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.”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.
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The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector of Trinity Church
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.
You don’t need to be religious to understand -and embrace- the idea that "Whatsoever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." But the 1%, in their blind greed and schemes, have forgotten and closed their eyes to what the word "society" should really mean. Because of Occupy Wall Street, we are finally talking less about CUTS and more about BLEEDING. Instead of demanding m-o-r-e budget cuts -to be borne by the middle class and poor- we are FINALLY focusing on the shameful bleeding that the poor and middle class has endured for all too long. Instead of talking about even m-o-r-e cuts in the taxes of millionaires....we are now talking about fairness and justice - about an economy and a political system that is increasingly run for the rich, and by the rich. Instead of talking about LESS government, we are talking about a government that WORKS FOR ALL OF US, not just a favored few. Thank you OWS, for reminding us that people -ordinary working people- really DO matter, and for helping open our eyes to what’s really going on in this country. Trinity Church should look deep into its collective soul, and at its ultimate mission. It should do the right thing, and help OWS. For I would bet my life, that if He were physically with us today...as He was 2000 years ago, He himself would be among the FIRST to climb those fences, and occupy Trinity’s Duarte Square. Of this I am certain.
ReplyDeleteMimi--thanks so much for your faithful reporting on this issue. I have always had a somewhat jaundiced view of TEC leadership--but this has me wondering why I even bother to belong to a church. When the institution refuses to stand up for what are clearly gospel values, what good is it?
ReplyDeleteI keep saying that Christianity is dying because people can see quite clearly that Christians are no better than anyone else--and are often worse, in that they cover their evil deeds with a veil of (self)righteousness.
This will only hasten the demise of the faith....it is certainly having a hugely negative impact on my own commitment to "official" Christianity....
stanchas, if OWS accomplishes nothing else the group has changed the conversation, which absolutely needed to be done, and I thank them for putting themselves on the line for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteDoxy, I have a sick feeling today, because it's truly sunk in that the Presiding Bishop and Bishop Sisk made the matter of Trinity's inhospitable refusal of the use of a barren plot of land their problem as well as Trinity's, thus making Trinity's actions a reflection on the entire church. Shame on them.
As for Archbishop Tutu, Trinity has used him ill. I can't imagine that Tutu would be shocked by acts of civil disobedience, when so many of his flock, friends, and neighbors were jailed for acts of disobedience or less in South Africa.
Reprinting this, which I posted on lower thread:
ReplyDeleteLate last night, I read something and had a *shock* of recognition.
Not prompted by anything directly OWS-related (rather, the blogroll at Leonardo's---which I think is the best blogroll around, after Friends-of-Jakes!), I read this: How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation [not reprinting the link here, it was on Alternet]
In it, was this line: "For Rand, all altruists were manipulators."
...and it immediately connected (for me) to this:
Calling this an issue of "political sanctuary" is manipulative and blind to reality.
That's from the "There's No Room at THIS Inn, Kiddos!" letter by TWS Rector James H. Cooper.
Now, just WHO is Cooper's messiah, anyway? The One who had "no room to lay his head", or La Rand???
The timing couldn't be worse for Trinity.
ReplyDelete