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November 2, 2011

London: St. Paul’s Cathedral Drops Plans to Evict Encamped Protesters 
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Occupy protesters in London won a major victory Tuesday when St. Paul's
Cathedral and the City of London dropped plans to evict the protest
encampment from church grounds. The Right Reverend Michael Colclough is
the Canon Pastor of St. Paul's.

Right Reverend Michael Colclough, St. Paul’s Canon Pastor: "The
chapter has today, decided not to go ahead with any legal action against
the protesters that surround the cathedral ... Sometimes we make
mistakes, we then have the humility to say that and we set out on
another path. I don't think any member of chapter would be ashamed of
saying that today."

Protester Tanya Paton has been serving as a liaison between the Occupy
movement and the church.

Tanya Paton, protester: "We are delighted, I mean we've never sought to
get into an argument with the church and it was never our intention to
cause the sort of disruption that they have had by us being here to
occupy. And we have always wanted to address the social issues and
economic issues and I think the distraction of legal action and eviction
have taken away from the very thing that we share in common with the
church in raising these really, really fundamentally important issues."

Several religious leaders in Britain criticized St. Paul's for even
considering evicting the protesters. Phil Summers is a senior minister
at a Methodist church in Tower Hamlets.

Phil Summers, senior Methodist minister: "Jesus was constantly saying
being rich is not necessarily a good thing and needs addressing, and
those who have too much power and too much wealth should look at
themselves. And he even talked about temples being torn down and systems
being changed and the poor being fed. So the basic point that the people
here have is a basic gospel point."



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