The organisers of the now-cancelled "Escape Chapel Party"
apologised in person on Wednesday to Archbishop Nicholas Chia for
offending members of the Catholic community with its event.
In a statement sent to the media on Wednesday afternoon, the
company, Creative Insurgence, said its representatives were granted
an audience with the Archbishop, who leads the Catholic church
here, to apologise for their actions.
"We've used this opportunity to express how deeply remorseful we
are for all the upset we've caused to the Catholic community in the
days leading up to their most holy of weekends," said its director
Aaghir Yadav. "We never intended to offend or mock the Catholic
faith and chapel - and are very sorry for the poor judgement we've
displayed in our marketing decisions," he added.
In a letter of apology submitted to the Archbishop, Yadav added
that they "understand the hurt our actions have caused".
After the venue, timing and promotional material for the party
sparked adverse response from several Catholics and other
Singaporeans online earlier this week, alongside a statement from
Archbishop Chia calling for its cancellation, the company managing
CHIJMES, Perennial Retail Management, intervened on Tuesday to call
the party off.
In a meeting held between the management and Creative Insurgence on
Tuesday evening, the organisers were warned to cancel the party or
legal action would be taken.
Creative Insurgence later posted a statement on its Facebook wall,
which said, "It has come to our attention that Perennial
(Singapore) Retail Management Pte Ltd, the landlords for Chijmes
has intervened to immediately stop the event planned for
Saturday."
"Therefore, despite our best intentions to move forward - after
having apologised for unintentionally offending the Catholic
community - and to carry on with an event that aimed to showcase
the sounds of one of UK's most popular recording labels and
super-clubs, we will have to cancel the event."
"We would like to reiterate that we used no religious symbolism in
any of our marketing and promotional materials and had no intention
to cause any upset."
Publicity for the event commenced last week, and a description on
its Facebook event page and website marketed the party as a
“sacrilegious night of partying”.
The event was also headlined with a picture of a model dressed in a
nun’s habit and a party dress, alongside other pictures of girls
dressed in similar habits ending in short skirts. The pictures were
captioned “A sneak peak [sic] at what some of our girls will be
wearing on the 7th of April”. The publicity photos were removed and
the event page was deleted by Wednesday morning.
Catholics who spoke to Yahoo! Singapore said they found
the pictures of the girls in nuns’ costumes offensive and in bad
taste, with several filing reports with the police and various
ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports as well as the
Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.
Law undergraduate Jean Seah was among the first to submit a report
to the police and the MHA. In the complaint she submitted, she said
she was “appalled and deeply disappointed” at the existence of the
event.
She explained that the event not only insulted the church’s
religious orders with its provocative nun costumes, it also made a
mockery of the venue it would be located at — the CHIJMES chapel is
located across the road from the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, a
Catholic church where Singapore’s archbishop, Nicholas Chia, is
based.
She also said that the 7th of April happens to fall on the eve of
Easter Sunday, the most important event on the Catholic church’s
calendar, which adds further insult to injury.
“What really gets my goat is them trying to profiteer off making
something sacred into something so offensive and crass,” she said.
“Freedom to hold a function in such a sacred place comes with the
responsibility of using it with respect,” she added.
24-year-old Nicole James, a consultant, added she spotted girls
walking around Raffles Place in similar costumes over lunchtime
last Friday, presumably to promote the event.
“I was shocked and offended that they were allowed to walk around
in such an offensive costume,” she said.
Political science student Benedict Chen noted that no action was
taken after a previous incident occurred in Filter Members’ Club,
where the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) logo was
associated with “one night stands”, alongside that of the
Anglo-Chinese School.
“I feel it is getting out of hand because it seems like people look
at Christianity as a fair target,” he said. “If the government
doesn’t take action on these people, it will seem as though Roman
Catholicism is not being protected by the law.”
When contacted by Yahoo! Singapore, Archbishop Nicholas
Chia, who heads the Catholic church in Singapore, called for the
organisers to cancel the event entirely.
“Such an event is scandalous to the Church, and should not be held
in the chapel,” he said.
Chia added that the organisers, Creative Insurgence, have
apologised to the archdiocese for “upsetting” the Catholic
community, however, and later removed the promotional material —
which consisted of the pictures of girls in nun costumes, as well
as its description of the event as “sacrilegious”.
