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10:00pm Wednesday 10th December 2008 in News
CHRISTMAS carols were kicked out of festive celebrations in Corringham last week, disappointing a school choir who had been rehearsing for weeks.
The 60 pupils from Arthur Bugler Junior School in Stanford-le-Hope had finished their rehearsals for the Corringham Winter Festival when organisers informed the head teacher that the carols they had chosen did not “dovetail” with the festival’s theme.
There was no time for the pupils to rehearse new songs so the school was forced to pull out.
Head teacher, Mrs Sue Morris, said: "It would appear there was a communications mix-up between the school and the organisers of the event.
"Initially the school was invited to attend and sing, but after a great deal of rehearsal with the school’s 60-strong choir, we were informed the songs we were rehearsing would not have dovetailed into the event’s theme.
"There was no time to reorganise the choir’s planned programme and we thought it best that we did not take part. The organisers of the event were informed of this.”
A parent of one of the children in choir, who asked not to be named, said: “The school was advised by the organisers that the carols they had chosen were not suitable as they were deemed to have a religious theme.
“The kids were really disappointed.
“Whatever the Christmas Carols were that they were going to sing- I can’t see how they would be offensive to anyone.”
Organisers of the Corringham Winter Festival have put the incident down to a communication problem.
Mr Tony Benson said: “It was a simple communications error, it did not come to my attention until it was too late they even appeared on the program and street notice.
“It was a smashing evening and their presence would have gilded the lilly.
“I have promised the head mistress that we will give them a lot more notice in the future, I can assure you their parents disappointment was matched by mine.”
When the Gazette asked Mr Benson if the school was told their Christmas carols were unsuitable for the event he added: “It is a fact of life that a lot of people have forgotten the meaning of Christmas.
"We the committee try to put something back into the community with The Winter Festival and The Tree of Lights which we arrange and put on for St Lukes.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Prayer Book Society, Prudence Dailey, has hit out at the organisers of “winter festivals” up and down the country, saying their political correctness threatens Christmas.
She said: "These 'politically correct Winter festivals' seek to make Christmas part of a 'multi-faith' mix and hark back to pagan winter solstice observance.
“'Winter festivals' see Christmas as merely a local seasonal event and miss its central religious significance at the heart of national identity.
“Perhaps organisers would benefit from reading the Book of Common Prayer and discovering what winter festivities are in fact about.”
Comments(24)
Eddie
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7:40am Thu 11 Dec 08
logician
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8:21am Thu 11 Dec 08
Barabara
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9:56am Thu 11 Dec 08
Eddie
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7:50pm Thu 11 Dec 08
Baphomet
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8:23pm Thu 11 Dec 08
bgarduk
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5:42am Fri 12 Dec 08
coddy
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8:06am Fri 12 Dec 08
Freddy K
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9:18am Fri 12 Dec 08
Barabara
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10:11am Fri 12 Dec 08
ebony
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7:49pm Fri 12 Dec 08
Eddie
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9:09am Sat 13 Dec 08
arcgrays
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11:40am Sat 13 Dec 08
Barabara wrote:Just exactly what do you mean by indiginous tribes.
Look all I'm normally the first to crash anything on immigration here, but its not the immigrants faults but the white hater traitors who see nazi racist filth in anything indigenous. Eddie naively bless him would allow other nations to live peacefully within our shores, but this just don't work,(just look at the rioting in Grease) calling me racist, moron is just covering up guilty feelings because we need solutions and deep down we all know the only solution that would work is keeping everyone to their own country and culture and religion. We are called racist nazi scumbags for this outlook, so is Amazonian tribal leader Pierlangela Nascimento da Cunha also going to be labelled a racist nazi scumbag for wanting to preserve his culture and identity. http://bnp.org.uk/20 08/12/self-determina tion-%e2%80%98good%e 2%80%99-for-amazon-i ndians-but-%e2%80%98 bad%e2%80%99-for-fir st-world/ http://www.timesonli ne.co.uk/tol/news/wo rld/us_and_americas/ article4232102.ece http://www.survival- international.org/ne ws/3387 '' Mr. Cunha told the British press in June this year that “The development of our country cannot be achieved through the extinction of its indigenous people and by disrespecting their rights. The big economic interests see as an obstacle.” This man talks like a bnp member and understands that the only solution to preservation is to have his own land with no outsiders in it, and world governments are helping to achieve this, so why aren't these same rights given to the British/english/scot tish/welsh and n ireland indigenous tribes, its correctly ok to preserve Amazonian tribal Indians, but not the British indigenous tribes, now there's something undemocratic and fundamentally wrong about that and if we are truly democratic we should be fighting to achieve the same rights and not made to feel so guilty and bad if the solution is unsavoury to some but is the correct way so solving a problem.
bgarduk
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4:46am Sun 14 Dec 08
davepartridge
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8:36am Sun 14 Dec 08
Barabara
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4:05pm Mon 15 Dec 08
Barabara
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4:16pm Mon 15 Dec 08
bgarduk
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8:18am Tue 16 Dec 08
arcgrays
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8:45am Tue 16 Dec 08
Barabara wrote:Baabara,i asked you what you consider the criteria are to be considered 'indigenous' for the reason i will tell.A friend of my niece who is a supporter of the BNP,
arcgrays If i was intelligent i may be insulted by your far left statement which you lot always use to say we are all immigrants in britain, but i think we all know who the indigenous peoples of these islands are, so go read it all again and you should come up with the correct answer.
Barabara
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8:15pm Tue 16 Dec 08
Barabara
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8:40pm Tue 16 Dec 08
bgarduk wrote:Yes bgarduk,I really am a sad one, I'm sad the way I'm have become a second class citizen in "MY" country, I'm sad the way "MY", country is becoming a thirdword Sh*thole , just an area of the globe that anyone from around the world can come to if they fancy a free house,or a bit of free welfare or a bit of free nhs because they have aids, bringing their gang knife crime cultures, honour killings ,ritual animal cruelty among bombings and other things with them. I'm sad the way my Identity is being eroded. I'm sad the way you are so desperate to belong to my Identity hence losing your own ethnic Identity. If the powers that be create a federal europe you cant believe they will not stop destroying everyone's Identity to replace it for a one world Identity, they will shaft you as much as they are now shafting the indigenous people.
Barbara, barbara, barbara you really are a sad one. I truly hope you get the Christmas spirit soon. There is an old saying that the population of England is the result of many thousands of years of rape and pillage, so we are all partly "foreign" and the beauty about the country, and many others world wide, is the ability to live together, enjoying our similarities and learning from our differences. Merry Christmas to you all, from wherever you may come from.
Don South
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10:40am Wed 17 Dec 08
Eddie
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3:44pm Wed 17 Dec 08
Janet Dipper
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8:28pm Wed 17 Dec 08
Barabara
says...
10:09pm Thu 18 Dec 08
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