A Sikh in the choir?

[ThedaBara]

Curious about how comes there appears to be a Sikh man in the choir at the Queen's funeral. I assumed all the choir members had to be Church of England. How do you join the choir? Just interested

Bumping for you as I have no idea, but noticed him too.

I’d have thought qualification was more about the quality of voice than religious belief; you don’t have to always mean what you sing in order to sing it well

As long as they are respectful it doesn't matters they are professional singers.

It depends on the institution. He may not sing there normally but is deputising or added in for this service - ie he might do funerals and weddings but not 'normal' services if he can't take Eucharist. Or he's such a good singer it doesn't matter.

Sikhs are to recognise the human race as one, so we can partake in any religious celebration, including singing christian hymns, not something that is permitted in all religions. I doubt being CofE is required, if it was they’d struggle to fill church choirs even more than they already do.

We noticed as well and did wonder but it was lovely to see.

SimonJt, thank you. Now I can explain to my girls.

Music and singing are very much a part of the Sikh religion.

God is both male and female to them, and Sikh men and women are equals.
There are no priests, and anyone can lead a service of worship.
They feed millions of people across the world every day, for free.

One of the better world religions, if you ask me. The rest should watch and learn.

^ I very much agree (I was born into another faith) - I loved the Sikh charity distributing snacks & teas to people in the queue

There's a term in the CoE "genuine occupational requirement" which is used when a Christian faith (though this is not always Church of England) is requisite to the job. In my former post as a diocesan training officer it was a genuine occupational requirement that I was a Christian.

Other posts are usually phrased as "must be willing to accept Christian ethos and values" or <insert specific values> of that particular church/cathedral/organisation. This means that while you don’t need to be Christian, you just need to show respect for the values of the institution/CoE as a whole.

Most music posts are the latter, so it’s entirely normal the director of music at my church is Jewish, for eg. The only requirement for lay clerks at the cathedral is probably that they are awesome singers! (And they were, the music was beautiful, wasn’t it?)

I noticed too, partly because there was such little diversity overall.

Yes. It was very noticeable. My daughters commented on it.

Well expressed. 100% agree.

That's possibly one of the loveliest things I've ever read.

@lljkk : I understand the 2 examples you have given, but they are not to do with the faith, one is culturally prescribed sexism (never see that in other cultures 🙄), the second example is due to cultural (not religious) tensions- the worst of which are due to shambolic & needlessly tragic Partition of India & Pakistan

I have a Hindu friend who sings in a cathedral choir.

no one is concerned with beliefs, like my local church not minding me being atheist. He is very musical and has such a beautiful voice.

Loads of people who sing in cathedrals or chapel choirs are there for the music not the religion. Many are atheist. As long as they aren't disrespectful, it doesn't matter. They still say and sing all the words and so on as part of the job. Many won't take communion at those services.

I'm not sure whether people who actively believe I'm another religion would want to do it or if their religion would allow, but certainly no requirement to believe or be C of E.

Thanks for this thread because I noticed him too and was momentarily confused but did think it was a good thing

I had a couple of flatmates who had choral scholarships with particular churches in University. One was an RC cathedral, another CofE. Neither were of the religion of their respective churches. They got their place in the choir because of their voices!

So you have one Sikh friend who's sneery about Muslims and had a bad experience with an arranged marriage so you're extrapolating that to be ambivalent about anyone who's Sikh?

I'm no fan of religion but have a huge respect for the Sikh faith and your post sums up why perfectly!

No, you don't necessarily have to be Christian. I'm Jewish and it wouldn't have disqualified me from joining any major church/cathedral choir if it has women in it.

Good point - why aren't women / girls in the cathedral schools / choirs?

They are, just not at The Abbey.

There are now girls at St George’s, Windsor but they’ve only just started so are still all probationers at the moment.

We have an atheist In our church choir and a previous choir director was lesbian and we sang at her wedding. It was a lovely occasion.
All we want in our choir is people who love the music and are prepared to put in the time ( a few more sopranos and tenors would be nice.....)