St Paul's and the Protesters

The Revd Dr Giles Fraser, Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral has resigned. So said the BBC Radio 4 News this morning. They went on to say that Dr Fraser's particular reason for resignation was over the decision as to how to deal with the protesters now encamped in the cathedral precincts. Should force be used? It has not yet come to this but undoubtedly this possibility is one that is being discussed.

The demonstrators' demands are varied, ranging from anger at the 'fat cats' of the money world and the desire to see much firmer control of banks, to the complete dismantling of the capitalist system. Their 100 tents have taken on the air of a permanent fixture, and it is this plus fears for health and safety, that has forced St Paul's to close its doors for the first time since the Blitz. The irony is that in its Institute programme of lectures and workshops St Paul's "seeks to bring Christian ethics to bear on our understanding of finance and economics." (www.stpauls.co.uk/Learning-Education/St-Pauls-Institute) The Cathedral and the demonstrators are seeking the same things. Yet one has completely derailed the other.

Giles Fraser, a philosopher by training as well a priest in the Church of England, is described as "a Progressive." What he undoubtedly is, seen through his writing and radio talks, is a man who seeks to make connection between his faith and contemporary issues. But that is not to say that other members of the staff team at St Paul's are not trying to do the same. The argument will be what is the Christ-like way to behave in this situation? But however simple that might sound, when you employ up to 200 full and part-time staff who have to be paid, as St Paul's does; when the restaurants, shops and businesses in the precinct are also suffering; when you cannot serve the spiritual and emotional needs of the many visitors to the cathedral, and when there is no end of the demonstration in sight, what do you do?

So, again ironically, St Paul's Cathedral itself has become the place where we have to make connections between our faith and the contemporary issue of huge dissatisfaction felt by many at the way the economic life of this country is run. The Cathedral is the sacrificial lamb. But the suffering of the Church is much more than the closure of the building; it is more than its enforced failure to look after the needs of the visitor. It is the suffering of the Church seeking to find answers to profound and difficult questions; answers that are not simple if we want to be just and work for peace. It is easy for those of us who sit on the sidelines to comment and criticise but for those serious Christians trying to make decisions at the centre of this problem it is very costly. It might lead to them resigning their post on the one hand or living with a compromise they would infinitely have preferred not to make, on the other. Either way, who are we to judge? We can only pray.

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