

Occupying Faith

Resources for Worship, Meditation, Reflection & Study

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Compiled and Edited

by Kevin Snyman

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Smashwords Edition Copyright

Kevin Snyman 2013

Twitter @kevinadene

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided that the contributors and artists are acknowledged.

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Acknowledgements

Heartfelt thanks to each person whose heart, mind and spirit resonate with the ideals and hopes of the worldwide Occupy Movement. In particular, thanks to all the supporters and pilgrims of OccupyFaithUK. Thanks to the contributors whose kind permissions have made this book possible. The striking artwork that graces these epages is the creation of Elizabeth Gray-King. All rights reserved. Look her up at http://www.elizabethgrayking.com. Any errors and shortcomings in the book are mine alone, but I pray that the heart of God's compassionate revolution will stir your soul to loving action and contemplation.

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Occupying Worship

Interfaith Pilgrimage: A Sending Out by St Paul's Cathedral

Hymns by Kim Fabricius

The Canterbury Campers by Danny Diskin

Occupying Stories

Alexander of Stroud's Tales by Alex Murrell

Occupy's Challenges by Tanya Paton Dempsey

God's Fabulous Farmyard: A Parable for Children by Kevin Snyman

and watch Pilgrim Filmmakers: A 3-part YouTube Documentary here...

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Occupying Sermons

El es Nuestra Paz! (Jesus is our Peace!) by Rafael Vallejo

A Peace Radical's Sermon by Revd Alan Storey

Sacrificing our Addiction to Money by Kevin Snyman

City Philanthropy – quids pro quo - An Easter Sermon by Revd William Taylor

Jesus Saves! (Buddha Recycles) by Rev Nemu

What is at stake for the church? by Maureen Foxall

Living with a Guilty Conscience by Canon Alan Amos

Occupying Theology

The Church and the Critique of Capitalism by Maureen Foxall

Occupying Art by Elizabeth Gray-King

and read Sheikh Dr Muhammad Al Hussaini's Occupy Article here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/28/occupy-st-pauls-occupy-london

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Prologue

"Christians are not supposed to follow in the footsteps of criminals," said the speaker passionately. He was opposed to a motion being considered by our church. We were trying to declare our support for the Occupy Movement, and a willingness to listen to Occupy's critique. The speaker had no time for those who broke the law, like Occupiers. Had I been, say, Russell Brand, I might have answered swiftly and eloquently. Brand's clowning, quick witted and deepening spirituality serves him well when speaking truth to power. In my mind I astonished all opposition into silence with brilliantly Brandeque banter: Jesus was himself a criminal in the eyes of the law. That means we Christians are constantly following in the footsteps of a criminal if we are faithful to his example.

Mmmm. Best I leave the witty replies to the experts. As it happened, I simply stood there, mouth gaping, trying to work out whether being a Christian was even vaguely possible without being an Occupier. Jesus was a deeply disliked Occupier himself; with his presumptuous critique of the Temple bankers, his infuriating indifference towards the ruling elite, his scandalous association with the unwashed classes, his dastardly declaration of liberty for the oppressed, his free medical care designed to desist from draining his patients' pension pots, and his unforgivable generosity: free non GM fish and bread for the starving 99%. Anyone shining that sort of light onto the Powers and Principalities must be punished, destroyed, crucified! The cross was the tool of choice in his day; riot police, embedded journalism and austerity measures take centre stage in ours.

Would it stretch the imagine too far if we were to visualise not only Jesus as an Occupier, but also Krishna, Gautama, Moses, Avalokiteshvara, Theresa and Mohammed? This is what we in OccupyFaithUK try to imagine. At its core the Occupy impulse is to shine light on every Domination System that plays God. Our great religious reformers did precisely that. Occupiers speak truth to oppressive systems in politics, economics, culture and religion. But unlike the great saints and sages, we are not very good at it! You will see this clearly if per happenstance you ever get to see the remake of The Canterbury Tales, a feature length documentary film about OccupyFaithUK's Pilgrimage for Justice. We find that we are most vulnerable to the subtle deceits of the Powers and Principalities when we try to expose and confront them. Aye, there's the rub! How can we, who are ourselves not free of illusion, shine light on illusion? We simply cannot seem to bear the beams of love very long! See how quickly the Occupiers camped in front of St Paul's divided themselves into 'true' Occupiers vs. 'not true' Occupiers. We are a sorry lot! Who will save us from this body of sin, the apostle asks. No: we cannot save ourselves, but we can I suppose worship; for in doing so we declare Ultimate Reality to be Not Self; not my country, not my religion, not my philosophy, not my Occupy Movement and not even my righteous anger in the face of oppression.

This book is a resource to help us worship God. Worship takes place as we pray and sing and think and debate for God's sake. Worshipping the Living God shines a healing, compassionate light on oppressive Powers and structures. Our light may be a weak, of course. Righteous religious folk and their institutions are far too easily co-opted by the dynamis, archontes and exousia \- the Principalities and the Powers of this worldly system. But we do not despair. We ask for faith. We occupy the compromised liturgies, stories, art, sermons, theologies and practices of our faith. In that occupied space we become still for a heartbeat or two. We breathe intentionally. We become present to Presence in this moment. This is to begin to see through the webs of illusion weaved by ignorance, fear and greed. Out of this place of stillness, light begins to shine in the darkness.

As a person of faith, you may wish to follow in the footsteps of the Holy Criminal Occupier through worship, meditation, study and reflection. I hope this eBook helps you and your clowning, criminal community to do so faithfully and with skilful means. Feel free to use the resources here in a way that enables right thinking, right awareness and right living. The book relies heavily on Christian religious narratives and categories, but I trust more interreligious material will become available, opening us to deep insights that would not otherwise be visible when viewed through the lens of only one faith.

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Occupying Worship

Interfaith Pilgrimage: A Sending Out

On Saturday 24 November 2012, OccupyFaithUK set out on a mini pilgrimage (see a short film of that event here http://youtu.be/XSSioTpbNXk) from St Paul's Cathedral to Hackney, London. The hierarchy at St Paul's agreed to host a Service of Sending Out: a generous offer in the light of the history of Occupy vs. Cathedral! It was good to occupy a small space within the cathedral. One can see from the content of this service that St Paul's has begun to take very seriously its obligation to listening to the critique of society and church offered by the still stark memory of the presence of Occupy London on its doorstep. Of course, Systems of Domination embed themselves deeply and are often unseen, especially within churches. Much within this service [un]consciously skirts the hard questions, remains unaware of the Powers that still hold the church captive. Nevertheless, the service acknowledges our collective need for mercy, for forgiveness, for guidance and for compassionate light. It confesses the shortcomings of the church on its journey towards the fullness of the coming Kingdom of Love, Suchness, Satori, Christ or Presence. The hope is that you will use and adapt this order of service as you may need given your community's context. For example, Katharine Harrison led the meditation by using the stained glass windows and art in St Paul's to point out oppression, domination, fear, greed and exploitation in the world, especially within the high finance of the City of London, to which St Paul's as an institution seems so obsequiously obligated for its continued existence (it must be said that many of those working for St Paul's find themselves in heartfelt support of the ideals of Occupy - but then such is the irony inherent in all Domination Systems). Back to the original point: you may wish to include or vary this service in whatever way is meaningful and relevant for your context. All rights remain with Church of England. It is used here with permission.

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Welcome and Bidding by Revd Canon Michael Hampel

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you; so lead us by your Spirit that in this life we may live to your glory and in the life to come enjoy your forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord who is alive with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Reading Micah 4. 1-4

In the days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Meditation led by Katharine Harrison

Prayers led by Nadene Snyman and Father Jon Dal Din

O God our creator, whose good earth is entrusted to our care and delight and tenderness, we pray: may those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

For all those who are in captivity to debt, whose lives are cramped by fear from which there is no turning except through abundant harvest; may those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

For all who depend on the earth for their daily food and fuel, whose forests are destroyed for the profits of a few; may those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

For all who labour in poverty, who are oppressed by unjust laws, who are banned for speaking the truth, who long for a harvest of justice; may those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

For all who are in captivity to greed and waste and boredom, whose harvest is choked with things they do not need; may those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

Turn us again from our captivity and restore our vision, that our mouth may be filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Amen.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be thy name; they kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Silent Prayer

Lighting of Candles

During the following Taizé chant, people are invited to come forward and light candles in silence

I send out my prayer, I send out my prayer, when in doubt, when in fear [repeat] Love will always be here.

Invocation to God led by the Revd James Lawson

In the contradiction of the gods of Mammon and the lords or Misrule; in the pavement legalities of occupation and assertion, injunction and counterclaim; at the interface of tourist and worshipper, occupier and passer-by, he pitched his tent among us.

In another place and time, where the Eagle standard spread its wings; in the tyrant rule of Herod, toying with Magi and butchering children; at the Royal City - subject today to another occupation; he pitched his tent among us.

In a culture where 'reality' is pathos and everything has a price; in the lives of poor and privileged, Pharisee and refugee; at the cusp of history, at this time and at all times, he pitched his tent among us.

