Stand off at St Pauls

When I captured the above photo I had no idea that days later a protest would take place that has since had serious repercussions for the authorities responsible for the Cathedral in whose shadow these two young people sit.

Once the media coverage of the Occupy London encampment on the steps of St Pauls got underway I arose each morning and selfishly gave thanks that I was not a member of the Cathedral Chapter.

As a Christian I am called to stand alongside the poor, even become poor, but if I am honest how difficult I find that vocation to be.  I may be willing to speak against the injustices of our world, the abhorrent 50% salary increases for some CEOs, the outrageous conditions under which people live and can never escape no matter how hard they try, I may even give more of what little I receive (that is little in comparison to some of my contemporaries but much in comparison to the majority in our world) but what right have I to criticise the ex Dean and Chapter who must have faced a situation for which they had little or no experience?  When the Health and Safety issues are read out I wonder how I might have reacted.

We who believe in a forgiving God live in an unforgiving world.  The press that builds someone up
into a celebrity is, for readership figures, just as likely to destroy their creation.  Where would the armchair and distant-pulpit critics have been had things gone very badly wrong as a consequence of taking some inadvisable risk with the thousands around and within the Cathedral?

Yes some of us may have dealt with the situation differently; we’d certainly like to think we would.   But who can be so sure with limited knowledge of the context in all its complexity?

I seem to recall that Jesus said we were to be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves.  Maybe that
goes for those of us who will be nowhere to be found when the consequences of any action take place for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  In recent years some sections of the press have sought to batter politicians over expenses and rightly so we might say; then those bankers held to be responsible for some aspects of the economic crisis and rightly so we might say; but now it appears to be the turn of the Christian Church for failing to live out the gospel in the face of understandable
and justifiable protest and rightly so some may say but let us not add fuel to the fires being stoked by our critics who long to see the influence of the Church, indeed Christianity, or any faith for that matter, lessen or even end altogether.

There is an old proverb ‘You were a keeper of vineyards, you should have kept your own’.  How can I tend another’s field whilst my own is left uncared for?  How effective have my words and actions
against poverty, inequality and injustice elsewhere been while I have failed to deal with the very same issues right on my doorstep?  Has the church to which I belong kept its doors open to those on the steps longing to be recognised and valued?  Is what I do alien to those who are seeking partners in tackling the issues we should be together addressing?

Specks, eyes and logs come to mind.

The two people on the bench have their backs to one another; let us not turn our backs on those who criticise a failing system but nor turn them against those who are doing their best in difficult circumstances.

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