Dean of St Paul's Cathedral resigns over Occupy London protests

[dipsydoodle]

Source: The Guardian. Monday 31 October 2011 14.43 GMT

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.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/31/dean-st-pauls-resigns-occupy?newsfeed=true

[Hissyspit]

1. Occupy Wall Street is making major waves.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, dipsysdoodle.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

3. Good for them.

The ones who resign have integrity. The ones who don't are fascists or phonies.

[Occulus]

4. Wait, what?

Why are they resigning? Because the protest is there?

Are they resigning in support or in protest... of the protest?

[dipsydoodle]

5. self delete

to which there is currently no answer. The Dean was visibly annoyed yesterday when a protester tried to pin him down on camera to answer the question "are you in support" which the Dean replied to the effect his concern was for the church.

When the Canon resigned last week he immediately denied that he had given the protesters permission to camp in the churchyard - his request for the police to remove themselves from the steps of St Pauls had been taken as tacit agreement for that permission.

I cannot personally see any merit in their resignations. The sole issue with the church, if there is one , is that of civil trespass in the churchyard. Most of the issues relate to the Highways Act / pavement which isn't the church's concern - that's solely City of London.

[Exultant Democracy]

6. I have the same questions. My guess, they are resigning because they refuse to kick out occupy

but I really don't know for sure.

[dipsydoodle]

8. They could not have "kicked out" occupy even if they'd wanted to do so.

They can really only be moved from the churchyard as a result of an eviction notice for civil trespass. The downside for the protesters is that the same would apply to any others that join them now : English Defence League and the local drunks / winos - it was the latter which ended the Manchester protest after 3 weeks.

As I mentioned above - the pavement / pedestrian access is a different matter and is not the church's affair

[Exultant Democracy]

11. by kick out obviously I was referring to the eviction notice,

that was referred to in almost every paragraph of the story.

[kestrel91316]

7. Are these guys resigning because they support OWS? Or because they don't??

[dipsydoodle]

10. In this case

its now become apparent that it was because not only does he not wish to be seen to be doing so he regrets any previous action which may have indicated otherwise.

[Born Free]

14. Perhaps they asked themselves "What would Jesus do?"

Perhaps they asked themselves "What would Jesus do?" and found they can not do that so they choose to step down. Maybe they are torn between the two decisions : laws of man vs laws of God. They can ignore many things they believe as wrong but when it is right outside your door; every day, it is much more difficult to ignore.

[formercia]

9. Hold Fast, Mates!

:toast:

[Xtraneous]

12. Ah, the irony of state run churches...

"The church has also experienced wider condemnation for failing to properly and publicly agitate on the excesses of finance and global banking until prompted to by the camp, part of a burgeoning global movement."

[Tx4obama]

13. K&R and here's a CNN article link ....

Leading churchman quits over London 'Occupy' protests

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/31/world/europe/st-pauls-dean-quits/index.html?hpt=hp_t1