Tag Archives: Occupy St. Paul’s

Rowan Williams solves Occupy problem: calls for new tax on banks

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In a typical flash of brilliance, Rowan Williams has finally applied his immense intellect to the conundrum of what to do about the protesters camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral, an inconvenience that is costing the church £20,000 per day and, to date, three senior clergy, not to mention new fractures in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

The answer was there for all to see, but it took a Welsh academic with out of control eyebrows to pierce the confusion and find an answer: tax the banks some more!

Very soon now the protesters will melt away, caught up in a euphoria of selflessness, knowing that the leader of the church on whose steps they are playing house wants much of the money now flowing into the coffers of British banks to be diverted into good works – like paying for bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

From here:

Dr Rowan Williams said that the Church of England had a “proper interest in the ethics of the financial world” and warned that there had been “little visible change in banking practices” following the recession.

He urged David Cameron and George Osborne to drop their opposition to a European-wide tax on financial transactions, which is expected to be formally proposed by France and Germany at the G20 summit of world leaders starting tomorrow.

“The demands of the protesters have been vague. Many people are frustrated beyond measure at what they see as the disastrous effects of global capitalism; but it isn’t easy to say what we should do differently. It is time we tried to be more specific,” Dr Williams said.

 

Rowan Williams wades into the St. Paul’s debacle

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But he hasn’t waded in very far.

From here:

He said the resignation, which followed that of Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the Canon Chancellor, was “very sad news” and that the events of the past fortnight had shown “how decisions made in good faith by good people under unusual pressure can have utterly unforeseen and unwelcome consequences”.

Speaking publicly about the crisis for the first time, Dr Williams added: “The urgent larger issues raised by the protesters at St Paul’s remain very much on the table and we need – as a Church and as society as a whole – to work to make sure that they are properly addressed.”

As usual Rowan Williams can’t make up his mind what to do or whose side to be on. If he sides with the Dean Knowles, throw the protesters out faction, it makes his prior anti-banker statement look even more ridiculous; if he sides with the Giles Fraser, we stand with the protesters (even though they have less of an idea of what they are doing than Rowan Williams) faction, the church may look good for a while but will lose hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The internal division in the church on what to do about the protesters parallels the division between church conservatives and liberals. The difference is, in the case of the latter, almost no-one cares, or even notices; the former is very public and the world is watching to see what the church will do.

Will Rowan mingle among the tent dwellers and organise impromptu Indaba groups? Will he advocate a Listening Process between clergy, police and protesters? Will he employ Hegelian dialectic to arrive at a middle ground that everyone will be unhappy with?

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartre, has plumped for the last option: he wants the protest to be scaled down but not be forcibly removed.

What should the church do? It seems to me to be a perfect opportunity to preach the gospel of Christ – the real one, not social justice claptrap – to the lost. Tent city on the steps of St. Paul’s would be a good setting for an Alpha course.

 

St. Paul’s clergy dropping like flies

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The first to go was the cathedral’s canon chancellor, Giles Fraser, then Fraser Dyer the cathedral chaplain and now Graeme Knowles, the Dean.

After repeated criticism of profiteers and ‘bank robbers’ the Church of England is now hoist with its own petard. If only Rowan Williams would do the decent thing and follow the example set by St. Paul’s clergy.

From here:

The Church of England is facing an escalating crisis after a third senior cleric resigned over the Occupy movement’s protest camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles, the dean of St Paul’s, announced he was resigning with immediate effect, saying that the row over the Occupy London site had made his position “untenable”.

Knowles said he was “no longer the right person to lead the chapter of this great cathedral” and that his departure could provide the opportunity for a “fresh approach” to the crisis. On Friday, he took the first service at the cathedral after it reopened its doors after a week-long closure.

Last week, Giles Fraser, the cathedral’s canon chancellor, and Fraser Dyer, the cathedral chaplain resigned.

Reacting to the latest resignation, Rowan Williams has issued a statement, continuing the familiar theme of lamenting the collective transgressions of the financial industry while ignoring the church’s primary purpose of offering salvation through Jesus Christ:

“The urgent larger issues raised by the protesters at St Paul’s remain very much on the table and we need – as a Church and as society as a whole – to work to make sure that they are properly addressed.”

 

The St. Paul’s occupation

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From here:

Fears that St Paul’s Cathedral will become a ‘new Dale Farm’ deepened today after a legal battle began to evict protesters camped outside.

The City of London Corporation and cathedral officials each decided to go ahead with court actions as the landmark reopened after being closed for a week because of the anti-capitalist demonstration.

I’m surprised no-one has thought of the obvious solution. Get Canon Giles Fraser back to preach non-stop outdoor sermons to the occupiers. They would be gone within the hour.

Here is the Guardian’s latest comment on the attempt to oust the protesters. For once, they have it about right.

 

The whole episode reminds me a little of the delightful 1963 film, Heavens Above: in it the new vicar played by Peter Sellers invites a group of displaced gypsies to live in the vicarage with the inevitable consequences. The whole thing is on Youtube. Here is part 4: