HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS) Sometimes, the Rev. Phil Cockrell says, people just need to use common sense.

Cockrell, minister of music and worship at Country and Town Baptist Church in suburban Mechanicsburg, said that would have brought harmony to the flap over what music his hand-bell choir could play at the Capital City Mall.

Mall management on Friday (Dec. 11) told the church that only secular music would be allowed — which caused the church to cancel its performance.

“Our hand-bell choir has played traditional Christmas carols like `Silent Night’ and `Joy to the World’ at the mall for years,” Cockrell said. “This year, we were asked to sign an addendum to the contract that we would only perform secular music. We said we couldn’t abide by that.”

Jillian Fikkert, mall spokeswoman, said the mall staff made “a simple error” in interpreting the mall performance policy.

“It has always been our policy and remains our policy to allow community organizations to perform the music of their choice in our center,” she said. “We apologize for the confusion this has caused.”

She and Cockrell are working at rescheduling the choir’s performance.