Come, transforming Christ, manger born and Spirit led; take hold of what is tawdry and bring your kingdom's eternal joy. Take lives which ache for vision and instil eternal hope, and pitch your tent among us. Amen. (from Bishop Pete Broadbent and based on John 1:14)

A Franciscan Blessing, adopted by OccupyFaithUK

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deeply within our hearts. May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people and the earth.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, hunger, homelessness and rejection; so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them, and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe we can make a difference in the world; so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

The Blessing and Sending Out by Revd Canon Michael Hampel

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Hymns by Kim Fabricius

Kim is a minister and theologian serving within the United Reformed Church, UK. All rights remain with him.

We hang our heads in shame and guilt -Tune: Mit Freuden zart

We hang our heads in shame  
and guilt for ruthless exploitation  
We heat the earth and watch it wilt  
for capital and nation.  
In pitiless pursuit of oil  
we poison air and sea and soil  
– the lords of de-creation.

"Have mercy on us, Lord!" we plead,  
but is it false confession?  
We mask misdeeds,  
we gild our greed,  
as peace we spin aggression.  
We're skilful at the apt excuse  
and the dark arts of word-abuse  
–the truth is in recession.

O God, this is our world of vice  
come, judge us, test us, try us;  
though we deny you, Jesus Christ,  
Deliverer, don't deny us;  
break down the selves in which we hide,  
evict our vanity and pride  
– O Spirit, occupy us!

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Who are we called to be? \- Tune: Moscow

Who are we called to be?  
The Father's family – greatest is least.  
Sisters and brothers, pray for bread and peace today,  
and for the poor that they share in the feast.

Who are we called to be?  
The Son's community – song, salt and light.  
Become what Christ became, witness to Yahweh's reign,  
go set the world aflame – God's dynamite!

Who are we called to be?  
The Spirit's colony – exiles and clowns.  
Live as the dispossessed, free of the fear of death,  
heal hate with tenderness – world upside-down!

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The Canterbury Campers by Danny Diskin

Danny, whose alter ego also appears in this book as the Rev Nemu, wrote this poem after completing OccupyFaithUK's Pilgrimage for Justice in 2012. The route followed the ancient pilgrims' way from St Paul's Cathedral, London, to Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, UK, a route immortalised by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. And as great as Chaucer's work is, though, this bit of poetry is sublime!

'Twas not at Southwark's famous Tabard,  
But at St Paul's where pilgrims gathered,  
Where some months ere, no Christian pity,  
Could save ye rope-tied tented city.  
No holy sanctuary was given,  
Ye chapter did well as t'was bidden  
For though St Paul's dost boast a cross  
Ye corporation's almighty boss.

So there began, at winter's close  
As t'ward ye steps was turned a hose  
A quest to find another way  
To cry for peace another day.  
At length was hit upon a plan  
To form a motley caravan:  
A penitent walk for thirteen days  
Following a pilgrim's ways.

And if ye clergy saw it right  
To clear ye steps on fated night,  
Pardon ye bailiff, constabulary  
We alight now for Canterbury.  
A bishop left ye pilgrims bless'd,  
And out struck they, t'wards ye West,  
And for fair Blackheath, in deluvious rain  
And there they couched in tents again.

Morning mass, then t'ward  
Dartford Heath Passing out scrolls,  
marching 'neath A glorious and sun-filled sky.  
Ye merry folk of Occupy.  
Oft called to preach and pros'letyse  
To sound alarm, and radic'lise  
Ye sleeping people of ye churches,  
To kick them up their sleeping breeches.

For truth and justice is e'er ye mission  
Of every right God-fearing Christian,  
So preached ye pilgrims on their way  
Of equal rights and equal pay.  
Afore strode a nun spirited with God  
Behind came ye hirsute, ye sick and ye odd  
A flower-weaver, a mushroom gatherer,  
A chariot driver who pressed close behind her.

There too came a knight, Excalibur blade  
Whetted and sharpened and for battle made  
To take on a dragon and announce his woe  
At quickening gale and melting snow.  
An adept of physic and mathematics teacher  
A quietly radical Wales-dwelling preacher,  
Servant of Jesus in search of ye grail.

Whilst running around, chasing his very tail  
A hound was there, who served well his mistress  
A witch's familiar with familiar sorceress.  
Radical Kentish youths were there  
With dirty gowns and messy hair  
A Frenchman who despised ye food  
His voice was loud, his parley rude.

And in yon merry company,  
Recording all were there scribes three,  
Whose great black eyes did watch ye mission  
Whose magic ears harkened words spoken  
Recording prayer and words profane  
So might they one day watch again.

One day Lord God, as they were walking,  
Sent down a man who started talking  
About how he began that morn'  
With bitter heart and hopes forlorn  
That he would ne'er behold ye day  
That greed would all be rubbed away,  
His cheek grew red, his eye shed tear  
To spy ye party drawing near,  
By parting time, his hopes were high  
His hand held Times of Occupy.

With standard flapping in ye wind  
Ye posse stopped at old Gravesend,  
Were welcomed by a turbaned brother  
And Sikhs who seek in their Gurdwara.  
This noble faith did please the Quaker  
As like unto his, but spiced of flavour.  
With humble manner, gracefully  
They ladled dhal and poured out tea  
And conversed they, without a hurry  
See how ye bishop serves thine curry.  
While wholesome tolerance they did meet,  
Intolerance to milk and wheat Smote a bowel amidst ye party  
They left serene, but gravely farty.

A vicar's wife, most pure of heart,  
Drove a folk's wagon horse and cart  
With Christ at rear, symbol of fish,  
With googley eyes, ye twain skew-wiff  
She hauled ye stinking baggage onward  
Recently skipped, presently putrid  
Ye soggy canvas and socks gone rotten  
And victuals that wert long forgotten  
In Christian service she endured miasma  
To glory of Christ, for love of Father.

She'd hail a bus, to meet at luncheon  
In yon rustic inn where they sat a-munchin'.  
Once upon ye pilgrim's way  
When sweetmeat, fig roll had eaten they  
The pilgrims came upon a churchyard  
To salute ye sun and stretch out eastward.  
Each God-sent day, they were awoken,  
A chorus sang that morning was broken  
But ne'er didst choristers e'er rehearse  
And ne'er learned they ye second verse.

Rising once in Kentish pastures  
To punningly punish Kentish Bankers  
At Rochester, 'neath tow'ring steeple  
Occu-priests met merchant people.  
There spake a deputy in lies  
"Our Tory goals art Occupy's!"

Pilgrims durst ask bishop that day  
For fifty pounds, and if he was gay.  
(The answers, should'st thou care to know  
Were yea to first, and to second, no)  
Newington's canon did with them sing  
And ancient church bells did they ring  
The ether occupied wi' chimes,  
They left behind, ye Occupied Times.

At Faversham, 'neath waxing moon  
A farmer and planter did join platoon.  
Ye faithful's grandest occupation,  
A Medieval chapel at ye destination,  
Where at morning worship, all prayed together,  
Various creeds, to just one Father,  
Wide-wandered feet upon one ground.

Ancient stone there echoed ye sound  
Of clerics in frocks, rememb'ring ye needy  
And pilgrims decrying and cursing ye greedy  
And turning their God-wrought dissatisfaction  
To march and strike, and t'wards direct action.

Gospel songs sung, the pilgrims a-clapping  
And then ye Sikhs came tabla tapping.  
In a thousand years, had old Kent's cathedral  
E'er heard drum of yon Indian minstrel?  
Newington's canon a headscarf did don  
The cathedral fathers harked they with none  
And in ye hallowed chapel there  
Was sung an imam's call to prayer.

And thence the pilgrims, away they went  
For three days with ye wise of Kent,  
To jaw with scholars and vie with clerics  
On exegesis and economics  
The scribes recorded ev'ry meeting  
I know not when will be ye screening.

Beneath a great and gnarléd oak  
Ye pilgrims sat and traded joke  
To make compleat ye past'ral idyll  
Ye elder scribe did stroke his fiddle  
And play his tunes, of quick and dead  
As quaffing wine and gobbling bread  
The pilgrims laughed, as well they might,  
High spirits on midsummer's night.

The wand'rings here are all but ended  
In Kentish field, where fast befriended  
Justice pilgrims bid goodbye  
To fellow folk of Occupy.  
But who knows where, and who knows when  
The pilgrims wander back again?

Jerusalem lies o'er the sea,  
But the heavenly citadel lies within thee.  
Verily, ye Kingdom of Heaven's at hand  
And hands that reach anon understand  
A pilgrimage i'faith goes to ye source  
Ye seeker's soul's where ends ye course  
Ye angels cheer when holy ghost  
Occupies flesh, and makes it host.

For poesy, pilgrims, find your way  
To nemusend dot co dot uk

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Occupying Stories

Alexander of Stroud's Tale by Alexander Murrell

Alex lives in Stroud, UK, and is a father, husband and educator. In Danny's poem above, you may have discovered him already as the 'adept of physic and mathematics teacher'!

What attracted me to Occupy Faith was the commitment to rethink society through conversation and dialogue. The global crises engulfing the world today are engulfing the world today are enormous. The pledge to begin a conversation about Justice, about a more wholesome lifestyle that is morally just and environmentally sustainable, was not in the old political ways that have let us all down. It is not a conversation with people who know the answers. It is a true conversation of people seeking good solutions.

