the faces of the singers and the surprised delight of the shoppers are profoundly moving as the praises of the King of kings and Lord of lords ring around the food court:

And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

But in the Siberia of political correctness the Hallelujah chorus is frozen out.

No room in the food court for the King of kings and Lord of lords because the centre management must not be seen to favour one religion over another. It must be 'impartial'.

Except of course no shopping centre serving the UK public can achieve such religious impartiality.

The Name of Christ appears in the word 'Christmas', one world religion's festival that gets a much higher profile in the shops than that of any other 'faith group' in the UK.

The banishment of Christmas from a shopping centre would not go down very well with the retailers.