Corrie chastised over hidden cross
Corrie bosses have come under fire for their decision to cover up a brass cross at a church’s altar during a recent on-screen wedding for ‘fear of causing offence’.
Filming for Tyrone and Molly’s nuptials took place last month at St Mary’s Church in Nether Alderley in Cheshire and the cross was reportedly concealed by a candelabra and artificial flowers at the request of crew working on the episodes.
Writing about the matter in his parish’s magazine, The Reverand James Milnes 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 of the Torah in a synagogue? That is the emblem of this faith.“
He continued “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 a 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?”
The 29 year old vicar claimed the request was made by Coronation Street staff so that they did not offend anyone when the scenes aired.
He added “The result was an obscuring of the offending article – the cross. Without the Cross there would be no Church. Our saviour opened wide his arms for us on the Cross and yet in 2008-09 the Church is compliant in obscuring it. They wanted to film a wedding in a quintessentially English church and then empty it of the very thing that makes it a church. I want us to say that obscuring the cross is a disgrace.”
A spokesperson for the Granada produced soap said “We are looking into how and why this happened. As the Rev Milnes rightly says, we chose the church because the characters wanted a traditional religious church wedding. Covering up the cross was an error and we apologise for any upset.”