The Pilgrimage is an extended opportunity to follow this conversation. Here are some thoughts: Each one of us has to find the path between self interest and social interest. It is no use confusing the two.

In the economy, producers, consumers, traders, workers, and owners need to get together to find a constructive way forward, co-operatively in everyone's interest. Ultimately we need an economy that rewards enterprise, and doesn't reward mere ownership.

Occupy Faith is a society-forming movement. The pilgrimage brought this home to me as a real experience. About 25 people, from very diverse backgrounds, came together to walk to Canterbury. The call was for anyone with a will to combine a spiritual or religious path with social living and the hope for a more just society. There were strong echoes of Chaucer's Canterbury tales because we followed his route almost exactly, stopping at quite a few inns as well as pilgrim churches along the way.

None of us can really be summarised in a name or title, but we were a mixed assembly: a teacher, a minister, a vicar's wife and mother of 5, a lady with a dog with a very homely tent, a lady about to be evicted for rent arrears and a great dancer, a social-worker-probation-officer-mental health support-worker (is that right, Bob?), a carer-Quaker-singer, a handful of students, one with a talent for finding especially elegant second hand clothes, a post graduate student, also a wonderful orator, an Occupy Faith organiser or two, magical 3 year-old twins and their Brazilian mother, their father - a writer and tarot card consultant, a homeless man, a skateboard park inspirer, a mother of ten (!) and a few other wonderful individuals.... Steve, Elena, Alex...

Also, we represented a good mix of creeds and spiritual orientations: Church of England, Reformist, Christian, Quaker, Buddhist, Catholic, Anthroposophist, Daoist, Mystic, Rastafarian, and we all thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Sikh Gurdwara in Gravesend and doing Tai-Chi in the mornings.

Over two weeks we got to know each other and lived socially together. In several places we set up our tents and were like a nomadic tribe. When humans lived deeply integrated in Nature and at one with their environment they travelled in little groups of 20 – 30 people- the first human societies perhaps). In the words of some of my companions, Occupy is a seed for a compassionate revolution, for developing co-operative behaviour through conversation and consensus, respecting the freedom of autonomous adults.

The pilgrimage was orientated around spirituality- a real spirituality rooted in real life and ordinary day-to-day activities. The larger social aims of Occupy are expressed in the ideals like Truth, Justice, Mercy, Peace and Environmental Awareness. The personal achievements on the pilgrimage are about learning sociability: interest in other people, in their own paths of pilgrimage: finding in our hearts the wish and will to support others on their spiritual and faith journeys and all of this alongside just getting along harmoniously with ordinary life on the move!

What I learned, in faith terms, is that Christ is a Social Being. Where two or three have come together in my name, there will I be among them. (Matthew 18:20) Certainly I say to you, In so far as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40). If you prefer a non-faith language: love is the most universal reality for human beings; it is both the origin and transcendence of our individual selves and our bond with Nature and with humanity. When the social element weaves between two or more people, then Love can be present. You are more your true Self if you are more connected.

Everyone's conscience leads towards this social being. If an employer, landlord, factory owner, or a shareholder knows that his or her workers or tenants are under conditions which prevent or are contrary to human dignity, then it is a matter of his or her conscience to change that situation. The kind of things which affect human dignity are working conditions, the length of working days, the possibility of receiving sick pay, as well as the wage or rent . Care workers in Britain at the moment are not granted sick pay - this is a morally shocking reality. Are we consenting to that without applying the same to ourselves?

Do the working conditions enable people to participate in the cultural and educational spheres of society, or are they allowing only basic sustenance? Any employer who relates to his working colleagues with a normal level of friendly, human interest will see the changes for good that need to be made. Real togetherness, where the suffering or happiness of each individual becomes the concern of each of the others, will engender true healthiness. Good social relationships are a pre condition for healthy human beings.

If we wish to avoid an unaffordable health crisis, then we must pursue with vigour the engendering of, and education for, health in this country. How we meet and greet one another is the ground level for healthy living. Our pilgrimage was a beautiful example of a social quest for health. Laws, Social forms, and Economic conditions which cause separation and oppression are the final outcome of the failure of individual conscience. They will foster unhealthiness on every level.

At present, economic affairs are dominating the social and political arena. But economics is, or should be, about the production, and exchange of goods and services. It constitutes only a fraction of our possible relationships with each other, and with the whole of life, in its moral-spiritual dimension. It is a warped view of life that allows the economic sphere of society to dominate both the spiritual-cultural sphere, and the arena of rights and mutual relationships. Occupy Faith is about restoring the balance.

A Conscience-inspired social impulse will have further consequences alongside a more just society. I think it will lead to a more productive, less foolishly wasteful economy; and a better environmental relationship will also follow when we properly value the two thirds or three quarters of life that should not be about economics.

Each one of us in life has to find the path between self interest and social interest. It is no use confusing the two. Producers, consumers, traders, workers, and owners need to get together to find a constructive way forward, co-operatively in everyone's and in the environmental interest. Economics should be about human relationships as well; and the global task is not to get rich but to provide the material and basic needs for all the world's citizens. Ultimately we need an economy that rewards enterprise, and doesn't reward mere ownership. Someone who possesses money or land in an egoistical sense has power over other people; when money is managed selflessly, others are liberated.

As a pilgrim I learned these things because I learned to know myself in relationship with others and in conversation about the social evils of our time and the potential we all have for positivity. I am deeply grateful as an individual. I think I am on the way to being a better person, changed for good. I would recommend a pilgrimage for everyone of you at some point in your life. I am also confident that the most positive seeds for social change and evolution are alive in the Occupy Movement. Thank you Occupy.

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Occupy's Challenges by Tanya Paton Dempsey

Tanya played an important role in faith liaison for Occupy London Stock Exchange. She was one of the key organisers of the OccupyFaithUK's Pilgrimage for Justice.

I have to reiterate that any opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone, as no-one can speak for Occupy as a voice of Occupy.

Occupying Space

Progressive political change has for many years been the assembly of people out of doors coming together to debate and organise beyond the prescribed avenues of official political reform. Although Occupy is essentially a social movement that wishes to challenge the political structures that perpetuate the root causes of the economic crisis – it is also a movement that initially essentially relied on the taking of a public space to gather support, get the debates and discussions on the issues at hand going, and also to reinforce a social bond with public participation where people could meet, learn, and interact in a very public and transparent way. Most people came to know the movement through the lens of the media, which had both positives and pitfalls.

The movement very successfully managed to involve the public and participation through the "owning" of the public space early on in the occupations, but as time went on the problems of occupying a public space with tents providing a live-in community became very apparent. This also created an easy space for the media to report from, as the media are often lazy and getting a story on their doorstep in London made it easy for the press to find a daily story. The more intelligent press searched for understanding the popularity of the movement as part of the 99%, the sensationalist press focussed on anything negative and often interviewed vulnerable individuals who had gravitated to the camp mainly for company – people who did not necessarily understand the wider issues being raised by the movement through discussion and consensus, but people who needed the human company of a community.

These problems were not experienced only by the London occupation, but seem to be apparent in all the long term occupations that existed around the world. The camp occupations became microcosms of society, revealing all the detailed problems with displaced people, people who felt disempowered or on the margins of society, people with drug and alcohol issues, homeless issues, mental health issues and especially where people have felt lonely and rejected by society.

There were accusations that the police were actually directing people to the campsites when they had such problems, as a means by which to discredit the occupations, which of course the media grasped at with relish in publicising alleged violence and drug-taking, and also by trying to label the occupiers as radical anarchists or utopian fools. There is no doubt that the occupiers in the campsites were a motley collection of all sorts in society with a multitude of differing ideas, but the truth of the movement is that the majority of people involved in organising and facilitating discussions are not drug-taking utopian fools. They are, as one astute journalist put it "the canaries in the mine" – an early warning made up of people concerned about the systemic failures in the political and financial system, people who desire and see the need for radical change.

Avoiding Centralisation

Once the campsite occupations started being evicted, this affected the dynamic of the public interaction and also the media interest. With a central point for communicating in public spaces by occupying with tents being legally removed, the movement had think laterally in how to ensure its continuation, and also face the growing criticisms internally about centralisation. By this time, there were a core group of people doing the organising, though still faithfully seeking to remain leaderless, which has its own problems. But this is a grassroots organisation and it was imperative to utilise horizontal organising within the movement to keep to the ideals of being the 99%.

The Quaker based and inspired decision making by consensus became extremely difficult to enact, when people were no longer gathered together in one place where General Assemblies (GAs) could be held. In addition, those who did live outside of London who had participated in the camp occupation were now faced with the difficulty of travelling to meetings or GAs and faced with financial costs of travelling into London, which was a burden many could not sustain. The numbers of people attending GAs depleted and thus one solution was to take these online, this has its own problems as it excludes those who have no internet access. In addition, an online email for group-spaces was set up for people to be able to communicate, share information, share events and generally connect, but often this would descend into personal attacks on people where they disagreed with certain ideas of people's opinions and so this in itself became problematic for those who were really interested in taking the discussions further to assert pressure on the government to make changes and instigate reforms.

