The manufacturing of a ‘woke’ controversy
The market town of Beverley in East Yorkshire is not normally a place which hosts controversies, but in the spring of 2021 a church in the town found itself at the centre of a manufactured ‘controversy’.
The ‘controversy’ concerned the replacement of some old weathered limestone carvings at the 12th century church of St Mary’s, which is part of the Church of England, itself centuries old. The carvings are thought to date from 1520.
The female vicar at St Mary’s thought it would be nice to replace the unrecognisable old carvings with new ones which celebrated the various contributions to progress made by distinguished women who had links to East Yorkshire. She pointed out that the achievements of women have often been overlooked when the history books are written and the pedestals mounted.
Explaining her decision to focus on feminist and BAME icons, Vicar Reverend Rebecca Lumley told the local Hull Daily Mail: “The contribution of women to humanity isn’t always properly recognised in the telling of history, and throughout history, women’s voices have been silenced.
“We take seriously the Church’s role in battling inequality and injustice. And so we hope that this project will help highlight the remarkable achievements of these women, and provide hope and inspiration for future generations.”
The carvings include:
- Marie Curie the Polish-French pioneer of the physics of radioactivity
- Mary Wollstonecraft the proto-feminist and writer
- Amy Johnson the aviator
- Queen Elizabeth II the longest reigning British monarch
- Marie Seacole the Jamaican war nurse of the Crimean War
Apparently permission to go ahead with the controversial redesign of the church was granted by the chancellor of the local Church of England diocese, Canon Peter Collier QC. He said that the original carvings were so badly eroded that it was “impossible to tell what they were meant to be or whether there was any theme to them.”
Collier said that the women whose names have been chosen for the project had “played a significant role in relation to the advancement of science or human knowledge” and added: “In my judgement, it is entirely appropriate to celebrate these lives for their human achievement.”
All of this seems reasonable and innocent enough doesn’t it? Well actually all hell let loose. The far right got hold of the story and it soon stormed across their internet blogs.
The Breitbart website claimed that the carvings were ‘BAME’ – apparently a major flashpoint for them and their readers.
“A 900-year-old church in East Yorkshire will have damaged carvings replaced with figures celebrating feminist and Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) figures.
The woke restoration project of St Mary’s Church in Beverley is being spearheaded by Vicar Reverend Rebecca Lumley and has been approved by the Church of England.
The church, which dates back to the year 1120, is set to feature replacement carvings celebrating Polish-French physicist Marie Curie, British-Jamaican businesswoman Mary Seacole, airship engineer Hilda Lyon, aviator Amy Johnson, astronaut Helen Sharman, feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, and Queen Elizabeth II.”
http://www.breitbart.com
Another ‘anti-woke’ website, probably http://www.foxhole.com, which now seems to be defunct, said the following on 18th May 2021:
Woke feminist icons selected for new carvings at Yorkshire church built in 1120
A proposal to spoil a Grade 1 listed church with new carvings of female figures, most of them completely unassociated with Christianity, has been approved by the CoE’s top cloth because of the roles the women played in the “advancement of human knowledge”.
Most oft he existing carvings at St Mary’s Church in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire (see picture above) have eroded over centuries and so the parish’s vicar, Reverend Rebecca Lumley and two of her wardens have suggested replacement carvings celebrating the achievements of a selection of female icons.
The plans come on the back of recent official guidance published by the Church on how to get rid of artefacts linked to slavery. The document was commissioned in the aftermath of the death of criminal and drug abuser, George Floyd almost a year ago. But the Church is not stopping there in flashing its woke credentials. Now it is approving new monuments conforming to a more progressive agenda, even if most of them are not associated with Christianity, and in some cases, quite the opposite.
“I am entirely satisfied that the petitioners have made out the case for their proposal,” said Chancellor of the local diocese, Canon Peter Collier QC who chose to give the go-ahead.
St Mary’s was built in 1120 and has been described as “one of the most beautiful parish churches in England,” but that doesn’t appear to have given anyone involved cause to pause and think whether woke additions are worthy.
The individuals being commemorated range from universally popular figures like Queen Elizabeth II and Marie Curie to more obscure individuals like Crimean War caregiver, Mary Seacole, who was also black.
Philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft has been picked even though she is thought not to have believed in God. While the mother of Mary Shelley’s writings were more focused on women and girls’ rights than spirituality, she married atheist William Godwin who described her as a religious sceptic in his memoirs of her.
The other chosen women are: airship designer, Hilda Lyon; aviator, Amy Johnson; and astronaut, Helen Sharman.
Nevertheless, Chancellor Collier fully approves of the chosen women who “played a significant role in relation to the advancement of science or human knowledge”.
“In my judgment, it is entirely appropriate to celebrate these lives for their human achievement,” he added.
Reverend Lumley and the wardens’ application stated: “The contribution of women to humanity isn’t always properly recognised in the telling of history, and throughout history, women’s voices have been silenced.
“We take seriously the Church’s role in battling inequality and injustice. And so we hope that this project will help highlight the remarkable achievements of these women, and provide hope and inspiration for future generations.”
