Rt Rev Graeme Knowles the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral announced his resignation over the Occupy campaign. He becomes the second churchman to resign after Giles Fraser Canon Chancellor of St Paul's did so last week.
Graeme Knowles resigned after a frankly disasterous meeting with protestors when his claims of not being influenced by City of London Corporation who own the land around St Paul's and the London Stock Exchange were aand who announced that they were seeking legal remedies to remove them were met with mocking jeers and laughter. I have to admiot to some major embarressment to myself that my skills in embedding videos is totally non exisistant but the BBC News website should still have it up for you to look at. The look on his face when the laughing and jeering statrs is that of a man who knows that he has lost the confidence of those he is speakiong to.
It's easy to see why this is the case. One of the first statements made after the Cathedral was closed "for health and safety grounds" was a complaint that St Paul's needed £20,000 per day to stay open and this was costing them money. Not a good start for the major face of the Church Of England and it's supposed Christian values!! It has led to a rift within the Church with some major figures with Giles Fraser giving as his reason for resigning the possibility of the City Of London Police removing the protestors by force. He said:
The church should not put its name to any course of action that may lead to violence against the protesters. I can't in conscience go down the road on which they are embarked.
Which frankly leaves him in the position of being one of the few in the high levels of the Church Of England who will come out of this with any integrity.
The simple fact is that some in St Paul's commitees are also major players in the financial markets of London and this protest scares and embarrasses them. These men who call themselves Christians don't want people to empathise with the protestors so like those in positions of power over politicians they have gone out to demonize the protestors with a many smears as they can, reliying on their media minions to help promote the propaganda. The only thing is the actions of some in the Church in bleating about the moneytary losses has exposed them as being hypocrites of the highest order.
It costs £14.50 (thats $23.31 US) to gain entry into God's house known as St Paul's Cathedral. This has been a major focus point of some in the Church Of England during this protest and on a personal note it just goes to re-affirm why l left and why l; have no trust of organised religion. The question of "What Would Jesus Do?" is an easy one to answer. We all know what it is but only some in the clergy like Giles Fraser and Graeme Knowles have the integrity and the guts to do that right thing.