Responding to Yahoo! Singapore’s queries on Monday,
director at Creative Insurgence Aaghir Yadav said the party was
actually intended to occur earlier this year, over the Chinese New
Year weekend, but was postponed to the next public holiday weekend,
which happened to be Good Friday.
“The overlap with Easter weekend was not intended to be offensive.
We have since been in touch with the Archbishop’s office to explain
our position and have apologised for offending anyone
unintentionally,” he said.
He added the main concept of the party was to help UK-based club
brand Escape gauge the viability of setting up a franchise club
here.
He also maintained that the party has no theme, but is instead
focused on the music of the Welsh label, saying that the fact that
it would be held in a chapel led them to follow the theme in some
of its promotional material.
“We would like to clarify that the images contained no religious
symbolism,” Yadav added, saying he realised that his image of two
of his friends in nun-inspired Cosplay costumes had
“unintentionally upset some people”, hence the decision to remove
it.
“This also applied to teasers that said nuns will be at the party —
we meant the secularised, costume version that contains no
religious symbolism. However, in light of these sensitivities we
will not be doing this as well,” he said.
Yadav reiterated that the agency’s actions were “certainly not
intended to be offensive”, also saying that they will no longer be
having “costumed nuns” at their party, and will be advising its
attendees to avoid dressing up in religious-themed costumes as
well.
Seditious act?
As police investigate the details of the agency’s publicity
material, which some Catholics said have violated Singapore’s
Sedition Act, assistant law professor Jack Lee said there does seem
to be legitimacy to their claim, although noting that the tendency
of people to make police reports over such matters is “not a
healthy trend”.
“The advertisement technically falls within the definition of
uttering seditious words or publishing a seditious publication
since a seditious tendency is defined as one that ‘raise[s]
discontent… among the citizens of Singapore or the residents in
Singapore’,” he said, adding that once it is proven that the
material in question has a seditious tendency, the intention behind
its creation, whether deliberate or careless, is no longer
relevant.
However, he said the measures taken by the agency should be a
sufficient response to expressed public sentiment, as their actions
seemed more to be done in thoughtlessness rather than to have
calculated intent to insult the Catholic or wider Christian
community here.
“People have already expressed their unhappiness with the
advertisement online and the organisers have apologised, so it
doesn’t seem necessary for this issue to be blown out of
proportion,” he said.
Others also called for calm following the backlash that ensued
online, saying that the agency has already responded to the
complaints from members of the public.
21-year-old Kevin Chan acknowledged such an event would compromise
Singaporeans’ freedom, but pointed out that the authorities “have
intervened early enough”.
“Clearly, this was just a moment of folly on the part of the
organisers, and since the necessary action has been taken, and the
organisers know their boundaries, there isn’t much need to pursue
the matter any further,” he said. “We as Catholics are taught to
forgive, aren’t we? Let’s let the matter rest.”
A 57-year-old Catholic teacher, who declined to be named, also
pointed out that the CHIJMES chapel had already previously been
de-consecrated, and so other secular events could appropriately be
held there.
She disagreed with the agency’s promotional strategy, saying, “I
don’t think people who use CHIJMES for secular events should make
references to what the chapel was used for.”
The former student at CHIJ Victoria Street added that this was
likely a lesson learnt for the event’s organisers, noting also the
need for people to be more tolerant to such situations.
“I think we need to be more understanding as a multi-religious
society. Some people make mistakes, but as long as they show that
they have reacted to adverse criticism, then it’s okay with me,”
she said.
Non-Catholic Singaporeans whom Yahoo! Singapore spoke to
reflected divided opinions on the issue as well, with some agreeing
with the Catholics who were offended, and others saying that the
party should go on.
"I think it's insulting, and the theme should be changed clearly,
or the event cancelled altogether," said 25-year-old Sufiyan
Sulaiman, a final-year university student.
Free-thinker Cheong Wei Ming acknowledged the tactlessness behind
the organisers' initial conceptualisation of the event, but lauded
their remedial actions.
"It was well-meaning of them to apologise as promptly as they did,
and we should allow the event to go on with their proposed
remedies," he said.
-- Yahoo!