Vandals have taken charge of the Church of England
by Madeleine Grant, Telegraph:
We have Gordon Brown to thank for the CoE manager class that scraps choirs in the name of diversity.
‘How much of the meaning of the words was lost when they were produced with all the meretricious charm of melody!” declares Obadiah Slope of Mr Harding’s beloved Barchester choir. The war against church choirs is nothing new. Invariably there are people who simply don’t “get it”. Those for whom music, married to words in worship, echoing the rhythms of the past and making them live again in the present, is not beautiful but a distraction from what really matters.
Slope is the villain of Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers, and at the heart of his villainy is his managerial campaign to do away with music in the cathedral. A sweet conceit for a Victorian novel, you might think. Alas the spirit of Slope lives on.
Another week, another miserable story courtesy of the Church of England. Winchester – where sung worship has featured since before the days of Alfred the Great – has reportedly shown plans to its choral foundation to “increase diversity of contribution” in line with its main priorities of “reach and access” and “diversity and inclusion”. (Note the wishy-washy language, the lack of any mention of the worship of God.) According to classical music magazine Slipped Disc, in management-speak, this means replacing the cathedral choristers with a “variety of singers from other parts of the regional demographic”. Jargon becomes a cover for what is, essentially, vandalism, the destruction of centuries of beauty for no apparent reason.
[…] Last week’s local elections offered a glimpse of the tribal, sectarian future awaiting UK politics. It seems particularly poignant that the custodians of our history are busy destroying the heritage they are supposed to defend just when we most need things that bind us together. Thanks to the false god of “outreach”, the Church of England is severing them.
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