Jesus famously said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. So, possibly, I have no right to pass judgment on Jonathan Baker, the bishop of Fulham, for unceremoniously stopping a concert in his church in mid-flow the other night – and it really was unceremonious in that he was barefoot and in his dressing gown. Perhaps the audience would have taken him more seriously if he’d been wearing his cope and mitre rather than heckling him as they did.
But I do sympathise with my senior colleague. I too have a very low tolerance for noise when I’m trying to sleep – or just relax. I am constantly asking my now adult children, who still live with us in the vicarage, to keep the noise down. On a good day, I do this in the manner of Ross from Friends, with a passive-aggressive hand gesture. On a not-so-good day, I might be a bit snappier. My longsuffering wife calls me Victor Meldrew and refuses to go to the cinema with me unless I promise not to turn round and tut at talkers – or, worse, “politely” ask them to stop talking, which is potentially dangerous in this day and age.
