A choir that has been in existence since 1348 has just accepted its first two female choristers – Julia and Lucy, both nine years of age.Two girl choristers have made history at the Choir of St George’s Chapel in Windsor, which for 674 years has only accepted boy choristers.The choir, based at Windsor Castle, regularly sings for The Queen and has just gone mixed for the first time.Julia Johnson and Lucy Howe, both Year 4 pupils at St George’s School Windsor Castle, became the first female choristers to join the choir.The nine-year-olds will take part in daily rehearsals and live in the school’s boarding house during the week.William Goldsmith, Head of St George’s School Windsor Castle, said: “We are tremendously proud of our long-standing tradition of educating and housing the choristers of St George’s Chapel.“To be able to offer this opportunity to everybody at the school, regardless of gender, is very much aligned to our philosophy of valuing all students and recognising that each child has his or her own unique contribution to make to the life of our community and to global society as a whole.”The Choir of St George’s Chapel is formed of up to 23 choristers, who are usually auditioned between the ages of seven and nine. Choristers receive musical tuition from the Chapel Director of Music, Assistant Director of Music and the Organ Scholar, have regular singing lessons, and additional music theory lessons at school.Founded in 1348, the choir sings regularly in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen and other members of the Royal family.The young voices were heard by a televised audience of two billion at the wedding of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as at the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in 2018.Julia and Lucy’s history-making appointments follow the decision, announced by the Dean and Canons of Windsor in January and supported by The Queen, to allow girls and boys to sing side by side in the choir, for the first time in history.St George’s Chapel follows in the footsteps of other church, chapel and cathedral choirs including Salisbury Cathedral, which 31 years ago became the first Church of England cathedral to admit girls on parity with boy choristers.
Debi Rawlings, the Children and Families Worker at Cove Parish Church has been busy.Over the last three week’s she’s led ‘Easter Experience’ events at two churches and school assemblies, which have involved a thousand children and parents.Cove has two churches and eight schools.Debi, who took up her role in autumn last year, developed an Easter trail. Supported by other volunteers, these involved a series of Easter eggs which explained the significance of the events of Holy Week.So, starting with Palm Sunday, each egg offered a different activity. The Garden of Gethsemane egg, invited the children to write a prayer on a post-it note, which Debi took home to pray for the children. The walk-up Golgotha Hill egg contained a plaster, “to remember how much it hurt”. Debi did a cut down version of the Easter Experience for two school assemblies.“The children love it,” says Debi. “It’s been wonderful to engage with some very young children and talk about Easter. What’s exciting is that as I’m doing this, I’m building more and more relationships with these children, who we might not normally get a Christian perspective. It’s been a really eye-opening, wonderful and tiring experience,” she says.The reception assembly needed 70 bags with items for the children to take home. Debi’s living room was turned into an assembly line. The bags included a note of explanation. “I know those bags went home; parents had to read to their children what each item represented. So, I hope we’ve touch a parent or two as well.”“We feel so privileged to share our witness with so many,” concludes Debi.
Since 2017, Revd Tony Shutt (see photo) has been engaging his congregation, the local community and passers-by with some thought-provoking paintings, leading them through the ‘Stations of The Cross’.These 15 paintings were created by Tony, the Vicar of Send Parish Church, between 2017 and 2018, and, although having taken a break last year due to pandemic life, have been used in various ways ever since.Tony speaks of his inspiration by saying, “I wanted to make my own interpretation and version of the Stations of the Cross in a way that made them portable, placeable and to some extent vulnerable.”Each station is an acrylic painting on wood which has been considerably varnished to withstand the elements – very helpful considering the ways in which they’ve been used and helped them stand the test of time.When churches were closed during the Easter season in 2020, the stations were set up along Vicarage Lane in Send for the many lockdown walkers to see.This Easter, Tony has displayed the 15 paintings in the churchyard at St Mary’s in Send and will stay there for all to enjoy and reflect on until the end of April.One member of the congregation commented on Facebook saying, “I was delighted to see the stations of the cross in the churchyard.”Tony hopes that people will think about the sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as they see the installation.
I was brought up short, in the Commons debate on referring the prime minister to the Committee of Privileges to determine if he had knowingly misled parliament, when Steve Baker, the Conservative MP for High Wycombe, referred to Ian Blackford, the Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party, as “a brother in Christ”.Blackford, who is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, looked a little taken aback. Baker asked him if he didn’t believe in redemption, to which Blackford replied blandly: “I believe in truth and justice, and I believe that a prime minister who has misled the house should face appropriate sanctions.”The question was a strange one, not just because it was phrased in explicitly religious terms, but because when Baker came to give his own view it turned out that, although he did believe in redemption, he didn’t think that Boris Johnson’s contrition was genuine: “The prime minister’s apology lasted only as long as it took to get out of the headmaster’s study.” So he too thought the prime minister should go.Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP whose Christianity caused him difficulties as party leader on the question of gay rights, addressed the philosophical question of Boris Johnson’s sincerity in similar language: “I do not know how contrite the prime minister is. I do not know how sincere is his repentance, or his apology. Only two beings know the answer to that question, and I will not make any assumption that I know it, because I am definitely not one of them.”However, Farron nevertheless managed to come to the same conclusion as Baker. Although he believes that “forgiveness is available for everything and for everyone”, he said, “even forgiven sins bear consequences”. He quoted the Bible story of Zacchaeus, a tax collector and cheat who repented of his sins but who also made recompense: “He gives back four times what he has taken.” The prime minister has not borne the consequence of his sins, Farron said, which is why he thought Johnson should be removed from office.It was as if we had been transported back to the 18th or 19th centuries, when MPs debated matters of state in religious language and biblical analogy. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who chairs the committee to which the prime minister has been referred, commented that he felt as if he was back at theological college.As the only MP who is an ordained minister of religion – he was a Church of England vicar before entering parliament – he said he thought he was the only person in the Commons who can actually pronounce absolution on anybody.However, he has recused himself from the Committee of Privileges in this case because he has criticised Boris Johnson so sharply over Downing Street parties, so his power of forgiveness is not going to be tested.Yours,John RentoulChief political commentator
