An egalitarian vicar has left a group of civic dignitaries sitting on their, well, dignity. Pam Potts, chair of Fenland District Council in central England, requested three dozen seats to be reserved at the front of St Peter and St Paul’s Church at Chatteris, near Cambridge, for the council’s annual carol service. Vicar James Thomson refused, telling Potts: ”All are equal before God.”
She has now moved the service to another church in nearby March.
”It is protocol that seats are reserved for civic leaders. Civic leaders deserve respect and I feel that protocol should be followed,” Potts fumed on Thursday. ”If we lose protocol and respect like this, we lose everything.”
The council rotates its annual carol service among churches in towns of March, Chatteris, Wisbech and Whittlesey.
Potts said the council chairman had the privilege of inviting up to 250 guests — and it was protocol to reserve seats at the front for civic leaders, including herself and the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, an official who represents Queen Elizabeth II in the county.
”I am rather sad that this has happened because we have never come across this before from any other vicar,” she said.
Florence Newell, chairperson of Chatteris Town Council, said the decision was ”a slight on Chatteris”.
”You cannot have the Lord Lieutenant of the county sitting at the back in a civic carol service. He is the representative of the Queen and it simply would not be right,” she huffed.
Thomson, 35, was unrepentant. ”If people wanted to sit at the front they could come early,” he said.
Bishop Anthony Russell’s office said seating arrangements were a matter for individual vicars. – Sapa-AP