Westminster Cathedral choir

[organist]

Rumours have been confirmed that our premier choir will only be open to London based boys. The idea is that the boys go home Friday night and come back early on Sunday morning - totally impossible if you live in Wales. The parents were not consulted. See The Tablet for the last 2 weeks. What to do? It sounds as thought the Cardinal has approved the boarding changes.

[mcb]

It looks as though this is an attempt to fix falling numbers: since not many parents want their seven-year olds to board full time, the change is aimed at widening access to the choir rather than restricting it. I sympathise with the predicament - any kind of change will meet with resistance, and in this case, rather obviously, it's the existing parents, i.e. the few who are willing to consign their sons to full-time boarding, who are up in arms. Time will tell whether it leads to an upturn in the choir's fortunes.

[JW]

I suppose it depends on one's view of full time boarding for young children. There are a number of adults for whom it wasn't always a pleasant experience.

[justMary]

Notwithstanding the boarding issue (what kind of parent would even think it's appropriate ... the mind boggles) - surely a cathedral-anything should be drawing from it's diocese, not the whole country? Roman Catholicism is not a nation-based church.

[organist]

3 boys from Wales will have to leave which is very sad. The whole thing has been badly handled and now Colin Mawby and Terence Duffy have weighed in.