From Mail Online:
Christian protesters have gathered outside a school which recently scrapped Easter celebrations in order to ‘respect diverse religious beliefs’.
The faithful gathered outside Norwood Primary School in Eastleigh, Hampshire with banners reading ‘Headteacher Stephanie Mander wants to cancel Easter – let’s cancel her!’ after the announcement.
…The group of Christian protesters from the Living Word Church, based in Fareham, Hampshire, held England flags with the words ‘Jesus: the way the truth the life’ and ‘Jesus is kin’ [sic – should be “Jesus is King”] printed on them outside the school.
Reverend Chris Wickland said the protest was against the school cancelling the Easter service and what he called the exclusion of Christianity in schools.
Nick Tenconi, the leader of UKIP, attended the Christians’ protest as a member of the Disciples of Christ…
The Mail write-up, like a live blog published by the Southern Daily Echo, downplays the protest’s personalised and literally demonising attacks on the headteacher, expressed by posters produced by the Disciples of Christ in which her face was disfigured with Satanic horns or by the word “JUDAS” superimposed across her forehead (see below).
The protest went ahead despite the school responding to complaints about its decision. As described by BBC News:
The school has said the changes were made in consultation with parents and that Easter would still be celebrated at the school with various activities and events.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the school said: “To be clear, we are marking Easter in school and as with other religious festivals, children continue to learn about and celebrate Easter both educationally in our RE lessons and in our assemblies across the whole half term.”
They said the school, which has no religious affiliations, had decided not to visit the local church and instead celebrate the holiday “where all children are able to take part and benefit”.
“Changes were made in consultation with our parent forum, and we have received many positive messages regarding these,” the spokesperson added.
The Mail Online refers to the Disciples of Christ as “a protestant denomination popular in the United States”, but this is obviously confused: the phrase “Disciples of Christ” is fairly generic as a Christian formulation, and there is no connection with the American group. The UK Disciples of Christ first appeared in London last year, and Tenconi’s invariable presence indicates an overlap with UKIP. The phrase “Jesus is King” is also associated with the group, and one of their banners with the same slogan appeared on-stage at a Tommy Robinson rally last summer (the variant “Christ is King” has also become a regular chant at such rallies). Wickland attended one such pro-Robinson rally in London last autumn.
Wickland wore black clerical garb and a white clerical collar at the protest, but although in some contexts he describes himself as “Rev. Chris Wickland”, in others his preferred ministerial title is “Pastor Chris Wickland”. He has provided his backstory in a video available on YouTube – by his own account, he was formerly an occultist and Rosicrucian (“the worst kind of Freemasonry”) and had numerous encounters with the demonic. However, after converting to Christianity he was recognised by other Christians as a “prophet to the nations” in the “end times”, and he claims to have received visions of disasters that have then come to pass (in particular, he cites an eruption of Mount Merapi in Indonesia). As well as heading a network of two churches, he is a senior pastor at the Gravesend-based LCBN UK television network.
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