BISHOP GEORGE AND BROOK PACKARD INTERVIEW

From Bishop Packard's blog Occupied Bishop:

Though not all are observant Christians, they are respectful of each other's traditions. For example, one OWS member fostered the idea of a full day of carolling starting at midnight and continuing throughout the following day. Now that's "Occupy Christmas"! Others, believers or not, have clustered around this "action" in support.

Read the rest at Bishop George's post, 'Christmas with Occupy'.


H/T to Andrew Gerns at The Lead for the link to the video.

ANOTHER STATEMENT FROM THE RECTOR OF TRINITY WALL STREET

From Trinity Wall Street:

We are saddened that OWS protestors chose to ignore yesterday’s messages from Archbishop Tutu, from the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and from Bishop of New York Mark S. Sisk. Bishop Tutu said: “In a country where all people can vote and Trinity’s door to dialogue is open, it is not necessary to forcibly break into property.” The Presiding Bishop said: “Other facilities of Trinity continue to be open to support the Occupy movement, for which I give great thanks. It is regrettable that Occupy members feel it is necessary to provoke potential legal and police action by attempting to trespass on other parish property…I would urge all concerned to stand down and seek justice in ways that do not further alienate potential allies.” Bishop Sisk said: “The movement should not be used to justify breaking the law nor is it necessary to break into property for the movement to continue.”
....

The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector of Trinity Church

Today I was wondering what was in the minds and hearts of the people at Trinity after they read the stories and saw the pictures and videos of the events at Duarte Square yesterday. Now I know. They are saddened.

I assume the folks at Trinity were saddened when they saw the pictures of Bishop Packard going over the fence, getting arrested, riding in the police van. They were saddened by Brook Packard's account of getting kneed three times by a policeman until she fell and then being lifted by another policeman and thrown on a pile of people. They were saddened when the police used excessive and unnecessary force against bystanders outside the fence looking on, not trespassing.

Bishop Packard is my hero. I will never forget the video of him stumbling over his magenta robe as he climbed the ladder to make it first over the fence. Several people nearby said they cried. How proud I am that he is a bishop in my Episcopal Church.

I am saddened, too, but for different reasons than the folks at Trinity. I am saddened that Trinity did not offer a place, a home, a refuge, to the Occupiers. I am saddened that Trinity did not ask the police to stand down.

Bishop Packard has written a must-read post on the events of yesterday at Occupied Bishop which I urge you to read.

MORE NEWS ON OCCUPY WALL STREET

Episcopal News Service has an excellent account of yesterday's events at OWS in New York City:

Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard and at least two other Episcopal priests were arrested Dec. 17 after they entered a fenced property — owned by Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street — in Duarte Square in Lower Manhattan as part of Occupy Wall Street‘s “D17 Take Back the Commons” event to celebrate three months since the movement’s launch.

Livestream video showed the former Episcopal bishop for the armed forces and federal ministries, dressed in purple vestments and wearing a cross, climbing a ladder that protesters erected against the fence at about 3:30 p.m. and dropping to the ground inside the property. Packard was the first to enter the site. Other protesters followed, including the Rev. John Merz and the Rev. Michael Sniffen, Episcopal priests in the Diocese of Long Island.

Soon after, police entered the area and arrested at least 50 people. Merz reportedly was arrested with Packard. Sniffen was conducting a telephone interview with ENS that ended abruptly. At 11 p.m., he confirmed that he subsequently had been arrested. Just before midnight, Packard’s wife, Brook, told ENS via e-mail that her husband had been released and was on his way home.

Read the rest at the link.

H/T to Jim Naughton at The Lead. Jim's post is headlined The whole world was watching and includes several links to media coverage from around the world.

Bishop George Packard arrested. Photo from the Daily Mail.

A POST AND A COMMENT ON OCCUPY WALL STREET AND TRINITY CHURCH

From Bishop George Packard this morning at Occupied Bishop:

Brook and I travel down to Duarte in a few minutes and what awaits us I do not know. I do know that for me and the OWS I know no violence is intended, only peaceful disobedience if it comes to that. You can follow the live stream from noon to five on WBAI radio.

