Christian mercy? Cathedral sacks seven choristers four days before Christmas
mainLlandaff Cathedral in Wales has terminated seven adult choristers, effective tomorrow, in order to save money. The assistant organist has also been sacked. More than 1,000 supporters have signed a petition but the Church of Wales is turning a deaf ear. Trying to hire herald angels for free, no doubt.
Read here.
It is a great shame and a great sadness. I know many of the cathedral scholars and there are some truly excellent musicians. But someone has managed to create a huge budget defecit at the Cathedral and the Choristers will be the ones who, as a result, will suffer. I’ve yet to hear someone propose a practicable solution to this diabolical situation.
The choir have the capability to fund-raise for one year, and given that a full fundraising programme in other places has succeeded in creating a permanent endowment for choirs, it is staggering that the chapter refuse to engage with this proposal.
Let us not forget they spent £1.5 million on the new organ.
And the Welsh want independence,let them have it along with the Scots. They will then have to balance their own budgets.
There is little evidence that we Welsh want independence (most polls suggest the figure is 10-15%).
However the Church in Wales already is independent. It was disestablished by the 1914 Welsh Church Act and separated from the Church of England. At the same time most of its endowments were confiscate by the state (which is one reason why it has financial problems today).
And balancing their own budget is precisely what Llandaff Cathedral is attempting to do. It’s a shame it is doing it in a misguided way and refusing to countenance alternatives (and didn’t tackle its finances before they got to this stage), but that’s another matter.