The following is an editorial from the Sittingbourne News newspaper dated 18-24 November 2020, commenting on the unlicensed use of the hymn Jerusalem.

And lo, it was written that the vicar should go forth and entertain his flock with the singing of Jerusalem and the National Anthem and for them to remember the war dead and to gain power to fight the plague of Covid.

And so the vicar did as he was commanded and set up his mobile phone outside his church in Borden to preach to the masses. 

And the Lord looked down saw it was Good. But then Facebook, the false god of social media, looked down, too, and saw it was Bad. 

For the singing of songs without a statutory copyright notice, even for Remembrance Day, did not bode well and so it hurled thunderbolts at the vicar, Father Robert Lane, and did smite his iPhone saying: “Thou must not broadcast this as it will offend thy copyright masters.” 

And the vicar was sorely offended that his broadcast to the nation had been blocked and so he took to his own tablet and did write his own comment on social media spreading the word of what had happened. 

And his congregation rose up and congratulated him for taking on the wrath of Goliath and did listen to his broadcast anyway, although it no longer had the songs they wished to hear. 

And they gathered around the church and did bathe in it a magical red light the same colour as poppies and did celebrate into the night, well 8pm actually, and vowed to turn their backs on the false religion. Until the morrow. 

Here endeth the first lesson…