Organist’s spanking tweet sparks concern
NewsThis tweet, retweeted two years ago by an incoming organist, is causing some discomfort in Belfast Cathedral.
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Yesterday’s announcement:
Here at Belfast Cathedral we are delighted that Stephen will be joining our Music Department in September 2023, serving as our principal accompanist for all Cathedral services.
Stephen, a renowned and talented organist who has held various high-level musical positions in the Belfast area who has featured on many broadcasts and recordings, will bring with him a vast wealth of experience that we look forward to hearing each week, on an organ that he is already so very well acquainted with.
Welcome to the Cathedral community, Stephen!
UPDATE: The tweet has just been deleted from Stephen’s social media.
A bum note with which to start off his new appointment. His tweet (now removed) would unsettle me if I had a child in the choir.
We can only hope they’re not all fragile little snowflakes.
What the organist has said about spanking kids is spot on. A breath of fresh air!!
The fact of his removing the tweet is yet another signal of the kind of tyrants who inhabit our world and Twittersphere; censuring, hectoring, destroying any contrary opinion. Ruining careers.
This is where we are now.
Wow. And this guy has some pretty foul mouth views for all to see on his Facebook page, including one about the BBC’s coverage of the coronation (“Anyone else having problems with the **** BBC sound dropping out?”). He has some other rude views too. I wouldn’t want my son or daughter to be in that place. Presumably the Dean or Bishop knew all this before they appointed him?
Deans and Bishops don’t give a fig about the music in their cathedrals, not least who is appointed to lead and create the music in them – fact if recent reports on this highly revered site is anything to go by
One person’s ‘foul’ is another person’s common sense and freedom of speech. You don’t have a better world for all that; far from it. Time for another paradigm.
Just keep your children away from his organ and everything will be fine.
What else does he recommend for disciplining children who misbehave in church? Rapping their knuckles with a ruler, pulling their ears, smacking them upside their heads, washing their mouths out with soap… ?
Trigger warning; the Empire of Offense is widening. We need commissars like you to enforce YOUR new rules. I’m told you can buy second hand Bolshevik uniforms pretty cheaply.
Religious organisations are not celebrated for doing due diligence on many issues; safeguarding of minors, financial probity …. list is loooooooooooong
So, kind of like classical music.
and I recall Belfast Cathedral got rid of their last organist ‘cos of disciplining the choir, or was that bullying, or even was he just doing his job?
Us organists are such a strange lot – probably due to our isolated time in our organ lofts, school and collegiate training and our proud love of trains and their timetables – and our self discipline!
Not in the slightest. The Dean got rid of its highly successful professional choir and Director of Music on the grounds of finance: https://slippedisc.com/2022/07/belfast-abolishes-music-director-and-paid-choir/
As I said above, Bishops & Dean’s don’t give a fig about the music produced in their cathedrals – if they did, they would find the money and run a fair and transparent recruitment process for their music leaders, then support and look after them when they are appointed.
This is so very, very far from the case in the church these days, hence the mediocre piss poor quality of those now getting the ‘top’ jobs – many of whom haven’t a clue how to play the organ, keep a choir musically trained, focused and committed, or even have the personality to encourage recruitment to fledging choirs under their feeble direction.
Who would want to be a church musician these days with lack of support from senior clergy choir recruitment
problems and diminishing congregations and choristers unwilling to commit, oh, and so many hoop jumping health & safety, child protection and disinterest from clergy issues to deal with.
We’re not far off having recorded music in our churches as they do in France
Maybe the kids should spank the organist too.
Or just bash the bishop.
I’m betting this is probably what they do; just like in schools now where the kids are firmly in control. Except for the occasional one where discipline is enforced.
Did I miss something? Is there more context to the tweet? It concerns parenting NOT playing the organ or directing a church choir.
Wow. The trivia this site reports. The manufactured outrage in response. The judgementalism coupled with no-it-all hysteria! The ability to blow things out of proportion.
Can we write about music and performances and performers – and in most cases NOT about their private lives, toilet habits or culture war issues – or else change the title of this place and lose a lot of us readers?
KNOW it all hysteria…?!
However you look at this, it is a stark truth that there appears to be a complete lack of discipline in bringing up young people now. They are, it would seem, able to do as they like everywhere. In general, they have more rights than adults now. For the sake of sanity, this has to change.
Very sensible tweet. A spankingly good appointment.
I agree wholeheartedly. Today’s passive parents have become the servants of these entitled brats. When a parent tells a child “good job” for crossing the street or asks what they want for dinner and when, they shouldn’t expect a resilient child.
The big problem nowadays is due to the fact that parents and teachers, and anyone else working with today’s brats, want to be down with the kids and act as their best friends. On this foundation there is absolutely no chance of building up any discipline whatsoever. It’s time people in positions of so-called authority grew up and did something to reverse this situation or else these over-entitled, mollycoddled, little darlings will rule the roost. Aren’t there anymore chimneys need sweeping??