Although Ben the verger has suffered reprimand by Westminster Abbey for his cartwheeling down the red carpet after he thought the cameras had been switched off, there doesn’t appear to be any long-term foul at hand, his relationship with the Abbey is on good footing, and now he just wants the whole thing to be done with.
“I didn’t know the cameras were still on and didn’t think anyone would see it and certainly never expected the attention I’ve got since I did it.
“I’m a private man and never wanted all this attention. It was just a spontaneous act of the joy I felt after such a great day.”
“The Cartwheeling Verger After the Royal Wedding” Facebook page currently has more than 1,200 fans whose reaction to news of Ben’s chastisement was positively purple.
Can it really be true that the cartwheeling verger is being disciplined? Religion ought to be fun and he surely was just expressing joy and relief that it had gone so well. Besides, David danced before the altar of the Lord so there is a very good precedent.
It may be difficult for those of us who live in a country without an official monarchy (sports? politics?) to comprehend why a reprimand would have ever been conceived in the first place. (The US, after all, is home to Hollywood, giver of Kevin-Bacon-inspired prooftext on the subject of dancing.) But one thing we do quite well is make celebrities. Ben the verger says:
“The phone hardly stopped ringing afterwards and I had lots of people come to my door to talk to me about it, but I’ve just been hoping it will all blow over.”
We can imagine he was asked about writing a book, perhaps, or getting himself on TV. It’s nice to hear he’s not interested, and just wants that one moment of joy to be that one moment of joy.