A disgruntled bishop in a dressing gown interrupted a church service in London, telling singers to stop their “terrible racket” and to “leave his house”.
The City Academy Voices choir was coming to the end of their performance at St Andrew’s in Holborn on Friday night when the lights were suddenly turned off.
Video footage, which has since gone viral on social media, shows the Bishop of Fulham Jonathan Baker telling members of the audience to go home.
The disgruntled bishop said: "You are in my house. It's gone past 10pm and this is a terrible racket. Goodnight. You are in my house - can you leave it now please. Thank you, it's over."
Members of the 300 strong audience appeared to watch on in bemusement, as the bishop stood in front of the microphone barefoot and in his dressing gown.
A church employee then asked the crowd to leave quietly and for the musicians to step down from the stage, attracting boos from the audience.
@hornbergercello Our cute little concert came to an abrupt end #music #choir #bishop #church #london #singer #singers #drama #musicans #horror #priest #uk #fyp #fy #shame #insulting
♬ original sound - Kristen Reilly
In the clip, members of the audience made sure to give a huge round of applause for the performers, cheering and whooping as they clapped.
The choir went on to perform one last song, an A cappella version of ABBA's Dancing Queen, before bringing their show to a close.
Benedict Collins, who attended the concert with his 10-year-old daughter, told Sky News he initially thought the interruption was a staged joke.
"The church willingly rents out the premises for performances, for money," he said. "They can hardly be surprised if they take bookings for concerts and there is music in the hall."
He went on to criticise the bishop’s remarks and send the choir had “worked like mad” on the performance.
"This work deserves respect, not to be disparaged as a 'terrible racket'," he added.
Mr Collins said the bishop might have just had a bad day, but admitted he should apologise for his behaviour which “wasn’t acceptable”.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of London told The Guardian: "Bishop Jonathan reached out to the organisers on Saturday to apologise for his late-night appearance at the concert, which he now understands had overrun due to technical difficulties."