However, the positive was and is, that people are perseverant and much has been achieved by Occupy in changing political rhetoric – though this is also viewed by some as problematic in that politicians started using Occupy rhetoric in discussing "responsible and ethical banking" without actually doing anything to legislate on regulation that could ensure this. In addition, Occupy has been successful in involving the FSA and Bank of England in debates and discussions and Occupy has been given recognition by both important individuals in the Bank of England and the FSA as being instrumental in them starting to work on reforming the financial system – although many in Occupy believe this is too little and simply a pacifying exercise. It is however a start and Occupy has played a role in getting these reforms started by raising public awareness on the issues.

Conflicting Ideas

Economics and politics are impossible to disentangle, and ultimately it is the political crisis fuelled by the economic recession that created the conditions in which Occupy came about, inviting ordinary people that felt anger at the political solutions of austerity, to fix the economic problems created by the banks. The banks that received massive public funding in bailouts, are privately owned corporations with the sole purpose of creating profit for shareholders – when bailed out by taxpayers their objectives do not change – it is their shareholders who gain, and not the public, but at the greatest cost to the public.

The banks have not had to pay the bailouts back now they are back in profit, they are still paying their executives excessive salaries and there is absolutely no indication of the unethical, irresponsible culture of banking being changed by the events since the global economic crisis started in 2008. If anything, more evidence of the criminal behaviour of banks has emerged with everything from the Libor rates manipulation scandal to money laundering billions by Standard Chartered and HSBC, but to name a few. Corporate taxation has been another issue highlighted recently in the media, which was also a major point raised by Occupy, in how many of the biggest global transnational corporations are avoiding paying tax, by loopholes that allow them to utilise tax havens outside of the UK. That is, however, a whole discussion on its own.

The one thing all the occupiers who were involved in drafting the initial statement had in common, was that they recognised that the banks and financial system needs more than token reform, it needs systemic change and legislation for this to happen. Politicians however, serve their investors, their careers and their party politics – leaving the public out in the cold and the chances of true systemic change at this time a very distant dream. That does not, however, mean that we should not continue to strive and push for complete systemic change and endeavour to break the vast populous out of apathy to engage in demanding these changes. We need to get money out of politics and ensure that politicians are answerable in doing the job they are voted in to do, which is serve the best interests of the country and the public, not serve their investors and protect the rich – most of them being rich, as 23 out of 29 members of the UK Cabinet are multimillionaires. The central pillar of plutocracy is the domination of politics by money.

Keeping focussed

Being a motley collection of people from different backgrounds in Occupy meant that there were many people who had been campaigning on issues for years, often single issues – like climate change, women's rights, racism and the like, and their knowledge and expertise were valued within the movement, but this can also bring "baggage". Keeping focussed on the issue of economic crisis, the banks and political crisis can become side-tracked by people's passions for the issues they have spent years campaigning on. Most of the single issue problems stem from a root cause based on economics. If we can tackle the economic issue in equality and wealth distribution, we can tackle many of the other symptoms – such as child labour, climate change, fracking, poverty ... the list of symptoms from the economic problems in the world is vast, but if we resolve the economics of how the system functions, many of these symptoms will alleviate or dissipate with systemic economic change. If we had a global equal wealth distribution – there would inevitably be less poverty. 40% of the entire global wealth is held in the hands of 92,000 people – or 147 transnational corporations.

The most powerful media corporations are a part of the ownership of this 40%, so inevitably they will be navigated in influencing opinion to ultimately reflect the hegemonic authority of those elites. The symbiotic relationship of the media with those in power is paramount in how those in power maintain control and in controlling public opinion. As the media interest dwindled, many people thought Occupy had simply dissolved, which is not true at all.

The movement has had to find ways to continue through a variety of different avenues and one of the good things about it is that people took on themselves – in true leaderless fashion – to focus on supporting local community issues – like the Frien Barnet Library occupation, totally supported by the local community, and other such smaller and more focussed occupations, allowing Occupy to continue interacting within the community. Discussions are still taking place with working groups who meet regularly, some once a month in person or others that may meet more often online, the Occupied Times is still being printed monthly and events have been organised, such as the Pilgrimage for Justice, the Andy Haldane debate, the new Putney Debates and Occupy continues to support protest marches and both gives and receives support by the unions, whilst continuing the conversations on how to bring about change in a peaceful way, being a politicised social movement, without being in politics. No easy task, but neither are resolving the issues that we all face in contemporary times.

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God's Fabulous Farmyard: A Parable for Children by Kevin Snyman

This parable was given at the 'Sermon on the Steps' outside St Paul's during the Occupy encampment in 2011. How does one explain the message of the Occupy movement to children? In might be argued that children very often are the ones reminding the adults about the difference between right and wrong. This parable tells the story – old as humanity itself – of what constitutes right thinking, right living, right effort and right concentration (with a nod of appreciation to George Orwell, Ken Wilber, Walter Wink and Gautama). The characters in the parable are archetypal; the donkeys represent the rulers, the doggies represent the police, the piggies are moneylenders, and the mice are the 'ordinary' people of the world. The snake is interesting: his name is "Archie" from the Greek Archontes – the hierarchy that governs the domination system. The domination system (cf. Walter Wink) pretends to be good, but can only be maintained through lies and violence. It cannot abide the truth lest it be exposed as unjust. When the mice operate through faith, hope and love, when they sing songs of freedom, when they die to the powers and live without fear, favour or violence, the system is exposed and changed. But grace abounds! Even the system and its representatives (donkeys, pigs and dogs) are redeemed. Love deconstructs of the old system with its oppressive structures, and embraces and transforms it into a more just system based upon compassion and truth. The process only works if non-violent; violence is never compatible the nature of God (cf. Luther King/Gandhi) or the higher reaches of the unfolding universe (cf. Ken Wilber). In addition, generosity can be one of a number of skilful means in breaking systems of violence and greed. In order to enact generosity, the toys used in the story to represent all the animals are given away to the children after the story. This act turns the usual practice of the church collection on its head. It models an economy based on generous self-sacrifice, not acquisition. Thanks to Keith for the use of this photo: find him at  http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/sermon-on-the-steps-at-st-pauls-in-the-camp/

Hello Children! This is the story of God's Fabulous Farmyard. I brought some friends who are going to help me tell the tale: here are two donkeys called Tina and Davey (note: in the UK TINA is a reference to Margaret Thatcher's insistence that 'there Is No Alternative' to neo-liberal economics, and 'Davey' is reminiscent of David Cameron. But feel free to use any contextually relevant politician)

Here are two doggies called Bernie and Boris (in this case, these refer to the head of the Metro Police and the mayor of London at the time of Occupy London in 2011)

Here are two piggies called Lloyd and Barklay (any bank)

Here is a snake called Archie, and lots of little mice with names from all over the world; Francesca, Ananda, Mustapha, Bongani and many others who lived in the Farmyard. Are you ready to listen to the story?

Once upon a time, God created a fabulous Farmyard with lots of food for all the little animals. The animals loved to live and play together on the Farm. They felt deeply loved and cared for by God.

One day, God called all the animals together into a big meeting. "Gather round, gather round," said God. "I am going away for a while, and I am leaving you to look after the Farmyard on your own."

"Why are you going away?" squeaked Francesca, a little grey mouse. "Don't you love us anymore?" God looked at her with the sweetest smile in the world. "It is because I love you so much that I must go. It's time for you to grow up and learn how to take care of yourselves, each other and the Farmyard." "Will we ever see you again?" asked Bongani, a little black mouse. "I will be closer to you than your very next breath," said God, "and when you learn to do 3 things, you will see me again:

1) Love one another deeply 2) Do not be afraid 3) Celebrate and sing songs of freedom (ask children to repeat 1,2&3)

Many years passed and the animals elected the donkeys as leaders, Tina and Davey. They elected the doggies to guard them at night, Bernie and Boris ("Woof! I like bicycles!"). But the piggies began to love food more than they loved God. They wanted more and more and more. So they put together a sneaky plan. When the time was just right, they ran to the donkey leaders. "Oh No! We have terrible news!" cried the piggies. "The Farmyard is running out of food! You have to do something!"

"What? That's awful! What are we going to do?" said the donkeys with dismay. "Ah well, you see, we have a plan," said the piggies. "If you let us pigs build bigger barns for ourselves, and then if you can convince the other animals to put their food into our barns, THEN we will make sure everyone gets enough food." "That's a good idea,' said Tina. "I'm sure There is No Alternative \- no other way."

Very soon, the pigs were getting fatter and fatter, and all the other animals were getting thinner and thinner. The piggies gave the donkeys a little bit extra to keep them quiet, but the mice were not happy at all. They loved their friends in the Farmyard and were sad to see everyone so hungry. But no one took much notice of them because they were so small. So, the mice got together and remembered what God had told them. Do you remember? (ask children to repeat)  
1) Love one another deeply 2) Do not be afraid 3) Celebrate and sing songs of freedom.

As the mice sang their songs without fear, they made every effort to LOVE the doggies and the donkeys and the piggies. (the toys hug one another)  
And they began to celebrate and have lots of fun because they weren't scared anymore.