They may find they’ve also taken away more than parishioners will appreciate.
http://www.foxhole.com
Another organisation which weighed in was patriot-organisation.com. It is not clear what carvings on a church have to do with patriotism. Possibly it depends on how one defines patriotism. Interestingly this website now seems to be defunct. This is what they had to say:
A left-wing, woke vicar at St Mary’s Church in Beverley, Yorkshire, is set to replace worn church carvings that are hundreds of years old with depictions of feminist and ethnic minority figures.
Unbelievably, the Church of England hierarchy have given their approval for this mad-cap left-wing scheme.
This is not the first time this ultra-PC vicar has made bizarre, ridiculous decisions.
Last year, as part of the restoration of church, over a dozen carvings of characters from “The Chronicles of Narnia” were made and installed.
The modern Church of England is quickly ditching traditional Christianity in favour of political correctness and liberalism to “fit in” with the modern left-wing media climate.
This abhorrent process has to be resisted and challenged, lest there will be nothing left of our native Christian heritage except that which is approved of by the political Left.
Please read the letter below then fill out the form and your complaint will be sent immediately to the Church of England and Archbishop Justin Welby:
http://www.partiot-organisation.com
The far right are very active on social media. Unsurprisingly the Facebook ‘Traditional Britain Group’ had something to say. They have a lot to say on just about everything. Here it is:
More woke filth from the failed Church of England. A medieval church in Beverley, East Yorkshire, is to replace a group of ancient sculptures with nine carvings of pioneering women, almost certainly all atheists, in a bid to combat the “silencing” of women in history.
Facebook Traditional Britain Group
Leave EU were always bound to comment on this. Sure enough they did on their Twitter account. Simply:
Yup! More woke nonsense at the Church of England.
Leave EU on Twitter
Finally one would not expect the Daily Mail to miss out on a headline here. Sure enough they had one:
A vicar is set to replace badly eroded religious carvings at her Yorkshire church with scenes depicting BAME and feminist icons.
St Mary’s Church, a centuries-old parish in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, has been given the green light to introduce figures including the Queen, Marie Curie and nursing pioneer Mary Seacole in place of some of its ancient carvings.
The 16th century carvings at the Grade 1 listed church, which dates back to 1120, have become so badly eroded over the years it is impossible to see what they are meant to depict.
Now the go-ahead has been given by the Church of England’s Consistory Court for some of the artefacts to be replaced with new carvings with a BAME and achievements of women theme.
The plan for which the vicar, Reverend Rebecca Lumley, and two of her church wardens sought approval was given the go-ahead by Chancellor of the local diocese, Canon Peter Collier QC, in his role as a judge of the Consistory Court.
He said: ‘I am entirely satisfied that the petitioners have made out the case for their proposal’.
In their application for consent the Reverend Lumley and the church wardens said: ‘The contribution of women to humanity isn’t always properly recognised in the telling of history, and throughout history women’s voices have been silenced.
‘We take seriously the Church’s role in battling inequality and injustice. And so we hope that this project will help highlight the remarkable achievements of these women, and provide hope and inspiration for future generations.
The plan is for the replacement carvings to include images of: the Queen; Crimean War nursing pioneer Mary Seacole, who in 2004 was voted ‘the greatest black Briton’; Marie Curie; airship designer Hilda Lyon; pioneering aviator Amy Johnson; astronaut Helen Sharman; and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.
Giving his consent Chancellor Collier said the erosion of the existing carvings was so bad it was impossible to tell what they were meant to be or whether there was any theme to them.
He said each of the women whose names had been put forward had ‘played a significant role in relation to the advancement of science or human knowledge’ adding that in the case of the Queen the world wide impact of her reign was beyond question.
‘In my judgment it is entirely appropriate to celebrate these lives for their human achievement,’ he said.
Some of the carvings currently being restored at the church, described as ‘one of the most beautiful parish churches in England’, were installed in 1520 when the main part of the church was rebuilt.
In 2020, as part of the restoration of church, 14 new carvings of characters from The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis were made and installed at St Mary’s, after being blessed by the Bishop of Hull.
Daily Mail
Actually, the Mail’s piece goes on to talk about the Church of England’s reaction to Black Lives Matter and the growing unease about images and statues of colonialism and slavery in Britain’s rich cultural heritage. However their article is not overly critical in the way of some of the more hysterical articles mentioned earlier.
Like most of the above articles the Daily Mail’s piece did go out of its way to inform their readers that one of the women was a woman of colour and another was Polish-French. This would have, probably deliberately, triggered that famously opinionated Mail readership.
Some people see the above mentioned publications as part of a huge multi-billion dollar trans-Atlantic ‘outrage industrial complex’. This complex, it is claimed, feeds its socially and economically insecure readers, who are fearful of globalisation and diversity, with stories about the march of ‘woke’ culture. ‘Wokeness’ is coming to get them, it seems.
This article is somewhat late to comment, but it is interesting to take a perspective on this recent artificially generated controversy. In the end the carvings are going ahead. In Beverley itself few are concerned about them, and indeed they add some contemporary interest to the already interesting Church of St Mary’s.
No doubt the outrage industrial complex will find new outrages to horrify its own congregation.
GrahamArt - Oil Painter 