Tuesday, October 25, 2011

MORE ON ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL IN LONDON

According to Ann Fontaine at The Lead, the Times in London is reporting that Canon Giles Fraser will resign if the Occupy the Stock Exchange protestors are evicted.
...Dr Giles Fraser, who is responsible for the cathedral’s relations with the financial institutions of the City of London, is understood to be prepared to quit should it take legal action against the 200 tents forming an increasingly permanent-looking settlement on its land.
....
A resignation from Dr Fraser would make him a martyr for the anti-capitalist cause and prove hugely embarrassing to the cathedral and the Church. If the cathedral does not try to oust the protesters, however, it will be forced into the humiliating position of reopening with the tents still in place, or remaining closed for months — putting events such as the Remembrance Day services at risk and losing the cathedral about £16,000 a day in tourist revenue.
Only subscribers can read the article online.

We'll wait and see how the story develops.

The Guardian editorial titled 'City and cathedral: The whited sepulchre' blasts the dean and chapter of St Paul's Cathedral for threatening an injunction to remove the protestors.
If the dean and chapter continue their steps towards evicting they will be playing the villains in a national pantomime. There will be legal battles and, eventually, physical force. At every step, the cathedral authorities will be acting in the service of absurdity and injustice. Yet this is where the logic of their position is leading them. They must see this, and stop. Jesus denounced his Pharisaic enemies as whited sepulchres, or shining tombs; and that is what the steam-cleaned marble frontage of St Paul's will become if the protesters are evicted to make room for empty pomp: a whited sepulchre, where morality and truth count for nothing against the convenience of the heritage industry.
Ouch! Read it all. I can't say I disagree with the editorial.

H/T to Simon Sarmiento at Thinking Anglicans.

UPDATE: I have to wonder why the members of the staff of the cathedral don't talk to the protestors. It's all open letters and press releases. Good heavens! Go amongst them and talk to them.

UPDATE 2: In the comments, themethatisme, who writes at Conscientisation, but not very often, provides the link to the supporters of St Paul's Cathedral. Verrry interesting. I couldn't find my name or theme's name.

12 comments:

  1. GF's latest move leaves me speechless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The whole closing St.Pauls affair has the smudgeprints of the Bishops of London and Canterbury all over it! You are right dear Mimi, they ough ¨go amongst the protestors¨ and set some healthy boundries to better coexist!

    ReplyDelete
  3. At this point, there's really no good way out of the corner into which the powers at St Paul's have painted themselves. They should reopen the cathedral, make peace with the protestors, and help them make the campsite as safe as possible...work with them, instead of standing against them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ahem...
    http://www.stpauls.co.uk/Support-St-Pauls/Our-Supporters

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, theme. What a gem. I added another update with the link. How odd. I could not find your name or my name.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Siding against the protesters....

    denying women positions of leadership....

    leaving the LGBT right out of it....

    This isn't a church. It's an arm of the Corporate Oligarchy.

    "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Cathdrals Corporate partners makes especiually interesting reading...
    Lloyds Banking Group
    Fidelity Investment Managers
    CMS Cameron McKenna
    London Stock Exchange
    Sarasin & Partners
    BGC Partners

    ReplyDelete
  8. IT, too true. My 16 year old granddaughter is assigned to read Animal Farm. I'll be interested to hear her take on it.

    I wonder how clean we are in the Episcopal Church. We've made better progress with inclusion and equality than the CofE, but we have a way to go.

    theme, exactly what are corporate partners to a church?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Don't know exactly... I've never heard the phrase before. The web-site is a little vagus as to the nature of the relationship. The invitation to become a corporate partner doesn't exactly 'sell'.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We are extremely proud of the close partnerships we have forged and continue to nurture with our corporate neighbours. There are several ways in which your company can benefit by joining one of our member schemes.

    Our schemes can be tailored to suit each company's need, whether it is entertaining guests for dinner in the crypt or enjoying a private recital underneath the dome.

    Highlights of benefits currently enjoyed by our partners include:

    Free entry to the cathedal for staff

    Discounts on conference and entertaining facilities

    Bespoke private tours

    Tickets to concerts and events

    All funds raised by these schemes further the aims of St Paul's Cathedral Foundation, whose work you can read about on these pages. If you would like to find out how to get involved, contact....


    There you have it. Here's the link.

    The word 'scheme' has somewhat of a different meaning in the US, suggesting a plan that is crafty or underhanded, however, I'm sure all is open and above-board with the schemes in the corporate partnerships.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "......entertaining guests for dinner in the crypt"?

    Too "Christopher Lee" for words.

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous commenters, please sign a name, any name, to distinguish one anonymous commenter from another. Thank you.