RETIRED solicitor Alan Pickard, 82, saw red when parishioners from St John the Baptist Church in Brearton, north Yorkshire, put a 6ft free-standing cross at the edge the village green.
Pickard hauled the thing down in the dead of night and dumped it in the pond.
The former chairman of employment tribunals who has lived in the picturesque village for 17 years with his wife Ina, said he took the action because he thought the grounds church was the “proper place for the artifice” and not the communal green.
The cross was put back in the church precinct
According to this report, the pensioner then penned an email to residents explaining his actions and claiming he had initially planned to dress the cross up as Worzel Gummidge.
Angry worshippers fished the cross from the pond and planted it in the churchyard.
Parishioners are now branding Pickard a “vandal”. One angry resident, Jeremy Rhodes, 55, said:
If a child did this is would be classed as vandalism. To throw the cross in the pond is an act of desecration and it is not the way to go about objecting. If the cross is so offensive you can just avert your gaze. It really is absurd because we are not a very religious community and it is a very poorly attended church.
Rhodes said the cross was pitched into the pond last Wednesday night and dragged out the following morning.
An unrepentant Alan Pickard
He added:
If he didn’t like it he should have opened a debate with the vicar or the diocese to discuss the matter, not desecrate a religious symbol. To fling it into the pond is an unacceptable, wanton act of violence. It’s tantamount to religious hatred in my book. It must have been quite heavy though, so it’s not bad going for an 82-year-old.
The Malt Shovel pub’s landlord, D’Arcy Bleiker, 40, who sings in the Ripon Cathedral Choir, said:
The cross is a traditional part of the village and has been on the green for years for Lent. But for some reason Alan decided to throw it in the pond. There are a lot devout Christians and it is upsetting for some. Alan is a customer here and he’s a good man, but has overstepped the mark and offended people.
But Pickard remains defiant.
I’m quite happy to stand up for my actions and it is no secret that I am the culprit. We’re content now the cross is back on church land and not standing on the village green, which is owned by all of us.
And he warned::
If I see it back on the green I shall take similar action.
A spokesman for the Leeds and Ripon Diocese declined to comment. Police said they were not aware of any dispute.
Hat tip: Agent Cormac
if someone took a municipal bush – not the burning kind with god in – just a bush planted by the council – and dumped it in a pond then it would be vandalism. Even if you didn’t like the bush or agree with its planting on public land then it would be unacceptable. The bush was a public bush and there for everyone.
However, if you, in a spirit perhaps of artistic creativity, decided to put a statue you built of yourself out of beer cans on the village green and someone took objection to this and chucked it in the pond. Then the only objections would be about littering the pond. This is not a public object and to place it in a public place without the consent of the public is not on.
a cross is no different.
Only religious sensibilities are harmed in this situation, and that being the case it is not important unless you happen to be religious. If the congregation is that small then it’s hardly an issue at all and the thing is better in the pond than on the green – unless someone needs firewood.
There seems to be no information on whether the church did have permission to display temporary sign-age, I’m not even sure how one would go about this? Maybe what would be more significant would be erecting an atheist symbol to join it, maybe a flying spaghetti monster, since this might establish equal rights rather than vandalise someone else’s symbol?
I applaud his actions,good for him
You’d think that Christians would welcome this kind of ‘persecution.’ After all, Jesus (if he existed) (allegedly) asserted (without any supporting evidence):
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
(my emphasis)
The ever-lovely Ann Widdecombe throws in her shrill two-penneth:
http://www.christian.org.uk/news/widdecombe-atheist-gets-away-with-cross-vandalism/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+christianinstitute+%28The+Christian+Institute%29
What a hateful little nobody she is.