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[ Royal News and Views ]

The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Martha on November 11, 2025, 9:03 am

The vicar of the church, the Rev Paul Williams, decided to bring in a consultant to review the choristers, who are all volunteers.

Tansy Castledine concluded, in a report published earlier this year, that the group needed to ”aspire to higher standards” and that they had ”no knowledge of music or singing technique”.

The choir’s long time leader, Dr Claire Stewart, went on sick leave brought on by stress and now the Director of Music has quit her post.

As a result, it’s reported that several choristers are boycotting rehearsals. Now it’s feared that they might not be in full voice for the Christmas Day service.

Although the service itself is never broadcast, it’s the most watched Christmas Day church ceremony in the country as crowds gather outside St. Mary Magdalene to see the Royal Family as they walk from Sandringham House. There’s always a walkabout afterwards, too, with millions seeing the royal Christmas on TV and online.

St. Mary Magdalene is in the Diocese of Norwich and a spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph that ”several members of the choir have continued to sing together throughout this time, including at sung services across the churches in the Sandringham group.”

There’s no chance of the Christmas Day service being cancelled. Not only would The King have something to say, the Diocese noted that ”there is a full schedule of services planned at Sandringham to celebrate the joy of Christmas.”

King Charles is expected to gather the Royal Family at Sandringham for Christmas. Last year, Queen Camilla also invited her own children to join them for the festive celebrations.

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https://royalcentral.co.uk/royal-news/christmas-day-royal-215071/

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Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Cynthia on November 11, 2025, 10:25 am, in reply to "The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Do UK churches not bring in paid professionals for special solos or to beef up the volunteer ranks? I've noticed in the US churches that the choirs are usually filled with really excellent amateur singers.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Karen on November 11, 2025, 12:41 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Do UK churches not bring in paid professionals for special solos or to beef up the volunteer ranks? I've noticed in the US churches that the choirs are usually filled with really excellent amateur singers.

It's not common to have professionals in local churches. My own church St Mark's Scottish Episcopal has a choir made up of church members who love singing. They are lead by the organist who is a music teacher during the week. The large cathedrals have trained singers.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Hollie24 on November 11, 2025, 1:52 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

My church has a wonderful choir, but will hire professional singers for things like the annual performance of Handel's Messiah and the Service of Lessons and Carols. The professionals usually handle the solos.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Hollie24 on November 11, 2025, 11:19 am, in reply to "The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Wow, what a slap in the face to the music director and choir. And how pretentious do you have to be to bring in a consultant to what is, in essence, a village church. Does the vicar aspire to make his parish into a rural St. Martin In The Fields? How ridiculous. If the choir was good enough for the late Queen, and is good enough for the King, then it's good enough for everyone.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Martha on November 11, 2025, 11:50 am, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

I don't know what the vicar was thinking. Were there "problem" choir members that needed to be brought to heel and he used the consultant to do that?

Did he think the consultant would sing their praises? (See what I did there?)

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Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Cynthia on November 11, 2025, 2:13 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

And who paid for this consultant? "Your donor dollars at work!"

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by karenl on November 11, 2025, 9:48 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

I wish I knew more of the "background" behind this story. For instance, is this a "wealthy parish" or a village parish with villagers attending?
To me it sounds like a dispute or clash between the Vicar and the Choir Director..or members of the parish/choir that have a dispute with the choir director. The vicar either called the consultant in on his own or from pressure by some members of the parish.
Churches often have members who are huge donors and they feel entitled to run the church the way they see how it should be run and the rest of the congregation be damned. I'm sure the money for the consultant's fee came from the church's general fund, which is funded by donations/church collections.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Karen on November 12, 2025, 1:04 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Here's a more indepth article.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/royal-christmas-choir-chaos-king-charles-sandringham-5HjdGTb_2/

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Hollie24 on November 12, 2025, 6:37 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

So the vicar and the choir director had differences of opinion; the vicar hired an outside company to assess the choir itself; the company produced a nasty report that insulted the choir director and the choir itself; the director resigned; and the whole parish rose up against the vicar and his actions.Right, got it.

I'm not sure we're being told the whole story here.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Martha on November 13, 2025, 9:49 am, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Sounds like a vindictive vicar. He found a way to get rid of the choir director, indirectly. Since this has been brewing for a year, it's turned personal and now the entire congregation has chosen sides. This is awful. The Rev. Mr. Williams needs to find a solution, and a choir, fast.

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Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Hollie24 on November 13, 2025, 2:56 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Asking Charles to intervene in the dispute is just bizarre. The Rector wants an online presence and increased visibility for the parish, but it seems the choir and parishioners want to maintain a low-key atmosphere.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Martha on November 13, 2025, 6:16 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

With an online presence the public at large would be able to comment on the quality of the music, which some of the choir may have objected to despite having talent. I don't get this. The choir must be very, very good at the very least. People who wait outside for the royals to walk past have said they can hear the same beautiful music as the royals.

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Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Hollie24 on November 13, 2025, 7:41 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

I wonder if it's a case of parishioners, including the choir, wanting to maintain some privacy in their parish. Yes, Christmas Day is hog heaven for Royalty watchers and fans, but the regular parishioners have to deal with crowds, increased security, etc. That has to be difficult.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by karenl on November 14, 2025, 1:10 am, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Yes, privacy may be a factor and parishioners should expect privacy during the services. The church is located at Sandringham, but it's still a working church and should be respected as such.
It seems to me that the vicar was petty in this case. The consultant sounds as if he/she was highly biased in favor of the vicar's views/wishes. Turning to the King was a power move. Yes, the King is the Head of The Church, but the Bishop of Norwich should handle the dispute, he should have appointed entirely neutral people to investigate the dispute and reach conclusions. It's sad for everyone, the Choir Director was pushed out, the vicar used power moves.
This stuff happens with ministers, rabbis, priests, there's disputes with the parishioners vs. the clergy or other parishioners, it's human.
At my church we've had 3 dust ups over the last 6-7 yr. and it's been the 4-5 extremely wealthy families in the parish who think they can run the church. They've managed to oust 3 Associate Priests, because they weren't "up to our standards". The story going around in our poor section is they didn't like what they were told by the priests in Confession....as I said it happens everywhere and it's sad. It can divide the congregation and cause people to leave the parish plus new members are reluctant to join because of what they've heard or read about the parish.

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by Hollie24 on November 14, 2025, 12:36 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

There's a meme about the perfect authority we Episcopalians recognize: the Father, the Son, and the previous Rector. It's funny, but also true. My parish has seen plenty of battles between the vestry, the clergy, and the parishioners. There was a battle royale once between the-then Dean and the choir and parishioners over the Dean firing our lomg-time choirmaster and organist (shades of Sandringham's church!). I sided with the choirmaster. I wasn't too fond of him, but I was far, far more not-fond of the Dean, who had a very naked ambition to have his own crozier and mitre.

I wonder if being one of the King's personal priests has gone to this Vicar's head?

Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing

Posted by karenl on November 14, 2025, 7:32 pm, in reply to "Re: The choir at the church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate have stopped singing"

Your last statement about the Vicar's position going to his head, made me wonder about that, too.

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