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

There was a documentary not so long ago that looked into the lives and school experiences of a boys' and girls' choir - my memory was that they insisted on calling the 'Quiristers' so that would probably make it based around Winchester Cathedral, but this one looked familiar:

Faith and culture are 2 different things.

Educate yourself on the faith. Culture is most definitely based on ones personal views and experiences which are often, from the negative standpoint, ignorant.

This is how children get to join the choir at Westminster Abbey.

www.abbeychoirschool.org/choristership/becoming-a-chorister/

The Queen funded the majority of the fees for the choristers and presumably choose only to fund for boys rather than have two childrens choirs - girls and boys at double the expense. What is perhaps less fair is that only two of the 6 Chapels Royal admit girls (Windsor and the Tower of London). Along with the Abbey and its generous fees discount for the boys, the boys at St James' Palace get 30% off the fees at City Boys and the boys at the Savoy are recruited from St Olav's a boys grammar in Orpington. There is also a limited fee arrangement with Hampton School for boys in the choir at Hampton Court Palace.

In the choir, and overall - apart from the obvious sections where the commonwealth and overseas visitors were sat.

Even if 80% of the UK is white, you'd expect 1 in 5 attendees to be non-white. And probably more in London/south-east - which is why it stood out (to me). I know most aristocracy is white, upper class etc - so perhaps shouldn't be so surprised I guess.

There was uproar a couple of years ago when Westminster Cathedral choir stopped boarding for choristers. As it meant children who lived out of London could no longer practically be in the choir. Since their boys also have to be practicing RC as well. I should imagine that they've really limited their pool of applicants. Can't imagine them accepting girls jut yet. Even though the Liverpool Metropolitan has a girls choir. I think they are better than the boys.

Religion has no bearing on being in the choir. (I have sung in cathedral choirs since being a child). It’s by audition only and the vast majority of the members at the level seen at the funeral yesterday, will be professional musicians, music degree etc.

So you can make critical comments about ‘Sikhs’ (rather than specifically about your friend’s family) but your Sikh friend is not allowed to make critical comments about Muslims. And not should she generalise. But you seem hypocritical.

Plus plenty of illiberal tradition and behaviour the world over is cultural across several religions, and not due to religion.

The Queen, and now King, are monarch to many countries (the realms / commonwealth) where the majority of citizens are not white, and the majority religion not Christian. These were not represented at any meaningful level in any of the musical or military display.