The piggies were very frightened by all of this happiness. They tried to get the doggies to bark at the mice, but the doggies were too busy enjoying being tickled by mouse whiskers. The pigs told Archie the snake to eat up all the mice, but the mice were unafraid and sang even louder. Those freedom songs made the snake's eyes go all funny and all that love made his long body all wobbly.

Eventually even the piggies were joining in the songs. They were tired of being greedy and also wanted to be loved. So they threw open the barn doors that very night and invited everyone to a great big party. 'Enough food for everyone!' they cried, and everybody gave a mighty cheer and clapped and clapped their hands.

And in the flicker of the firelight, God gently appeared with a beaming smile and said, "I no longer call you children, I call you friends, for you have learned the lessons of the Farmyard. Can you remember what they are? Repeat them with me: 1) Love one another deeply 2) Do not be afraid 3) Celebrate and sing songs of freedom" And everyone lived happily ever after.

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Occupying Sermons

El es Nuestra Paz! (Jesus is our Peace!) \- an Advent Sermon by Rafael Vallejo preached at St. James Park, Toronto, on December 1, 2011

Rafael is a highly gifted pastor. preacher and theologian, making him the ideal chaplain for Occupy Toronto. You can find him on Google.

Many of us are still trying to understand (or "innerstand") what happened during the 40 days and 40 nights of Occupy at St James Park. We continue to discern how to respond faithfully to the movement called "Occupy" as it unfolds here in Toronto and elsewhere in this world that God so loves.

I propose that those of us who are christians engage this "event" grounded in our scriptures, traditions and lived experience of protest. I propose further that we view Occupy as a performed "word from God" and that we read, listen deeply and interpret this text critically as a community.

This will be easier to imagine if we affirm that God's Spirit breathes where she wills, and if we took Jesus at his word that he can be found among "the least of these". As we do this we must be prepared for hostility, ridicule and pushback from other people inside our own faith communities. There will be echoes in our churches of "Take a bath. Get a job and give us back our park!" part of the dominant narrative created by corporate owned and controlled media.

Consider Occupy as a "voice in the wilderness" that names and engages the powers that are the source of our exile and our captivity. "The beginning of the gospel" (Mark 1:1) from the lectionary of the Second Sunday of Advent situates itself not in the center of worship and power (Jerusalem) but on the fringes, where an "unofficial" voice, that of John the Baptizer, calls all of society to repentance: unlearning greed and inequality, in order to occupy the new household of God. He heralds the coming of One that is greater than all, with a new baptism that is not of water, but of Spirit.

In his "I have a Dream" speech in the August 1963 protest march for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King picks up on this theme from Isaiah 40. "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

In the season of Advent, we are ask to make a way, prepare a path, give peace a chance, so that justice and right relationships can be restored. In this wilderness, we cry out to our God in hope, trusting that the Peace of God will make a way for the waters to "break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert" (Isaiah 35, 6). Another reality is at hand that will displace the forces of Empire. In the story of Jesus, something new is about to be born!

How might we view Occupy as one of the ways Spirit is being "poured out on all people" (Joel 2:28)? Can the practice of "people's assemblies" be viewed as a new form of ekklesia : people being "called out" from isolation to participation. Can "Mic check" be a new form of liturgy, the action of the people performed as antiphons of call and response. Can the signs and chants we carry during our marches be seen as songs of lament in the context of "communities of resistance".

Not everybody will support the claim that Occupy is a community that prays, lives together, studies, feeds the hungry and shelters the homeless, and engages in ministries of justice and mercy. Eyes start to roll at the suggestion that Occupy is doing "what churches should be doing" by raising moral questions to the wider society.

One of the difficulties that Occupy Toronto Protest Chaplains ran into last month was getting churches to acknowledge that we have a "duty of care" towards the protesters, especially when they are literally situated on a church yard, as was the partly the case at St James Park.

Going forward, perhaps one of our tasks will be to educate ourselves on Peace, not as an abstract theological category, but as a communal process. How do we as a community practice Luke 6, the ethic of "Love Your Enemy" in the context of confrontation with law enforcement ? Maybe part of theological field education in seminary should be how to mobilize local communities for faith-rooted, non-violent action.

People of faith cannot be silent about violence, and economic inequality IS violence. In what way is our silence a betrayal of "the widows and the orphans" under our care? What if "taking care of widows and orphans" and "seeking out the strangers in our midst" becomes the ultimate biblical test of our faithfulness (Matthew 25)? How would we as "church" measure up?

How we read our scriptures and our traditions becomes evident in our ethics: the moral expression of the faith we confess. Some believe that salvation is exclusively about having a "personal relationship with God". Others believe that salvation is participation in God's mission so that "all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Gen 12:3). "Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven" will be for some a pious wish. For others, it is a clear call to protest against whatever stands in the way of God's dream for the world.

What is the subversive message of "Glory to God and Peace on earth" (Luke 2:14) in the context of first century Palestine and the Roman Occupation? How do we connect this piece of good news with our protest and our prayers, during this season of Advent?

To summarize, here is another way to "tell the story". When we talk of peace we recognize that Jesus IS our shalom, the peace promised to us by God. ("El es nuestra paz" Eph. 2:14). Jesus is also our atonement, the one who breaks down the walls of separation. When we talk about dignity and equality, it is about seeing the "image of God" in "all our relations" not just human beings. When we talk of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18) we proclaim that the God of Life brings together in the peace of Christ the entire oikoumene, the household of life.

When we talk about repentance, we refer to God's call to turn our lives and point them in the direction of the gospel: the "mysteries of God" to which we are called to be stewards (1 Cor.4:1). When we talk about God, we refer to the Triune God that gives and receives without boundaries and hierarchies. And when we talk about protest, we refer to that act of faith and truth-telling where one "stands forward" by God's grace to witness to the justice of God.

In captivity, imagine the power behind these words of hope and protest when voiced by an oppressed people towards the empire in Babylon: "The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever !" (Isaiah 40:8). May God be praised. Amen.

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A Peace Radical's Sermon by Revd Alan Storey

This sermon was offered by Alan (see http://www.aslowwalk.org/) as the final presentation of a four-day peace conference held at Lake Junaluska, NC, November 8-11, 2012. It was delivered on a Sunday morning, at a United Methodist conference centre. The audience consisted mainly of Methodists including a good number of retired clergy men and women ("well past half time"), and it began with a scripture reading from Genesis (excerpts of chapters 6 through 9) – the account of the Great Flood, when God violently punished the iniquitous and saved the virtuous. However, when the floods ebbed away, God promised never again to resort to such violent actions, giving a rainbow as a symbol of this vow.

I wonder what you have just heard during the reading of those Hebrew Scriptures. I wonder what you heard. What did you hear? Did you hear Sunday school children singing, singing about animals going in two by two? Or did you hear children screaming panic-stricken, terrified, gasping for breath; people fleeing to higher ground, pleading, praying to be let into that ark – and if not me, then take my child. Knocking, banging, banging on the ark, let me in! Yet the doors of the ark remained sadistically closed. What did you feel when those words were read? Did you feel the desperation, the despair, the drowning, the death?

And then after the 40 days, what did you see? The sunshine? Green lush, beautiful blossoming? Birds and bees? Or decomposing bodies, swelling, smelling – disease, decay gathered in every single nook and cranny? The cruel results, the inevitable cruel results of dividing up a world with the simplistic notion that there are some who are wicked and others who are righteous, that there are two types of people in the world: good and bad. And if we can just get rid of the bad people, then we will have peace. There is an axis of evil in the world and if we can just destroy the axis of evil, then all will be safe and secure.

The persons who act on this notion of dividing the world into wicked people and righteous people should be brought before the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity and all of creation – even if that person is God.

This deathly division between good people and bad people continues today especially in my faith tradition – especially in my faith tradition. The Christian faith, more than any other faith, has participated in this deathly division – dividing the world into good and bad, saved and unsaved, those who will be ushered into heaven and those who will be cast into hell. That thought process is nothing less than hate speech.

We go back to the text. These Hebrew narrators were incredibly courageous, risky in the extreme. You see, what these Hebrew narrators are trying to do is not endorse this primitive, partisan God or world view, but rather to cleverly, and with great risk, subvert it. They knew that the common world understanding of God was that God was some almighty superhero that would punish the wicked and bless the righteous. They knew that was the dominant religious world view and understanding of their time. So they risked casting God in that light in their narrative. They don't believe it, they know that's not so. But they cleverly start where the audience is.

There were righteous ones, just a few. God saved them and the wicked were punished and the audience applaud. Because that was their world view. Justice has been done, the wicked got what they deserved, and the righteous what was promised. And then the narrator moves to Act II. And we read that once the flood had subsided, wickedness remained.

Wickedness remained. In other words, God failed. God failed to eradicate evil through this weapon of mass destruction called the flood. The narrator is bold to pen those words, "God failed." God fails when God uses violence. Not even God can use violence successfully. Not even God. God's war on terror became a war of terror. And God repents. Listen to these words: "I will never again destroy every living creature as I have done."

