The Rev James Milnes is a Church of England vicar who should be made Archbishop of Canterbury: the Coronation St. film crew concealed the church’s cross, so he is using the money they paid for the filming to buy a bigger one. He knows that the church without the cross is not a church and he isn’t afraid to say it.
Coronation Street producers removed cross from church wedding scene
The Rev James Milnes said they obscured the cross because of “political correctness”, thereby emptying the church “of the very thing that makes it a church”.Condemning the decision as “a disgrace”, he has vowed to spend the £4,600 that St Mary’s Church in Nether Alderley, Cheshire, received from Granada TV on a bigger silver cross for the alter.
Viewers never got to see the existing brass symbol, during the wedding scene of characters Tyrone Dobbs and Molly Compton.
Instead it was tucked away behind a candelabra and artificial flowers.
Those watching were, however, treated to the essential spectacle of dry ice drifting across the floor.
Writing in his parish magazine, Mr Milnes, 29, said: “How can people think it offensive to see a cross in a church, in the same way as you would normally see the Koran in a mosque or the Torah in a synagogue? That is the emblem of this faith.”
He went on: “This has a resonance around the country. It plays into who we are as a nation because I do not think we have a clear idea as English people. We do not really know where we are going.
“There is constant attrition to our way of life. You can’t say this or you can’t say that for fear of offending. Who can we possibly be offending?”
‘Who can we possibly be offending?’ Answer: ‘Millions of the walking wounded’. With respect, Rev. James Milnes’ last comment is either obtuse or at best naïve. As a practicing Christian, I am keenly aware of the power of the cross, which unfortunately has frequently been a banner for evil purposes (Witness the medieval Crusades for example) and more importantly carries today emotional baggage on a scale scarcely matched. It remains as always the preserve of the religious and the political to give the world its most charged symbols – that is the most negative and the most positive. The cross is both. The agenda of power and control behind much of Christendom is the issue at hand. The refusal of most of the populations of Western countries to attend church is the starkest reminder of the disconnect between what the people need and what the church is traditionally offering. The cross is unfortunately coming to symbolize this disconnect. Honesty is now the watchword if this fracture is ever to be repaired, and love at last ought to be the basis of good Christian progress.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
i Cor. 1:18
The message Paul was writing about involves honesty and love, which I see little of in modern Christendom. All I am asking is that we love ourselves and the world unconditionally as Jesus taught us, and assume the personal responsibility that brings. Therin is the power of the cross, warts and all.