Children’s Christmas carol service criticised for ‘promoting Christianity’
Kids from St Mary’s CE Primary School sang carols, Christmas songs and performed dances at an outdoor event in Prestwich. Local people enjoyed it, but one person objected the religious nature of the carol singing.
The event organiser – the North Western Housing Association – confirmed in their December newsletter that “We have received a complaint that the event promotes Christianity and should not be repeated in the future. When we agreed to help support this event, we had no intention of causing offence to anyone.”
The association is holding a survey among the residents of Rectory Court. So far 20% of people living there responded, all in full support of the event.
Mike Corfield, CEO of Prestwich and North Western, stated: “This is the second year that the children’s carol singing event has taken place. The original idea came from a member of the local community, and we thought it was a good one so were happy to work with the St Mary’s to make it happen. Lots of the tenants were involved, putting up decorations and lights to make the area look suitably festive. In fact, without the incredible support and hard work of a small group of involved tenants there is no way the event would have happened.
The children and teachers put in lots of time rehearsing and really seemed to enjoy themselves on the night. The event was attended by many of our tenants and some of the parents of the young children who were singing. The whole event was delightful and the singers treated us to various carols and Christmas songs as well as some very funny dance moves. We felt supporting the carol singing was an important part of building a strong community spirit and it would bring some happiness and light at this time of year. It is true that just prior to the event we received a complaint that the event should not go ahead as it was associated with a particular religion and therefore promoted one religion above others. We decided that we would canvas the views of all residents on the site to see how widely this view was held.”
Mr Corfield also emphasized that they took the complaint seriously: “I am aware that some people have been annoyed about the complaint and the survey that we sent but we felt it was important to gauge people’s views on this matter so we could be sure that we were providing a service tenants supported. The views of our tenants are the most important voices in this matter. We intend to publish the result of the survey in the new year.”
Source: https://premierchristian.news