And then God is converted and God takes God's bow, not a rainbow, but a weapon, God's bow, and hangs it up in the sky, just as a boxer hangs up his gloves – and says, "Never again will I fight." It's the great narrative of the disarmament of God. God can do all things. God can do all things – except use violence successfully. And you and I will not be converted to nonviolence until we first realize that God has long since been converted.

It is impossible to be a peacemaker if we serve a violent God, an angry God, a God who needs blood to be satisfied. If the God we serve, if the God we worship, has blood on his hands (I use that male pronoun deliberately), then the likelihood will be that we will too. Using violence, God fails. So how much more will we fail if we use it? And you and I witness the failure of violence all around us all the time.

Violence fails to deliver on what it promises – peace and security. Since 9/11, billions and billions and billions of your dollars have been invested in violence, military might. And this country is less safe than it ever was. It doesn't matter how long you have to stand in line to wait to get onto an airplane – it is less safe, less secure. And if it is not more afraid, it is definitely more feared.

Ask the people of Pakistan who scan the skies for drones... where the people who fly them can have breakfast in the morning with their family, go to the office and sit in a comfortable chair and go to war in Afghanistan; and then can come home and have lunch with their family, and then in the afternoon they can go to war in Pakistan. There is no victory in vengeance. Satan cannot cast out Satan; violence cannot cast out violence. War is a poor chisel to carve out a peaceable future says Martin Luther King, and yet it remains our biggest investment.

If you know history, you will know that empires do not explode. Empires implode. And the reason why empires implode is because they spend more than they have on trying to defend (read attack) who they are. And if you just question safety and security, you will be labelled unpatriotic. You can commit the most grave of sins in the name of safety and security.

Listening to the presidential debates, if you could call them that, president Obama was asked, "What is the greatest threat to America?" Notice, please, the very narrow nationalistic question that is. His answer: "Terrorism, and China." I want to say to Barack Obama the greatest threat to America is not terrorism, it's not China. The greatest threat to America is... America. You are your worst enemy. No one will explode you – you will implode. If God fails using violence, so will the USA. God is a nonviolent God.

Now, a couple of years ago in my country [of South Africa], there was a murder that took place and it was discovered that it was a family murder. An 18-year-old girl killed her 13-year-old sister, stabbed her repeatedly. The mother, as you can imagine, grieved, like only a mother can grieve. And yet at the same time as she was grieving the loss of her daughter, she stood in solidarity with her other daughter, as only, you can imagine, a mother can do. She was reported to have said, "I want to hate her, but I can't." She went to court every day when her daughter was on trial. She stood behind her and embraced her when she was convicted. She visited her daughter every available opportunity in prison and when her daughter was finally released, she welcomed her home.

Mrs. Du Toit, the mother, found herself in the painful, yet privileged position of God, being parent to both murdered and murderer. At one and the same time. "I want to hate her but I can't. I'm her mother." God is not only a nonviolent God, but God is the heavenly parent of both murdered and murderer. And to take vengeance on the murderer is simply to multiply the grief of God. If someone had come up to that mother and said, "Let us kill this daughter," she would say, "No – don't double my grief."

Not only is this a nonviolent God, not only does this God grieve on all sides of the border, but when we remember Saul travelling on the road to Damascus because he had written permission to extend his war on terror, he is stopped in his tracks with these words from the Divine: "Why, why, why are you persecuting me?" Please notice what the Divine did not say. The Divine did not say, "Why are you persecuting them?" but, "Why are you persecuting me?" The Divine takes persecution personally. It is not, "Why are you persecuting the Afghans, and the Iraqis, and the Pakistanis, and whoever else? It's, "Why are you persecuting me?" We need to hear that question here today.

So not only is God a nonviolent God. Not only does God grieve on both sides. God takes persecution personally. Our violence violates God. All violence – we see from that illustration – is family violence. Cain and Abel were brothers. Did you know that death enters the Hebrew scriptures through murder? – reminding us that all violence is family violence? That there are seven billion chosen, chosen people in the world? That the apartheid between nations must come to an end?

There is something that distresses me more than anything else every time I listen to the president of this country speak. When he ends his speeches with the words, "God Bless America." Someone please remind him that there is a world larger than America. And not until he begins to have a vision for the world and not just a nation.

The only flag I am prepared to salute, the only flag, the only flag that I am prepared to stand up for is the flag with a picture of the globe on it. Can you give your flag away and claim a new flag? And certainly remove it from your sanctuaries. Jesus said if you want to save your life, give it away. If you want to save your nation...give it away. If you want to save your flag – give it away. If you want to save your religion – give it away.

We know that it is easier to identify with the victim than the perpetrator. It is easier to see the splinter in our neighbour's eye than it is to see the log in our own eye. It is easier to watch a documentary called Pray the Devil Back to Hell than to face the devil in us and the hell that we create.

I watched that documentary for the first time here. I was deeply moved by it...the courage of woman. I was inspired when one of them said, "With this tee shirt, I am powerful." I was horrified at the children, the children carrying guns that were too big for them to carry. I wept at the senseless suffering. But that was a distant devil to observe. Much more difficult to watch a documentary of the devil that we are, and the hell that we create. Some people here have asked me, "Gosh, listening to Bernard Lafayette the other night, – how is it possible to be able to draw that love from the wells that live within to be able to even love the person beating us?"

Now it is a fine question to ask, but I think there is an earlier question. You see, that question assumes that we are going to be the victim. That question assumes we are going to be the one who is going to be beaten and kicked. The balance of probability that any of us in this room are going to go through that is pretty slim. You see, we identify with the victim. The question we should be asking is, "How do we stop beating and killing others who are praying for the love to be able to forgive us?" What our dollars do in this world?

You know the date. But do you know what happened during 9/11? 9/11 - when a country and the hopes of a country were shattered. The thousands of people dying, thousands of people dying, not just on 9/11, but the days after 9/11. You know the day; you know what I am talking about. Yes, I am talking about 1973. 9/11. When Pinochet came into power in Chile with the help of our dollars, a reign of terror for 16 years until 1990...

We know the date. The 20th of August 1998 – in Sudan, the Clinton administration bombs Al-Shifa pharmaceutical company that provided 50% of all medication in the Sudan. I went to the Sudan a number of years after that. I watched mothers carrying children, hopelessly dying of malaria, not able to get medication. Do you know the date: 20th of August 1998?

We will not have peace in this world, we will not become peacemakers, until we know the dates of terror that we have inflicted on others as well as we know the dates of terror that others have inflicted on us. By the way, the 20th of August 1998 was covered in the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, The Guardian, the New York Times. Do you know the date?

Last night we listened to Leymah Gbowee. She spoke powerfully about an analogy of violence and anger: pouring it into a violent cup or a nonviolent cup. I wonder if our problem is that we are not angry enough. What makes you angry? When the price of gas goes up? Or when more of our children go and learn how to kill and we tell them that they are heroes when all they are victims to the lie, the lie that says you can be a killer with honour. The lie that says you can actually be alive while you kill another.

We are addicted to violence. This nation knows that more than any other. It is never going to be easy to kick an addiction. We are always going to think, "One more drink." And the one more drink becomes the first of many more. The alcoholic needs to admit that she is, that he is, powerless. And then join together with other people who feel powerless too. And admit their addiction, confess it. "Hi, my name is Alan and I belong to the most violent nation in the world – that spends more money on the military than all other nations put together."

Can we say those words? And only when we are able to admit that in the presence of others and then rely on a power – however you understand that power – that is higher than us, to begin to transform us. To make a stringent list of the things that we have done wrong. To admit them, and then to make amends. To go through, as a nation, a 12-step program. As the most violent nation in the world. Sign up. And then, in our powerlessness, we will discover what Michael Nagler invited us to see: nonviolence as that power that is unleashed when all desire to harm is overcome; and only then will we be feeling powerful again.

People have been asking me, "Alan, what do we do, what do we do, where do I stand, what do I do?" Well, it is very difficult to transform a system that we are dependent on....for our livelihood. Very difficult. So what we need to do is in those little AA communities, confessing that we are a violent people, we need to somehow wean ourselves off the system that we are dependent on.

I mean, don't you get it? Let me use Christian language for a moment. I am dependent – this is the contradiction I live with in my life – I am dependent on my sin for my survival. Sin, meaning "wages of death, way of death." I am dependent on a way of life that is in actual fact a way of death, for my survival. And when I turn against my sin, it feels like I am dying, even though I am coming alive. We have to admit that we are dependent on our sin for our survival. But it, like all addiction, is killing us and those after us and those around us—not to mention God's creation.

Now let me close. If you had interviewed political analysts in the Middle Eastern region in December, 2010, and if you had asked them the question, "What is the likelihood of there being a regime change in this part of the world – places like Tunisia and Egypt – places supported by these dollars, our dollars, superpower dollars?" the political analysts would have said that it would be impossible. That would be December, 2010. Interview those same analysts in February, 2011, and they would say that it was inevitable.

As intifada and the Arab Spring began to spread and take root – because a vegetable seller set himself alight which kindled the fire of freedom and justice in the hearts and minds of families in that region. You see, political analysts are not to be counted upon in regard to what is possible in this world. Liberation, peace, will come like a thief in the night, and it is not for you and I to know dates or times. The most amazing thing about the people who were involved in the struggle against Apartheid, for me, were that they joined the struggle with no expectation to see liberation themselves. And yet, they joined it, not for certain results, but because it was right.