And speaking of "coming to that" I am still baffled that the Episcopal Church of which I have been a member all my life could not--through Trinity--find some way to embrace these thousands of young people in our very diminishing ranks. (Every year for the last five years we have lost 14,000 members.) Just as we pioneered an awareness of the full membership for the LBGT community what's happening here? How hard would it have been for Trinity to convene legal counsel and say, "Give us some options so that a charter could be granted over the winter months?"

I had proposed that to the Rector and I still think it was a solution. Occupy Wall Street gets a home over the winter (one that would offer food for the Homeless and a clinic--truly bring alive dead space) and Trinity would have the assurance that the lease would return to them safe and sound come Spring. Everybody wins.

Which brings me to Archbishop Tutu's second statement. I see no conflict in anything he said with the first statement, really. As I've said to my Occupy friends, "Let's not delude ourselves in thinking the Archbishop would give you permission to break the law. However, he more than anyone knows what creative tension is brought to a cause for justice when you do." His first statement includes a plea for Trinity not to arrest. But the phrase in his statement--I can only assume it was Trinity which portrayed this to him--was that "their door to negotiation was always open."

Readers, that is plainly not true. Even when Occupy tried over the past three weeks to discuss other prophetic alternatives there was no answer. And that condition continues as we board transportation for Duarte Park now.

From Brook Packard in the comments at the Episcopal Café:

The irony that the church traditionally chants the O Wisdom Antiphon on December 17th is not lost on many.

Trinity's handling of this over the past 3 weeks has been a stunning exercise in assumption and rigidity. It has given OWS things OWS neither asked for or really needed. Having had the privilege of getting to know a core group of this "leaderless yet leaderful" (Cornel West) movement I can tell you they are not in need of pastoral care. OWS's structure is more like church than any parish I know.

The one thing this movement needs desperately is a home. And Trinity -with holdings of over 10 billion dollars-can provide that easily.

OWS has requested repeatedly for meetings with Trinity. Had the leadership stepped forward and negotiated OWS- a movement essential to the discussion of income inequality and a true democracy-could be supported in valid way rather than the cosmetic PR-oriented ways Trinity has concocted.

The irresponsibility of the misleading comments of Katharine Jefferts Schori and Mark Sisk indicate how out of touch The Episcopal Church has become and why it has lost one-third of its membership in a decade. Reading the bishops statements one hears the sound of a few more nails in TEC's coffin. It is limited for Jefferts-Schori and Sisk to parrot Trinity's talking points without looking at the plans or reading Occupy Theory. The past 3 weeks could have been an enormous opportunity for the dying TEC and Trinity to embrace the wind of passion and commitment OWS has brought with them.

My husband, Bishop George Packard will join the occupation of what is a "dead zone" in lower Manhattan. Of that I am enormously proud in the best sense of the word. OWS has plans to make this space a garden, to use it as a home for discussion of the occupy principles, and for actions that include occupying foreclosed homes for homeless families. The institutional church will be left behind. Although cynically, I suspect there will be some sort of OWS Lenten study published next year.

I pray that Trinity has a change of heart and opens the gates tomorrow. If not, I pray the NYPD will not be overly zealous with their clubs, sprays, and zip cuffs.

As for the bishops' comments...well, with 20,000 of us leaving TEC each year, is anyone really listening?

Posted by Brook Packard | December 16, 2011 7:18 PM

The post and comment speak for themselves. Pray for the the protestors and the law enforcement officers as they meet at Duarte Square.

UPDATE: Tweets say that Bishop Packard and a priest were arrested. The man in purple this TwitPic looks like the bishop.

UPDATE 2: Jim Naughton posted the picture below at The Lead of Bishop George Packard and the Rev. John Merz as they were arrested this afternoon at Duarte Square.