There Must be No White Choirs, or White Anything, Even Snow By James Reed

     White genocide is passive, and best done slowly like boiling the proverbial frog in water. Take choirs for example, which will be disassembled if they are too white, which nowadays means having any whites at all:
  https://www.britishfreedomparty.com/sheffield_choir_axed_for_being_too_white

Well, it was not possible to cut and paste from those nationalist guys, so we go to the Left: “In a break with centuries of tradition, Sheffield cathedral is to stand down its choir in order to make a “completely fresh start” with a new team of choristers that reflects and engages with an increasingly diverse city. A statement published on the cathedral’s website on Wednesday said “significant change” was needed. The cathedral’s governing body, the Chapter, had decided on “a new model for Anglican choral life here, with a renewed ambition for engagement and inclusion”, it added. Although the cathedral’s music department had been the subject of a review, the closure of the choir was unexpected and is likely to infuriate traditionalists in the Church of England and classical music circles. Apart from a handful of adult singers, the current choir is drawn largely from schools in the Sheffield area (including private schools) and mainly performs music from the Anglican choral tradition. Peter Bradley, the cathedral’s dean, said: “The city is changing pretty quickly and we feel cathedral music needs to have a wider reach. We want to be more ambitious, and that means engaging with a wider group of children and reaching parts of the city we haven’t reached before.” In future, there may be more than one choir drawn from larger numbers of children and university students, he said. The population of Sheffield and the surrounding area is growing, getting younger and becoming more diverse, and in recent years, the cathedral had welcomed refugees and supported people living on the streets, Bradley said.

“We need to be engaging with people who are part of this changing city. We believe strongly in equality and giving as many children as possible the opportunity to sing at the highest level.” The appeal of church music was wide but sometimes “presented in a way that can be seen as elitist”, he said. Bradley acknowledged the decision to close the current choir would “cause genuine grief”. He hoped that some of the existing choristers would become members of a new choir, which will be formed after the appointment of a new canon precentor this summer. The new choir will continue to perform music from the Anglican choral tradition but will broaden its repertoire, he said. “This sort of change in our sort of institution can be immensely painful, but that’s not a reason not to move forward. My view is that many cathedrals will be making similar changes over the next few years. “It’s going to be a bit torrid for us, but we’re not going to sit in a bunker.” The decision to disband the choir was not related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has threatened the future of some cathedral choirs, said a source. However, the recent lockdown, during which choirs have been unable to sing or rehearse together, provided an opportunity to institute radical change. “Choirs have very fixed patterns, and we didn’t think that a gradualist approach would allow us to move quickly enough,” said Bradley. James Bingham, a former member of the Sheffield cathedral choir who now works for the Irish National Opera, said he was appalled by the cathedral’s statement, tweeting: “It implies that the Anglican church’s rich choral tradition is to blame for its declining influence.” “Choral music is one of the great cultural legacies of the Church of England,” he told the Guardian. The idea that classical music was elitist was misguided, Bingham said. “At Sheffield [cathedral], they’re making amazing music on a daily basis in the city centre that is free to everyone.” As a student at Sheffield university, Bingham had sung as a choral scholar five times a week for three years. Choirs were strong communities bound together by frequent performance and rehearsal, he said. “The cathedral choir still holds a big place in my heart. If this had happened while I was still there, I would be heartbroken.”

     Ok, the nationalist article that did not permit cut and paste, was more to the point: the choir was replaced because it was too white, and did not reflect the diverse mixed community of modern Britain, whatever that is now. Well, if they close down the church and replace it by a mosque, that would be too bad wouldn’t it?