We have to liberate ourselves from our addiction to certain results. Thomas Merton said that years ago, set yourself free from limiting results. Just do what you need to do. The results will come. We heard that over these few days. Who knew that when a 14-year-old boy, when he is treated with dignity and respect and given a social security number and given a driver's license, who knew that what that would do would refine a conscience that could lead a people that could set people free? Who knew? It was an immeasurable act of human relationship and we need to awaken ourselves to the immeasurableness of our actions. That we cannot actually see the impact thereof – and so, do what you do not knowing what impact God will do with it through the world... Do you really think that Leymah Gbowee, last night, expected to be standing here, 15 years ago?

So what do we do? I want to ask you to do something specific. But the truth is that I am 44 years old. Right? If I have a good innings, I'm at half time. I'm at half time. And I am sorry to say that looking out at some of you, you are past half time. And looking at some of you more closely, it looks like some of you are in injury time. I'm serious. You don't have too many years left. Okay? So why don't you make them count? You have nothing to lose.

I want to speak specifically to the people of my faith – Christians, Methodists. When is the Methodist Church of this nation going to refuse to allow members of its church to enter the military? When? When will children's church teachers teach the children that that's the gravest sin, that there is nothing heroic in it, to kill family. Why don't you do it? Let us call the troops back home from Afghanistan. Tell them to hand in their guns and their uniforms. Do it! You have nothing to lose. The game is nearly over. It's the right thing to do. There are people on that side praying, praying that you will do that. Let's lament, let's lament. Let's not build any more monuments.

I have stood here today for one person. His name is Bradley Manning. You asked me, "What gives me hope?" People have asked, "Alan, are you hopeful?" I said, "I am hopeful because of one person, Bradley Manning." Bradley Manning is 24 years old...24 years old. He's spent the last 902 days in a military prison, most of which has been in solitary confinement in chains. Bradley Manning. All because he revealed documents that exposed the truth of the killing of Iraqis from an American helicopter. And he sits in one of your prisons. Bradley Manning. You want to know what you can do? You can give your life for his freedom, because he has given his life for the freedom of this world. Pray for his sanity, pray for his healing. Bradley Manning. Bradley Manning.

If there is anything that I have said here that is true, may it set us free.

"If you had free reign over classified networks... and you saw incredible things, awful things... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC... what would you do?... God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms... I want people to see the truth... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public." –Quotes attributed to Bradley Manning

PFC Bradley Manning, a 24-year-old Army intelligence analyst, is accused of releasing the Collateral Murder video, that shows the killing of unarmed civilians and two Reuters journalists, by a U.S. Apache helicopter crew in Iraq. He is also accused of sharing the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and a series of embarrassing U.S. diplomatic cables. These documents were published by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, and they have illuminated such issues as the true number and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq, along with a number of human rights abuses by U.S.-funded contractors and foreign militaries, and the role that spying and bribes play in international diplomacy. Given the war crimes exposed, if Bradley Manning was the source for these documents, he should be given a medal of honour.

Not a single person has been harmed by the release of this information. Former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has called the effect of WikiLeaks' releases on U.S. foreign relations "fairly modest." Yet the Obama administration has chosen to persecute the whistle-blower rather than prosecute the war criminals who were exposed. While the prosecution has declared it does not intend to seek the death penalty, they do seek to lock Bradley Manning away for life, with the most ridiculous charge of "aiding the enemy," even though chat logs attributed to Bradley by the FBI clearly show intent only to inform the public and promote "discussion, debates, and reforms."

Soldiers are promised fair treatment and a speedy trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. However, the soldiers responsible for PFC Manning's care took it upon themselves to abuse him by keeping him locked up in solitary confinement for the first 10 months of his incarceration. During this time, Bradley was denied meaningful exercise, social interaction, sunlight, and on a number of occasions he was forced to stay completely naked. These conditions were unique to Bradley and are illegal even under U.S. military law, as they amount to extreme pre-trial punishment. In March 2011, chief U.S. State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley called Manning's treatment at the Quantico, VA, Marine Corps brig "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." He was forced to resign shortly after admitting this. Since resigning, he has stated that the prosecution's heavy-handed persecution of Manning has undermined the government's credibility. Learn more at bradleymanning.org. Amen.

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Sacrificing our Addiction to Money by Kevin Snyman

This sermon follows the reading of the following Hebrew and Christian scriptures: Isaiah 53:4-9; Mark 10:35-45; Psalm 91:9-16

In the summer of 2012, OccupyFaithUK embarked on a pilgrimage from St Paul's Cathedral to Canterbury, following that ancient route made so famous by the English author Geoffrey Chaucer. You should soon be able to watch the excellent documentary made by filmmaker John Dinwoodie (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1010993/) about that pilgrimage on YouTube. One of the most fascinating insights to come out of that pilgrimage is the extent to which everyone is addicted to money. Fights over money almost derailed that journey of faith. You can appreciate the irony of this given the fact that the aim of the pilgrimage was to highlight the grave injustices inflicted upon the world by Big Money. But clearly, just because people are inspired by the Occupy Movement, just because people may be outraged at the effects of a monetary system gone mad, does not mean that those people are themselves free from the addiction to money.

From the time of Jesus' betrayal, the Christian church has had to face (mostly unsuccessfully) this selfsame addiction and its adverse effects on the Missio Dei. On Saturday 13th October 2012, representative from at least five Welsh Christian denominations gathered together at Aberystwyth University. This Gathering was called in the hope that a way forward the visible unity of the churches might be mapped. The desire for unity is commendable. Many churches in countries across the world are attempting similar kinds of journeys towards visible unity, with greater or lesser "success" (whatever that means). These attempts are of course informed by Jesus' prayer ('that they may be One'). But in Wales the desire to unite is strongly influenced by the urgency brought about by the thousands of empty pews in chapels and churches across the nation. The church in its current form is dying. It resembles an old and chronically ill man on life support. there is, it seems to me, an unacknowledged fear of running out of money to pay for the care of the patient. Aberystwyth represented a concerted attempt to revive the dying patient by addressing the underlying problems of a religion that has little or no resemblance to it founder, and has almost no appeal to the vast majority of Welsh people.

And so a number of proposals were tabled in the hope that unity might be found. These proposals very sadly seemed to have very little to with the Missio Dei; preaching the Good News, feeding the hungry, and liberating the oppressed. Instead the proposals concerned themselves almost exclusively with church structures. In particular, there was a deep rooted concern that the new church structure might exclude Bishops. How might role of bishop be entrenched? How does the new church make sure that every newly ordained minister would benefit from the magical laying on of hands of this 'vital' part of the body of Christ?

In other words, there was in Aberystwyth an unstated but vital assumption: that if it could just sort out church structures, just rearrange the furniture of the newly formed church, then people would once again come flocking into church and chapel doors, bringing with them the life giving lucre we so desperately crave. And yet there is no evidence to support that sorting out church structures means reviving the mission of God.

Today then, I want us to ask another question: instead of moving the furniture around the decks of the Titanic, what should the church sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom of God? I ask the question in the light of our reading from Mark 10:45: "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to sacrifice his life as a ransom for many." James and John ask Jesus if they can sit at his right and left in glory... What are they actually asking for? They are asking to be important, to be the Big Shots in heaven. The other disciples hear about it and get angry. Why? They ALSO want to be big shots. We NEVER see this kind of competitive behaviour in churches today, do we?

Jesus then goes on to say that among his disciples, there ought not to be the Gentile habit of lording it over one another. Jesus is warning against unfair power relations in his community. Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt of love, says Paul elsewhere. So the question is still this: what must the church sacrifice in order to combat competitiveness and to create equal power relations? Well actually, Jesus gives a hint at an answer in Luke 16:13: "No servant can serve two masters. The servant will hate one master and love the other, or will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and worldly riches."

Let me suggest that what the churches need to do today, if they want unity, if they want to be the community of love, is to sacrifice its Worldly Riches. Well, that seems obvious, but what does that mean in today's context? Many would dispute that the church has any worldly riches at all. Most chapels are struggling financially. Churches cost a fortune to maintain. "I 'aint got no money, honey!" in the words of an old Rock 'n Roll song. But what Jesus might be asking is for churches today to acknowledge their addiction to money, their reliance on the stuff, and quite radically, even their very use of the entire monetary system.

Our society is so used to using money, that the church no longer even questions its use. In fact it has no idea why it uses money, and if there are in fact any alternatives. I'll start with why we use it. Money arose, says David Graeber, in response to oppression and war. By asserting this, Graeber debunks the notion that money arose because barter was inefficient. He says rather that money arose because Kings and Emperors needed to pay their soldiers. Soldiers needed to eat, and for obvious reasons they couldn't simply go on raping and pillaging their conquered foes forever (visibly, anyway). So various types of monies were developed, from salt (where the word salary comes from) to beads, to shells, to bits of cloth and eventually to metal bars and coins. (The British Museum recently put on an excellent display about the origins of money, although its analysis was somewhat more conservative than Graeber's.) Kings would give these to soldiers. The kings at the same time would force the conquered people to pay taxes using these same coins.

I was in Chester, UK, and the tour guide showed us where the locals would set up markets for bread, sweets, wine and prostitutes. And because Caesar forced them to pay their taxes using Roman coins, they would have accept this form of payment for their wares sold to soldiers. The monetary system evolved out of conquest and war.

Exchange of goods and services by means of money was a strange system for these conquered, often rural people. For generations they had been using wonderfully successful communal credit systems (not barter, take note!) These systems of credit were based on trust and care and community. Each person had a skill or a product and would contribute these to the community and in turn would receive the contributions of others.

The systems were sometimes very complicated, but many were what Graeber calls commune-ist. Christians might simply wish to call them 'Christ-like'. In other words, trade would deepen relationships, not destroy them. I need my shoes fixed so I go to you. I depend on you. But I am the farmer and at the ends of the year, you will depend on me. And we would all make sure that we were slightly indebted to one another. It was in the interest of the community to build and maintain good and honest and caring relations of exchange.

Barter was frowned upon within community. You only bartered with the Other. In addition, charging interest (usury) was absolutely verboten! Interest was only ever extracted from someone whom you could kill, i.e. your enemy. Since the economy within the community or village was based on care and mutual concern, the only way anyone could become rich was through cheating and stealing. If we go back to the Isaiah reading, we understand why the writer insists that anyone buried in a rich man's grave is cursed, not a blessed.

The increased normalisation of the use of money placed massive pressure on communal relations. Compared to past systems, the use of money betrayed trust. It broke relationships. It depersonalised human beings. Now, instead of relationships of care, you had competition. We know what Jesus said about competitive relations between the disciples. We see the eventual rise of an entire economy based on competition, rivalry, sleight of hand and one-upmanship. Today, we see this as normal. The church is so caught up in the worldly ways of doing finance, it don't even question it. OccupyFaithUK found this out the hard way.

Money is not neutral. It has spirit and that spirit is dark. It is designed to create inequality. It is designed to make the rich and powerful richer and the poor poorer, with less power. It does the opposite of what Jesus commanded, which was to create equality. The richest 1000 Britons today own about £440 Billion, which is 3 times the national deficit. Two thirds of all the money in the world is locked away in offshore tax havens. Guess who controls about a third of all this money? The City of London. If we could tax that money, we could conceivably provide food for every human on the planet. We could fund a public hospital service like the NHS in every country in the world. Every person could have a house. We could invest massively in green energy. We could lift a billion people out of poverty.

But, you see, the system depends on inequality. Today in the UK, for every 100 pounds created, the treasury only creates 3 pounds. The rest is created by banks. And history shows that when you allow bankers to create money as they do today, they will crash the economy. It has happened many times in the past and it is happening again today.

I don't need to convince you that the system needs to change. But some of us still believe that a few tweaks here and there are what's needed. We need to confess our complicity in the system and rely on God's grace to transform it. We need to move away entirely from the destructive system that has us in its manic grip. For every pound I have, another person somewhere in the world goes into debt for a pound. For every pound this church has in its savings account, another community somewhere in the world goes into debt by that same amount. How can we continue in that way and call ourselves followers of Jesus? When Jesus said 'Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's,' I want to suggest that he was speaking of the monetary system in its entirety, not just our fair share of taxes paid to the state (although, that might be a good start for the rich in particular!). Not unlike Buddhist monks who refuse to touch money, Christian communities should be maturing into the place where they have nothing to do with money whatsoever...or do we think this impossibly idealistic? Can this only ever happen in the Kingdom of God?

Let me be clear. I do not know how we are going to stop using money in this current system, I don't have that answer. I have not the person with the skills to develop the 12 steps required to break our collective addiction to money. The fact that we do not know how to conceive of a world without money does not mean it's impossible, it just means our imaginations have not been sufficiently fired up. But this I do know; Jesus would not earn a 'salary' if he were here today. Let me rephrase that with a bit more theological accuracy: Jesus refuses to earn a salary as he incarnates into the world today. Jesus says, I sacrifice my life for others, I do not require others to sacrifice their lives and well being for me.

Let me end with this thought. What would happen if the churches could get together in a Gathering like Aberystwyth, and instead of trying to fix our structures, we began to repent of our collusion in the current economic structures, and we begin to find new ways of operating church? What if we no longer condemned economists and bankers, but simply told them that we no longer require their services? What would happen if every church and every minister would sacrifice her income, his salary, their pension funds, their trust funds, all of these things that depend on interest the system we have built up of money, payments, debt and usury? How would that impact upon a world desperate for meaningful, moral leadership? Close your eyes and imagine what might be...

And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They replied, "We are able."

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City Philanthropy – quids pro quo \- An Easter Sermon by Revd William Taylor

William is a priest in the Church of England parish of Hackney, London, and author of the book Bright Field. He tweets at @hackneypreacher and can be found at http://hackneypreacher.com. This sermon was written and preached in memory of Walter Wink (May 21, 1935 – May 10, 2012), theologian and peace activist. Wink's hermeneutics of the Powers are key to unlocking the doors of our understanding of why systems fail, why they drift towards oppression. Taylor offers an rare insight into the inner workings of the Powers as they manifest themselves in one particularly powerful and heinous Domination System, the City of London. All right belong to him. Used with permission.

A reading from the Fifteenth Chapter of the Holy Gospel of John

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

The City's spokesman tells me that the City Cash, the City's private money, is used for "various philanthropic purposes for the benefit of all Londoners." So let's take a look at one of these City Cash purposes to get a better idea of how the City Corporation understands philanthropy. This will also give us a clue as to how it sees itself. The "purpose" in question? To promote the financial services.

In 2008 the City Corporation took the decision to help set up a new forum to advance the interests of the financial services. In 2010 this group became CityUK. Today it is one of the most effective City lobbyists, a kind of doctrine commission for the financial services.

I was at the non-public Council meeting when the decision to support the setting up of this body took place. This proposal incited an unusual debate (debate itself being unusual in this chamber) as to the purpose of the City Corporation itself. One Councillor said we spent too much time in the City promoting and selling and too little time understanding – to which the Chairman of Policy replied that this represented "a misunderstanding of the Corporation's role" within the life of the City and the nation.

But as CityUk comes under scrutiny again we can learn much about how this lobby group is organised by looking at its key sponsoring institution, the City Corporation. If the branch indicates the health of the vine so it is through its roots, its origins, that you shall know its fruits. The Domination System is more important than the individual.

On 4th December 2008, six weeks after the banks had stared into the bonfire of the equities, the Corporation meets for its monthly lunchtime Court of Common Council meeting. This is normally a Pooterish affair, preceded by a buffet lunch of scampi and dill sauce in the Members' Dining Room and followed by drinks and gossip in the Members' bar. The public assembly part itself is the civic equivalent of the notices at the end of Mass: the assorted mumbo jumbo of parish pump politics in the context of high church ceremonial.

December's is the final Council meeting before the Christmas break and the first of its incoming Lord Mayor. As is the custom, the newcomer heaps generous praise on the former for his year in residence at Mansion House and, in doing so, asserts seamless institutional continuity, stability, control.

The first thing to note is that what is important for the City is the continuity of the historic office of Lord Mayor rather than the particularities of the man who occupies it at any one time. In any case these men are largely interchangeable from year to year. Unlike the elected Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, effectively appointed annually by the Court of Alderman, should ideally have no visible personality at all. Indeed the one qualifying characteristic of all Lord Mayors is that they can pass as political ciphers, better to serve the interests of the international capital markets. That's the nature of the Domination System.

This one, we are told, has been a safe pair of hands at the helm of the ship at time of particularly choppy waters in the world's economy. Over the course of his year in office he has hosted a series of "glittering" state visits and has fronted a range of equally successful foreign delegations. He has wide charitable interests, a distinguished career, a lovely wife. I forget his name.

The Domination System is always dramatically enacted

As the end of the public part of the meeting draws to a close, the City Marshall is called upon to clear the gallery. It is time to move into the non-public zone of the meeting. About five or six people shuffle out at this point. This number includes an elderly couple who always come to the meeting of the Common Council as part of their monthly schedule of retirement entertainment. As they slip away, the City Marshall, in full military get-up marches from the elevated dais, where the Lord Mayor is sitting surrounded by his Aldermanic Barons, to the "bar", really just a low shelf, separating the Common Council from the seats at the back of the Guildhall. It is here, turning to face the Lord Mayor, that he declares the successful evacuation of all "strangers" from the Hall, oyez, oyez, oyez. Then he marches back to his seat.

It is a brilliantly camp piece of political theatre. And it comes from the same production company, with the Pikemen and Musketeers as extras, that gives us the Silent Ceremony, the sharing of the Livery's Loving Cup as well as the Lord Mayor's parade itself. Some say that these pageants and performance pieces are merely colourful and entertaining but largely irrelevant interludes, heritage rather than living history. Nothing to take too seriously: harmless fun, colourful history, essentially redundant.

Not so. These rituals are ways in which we consolidate power relations, who's in and who's out, who's part of the vine and who's to be thrown into the fire and burned. It's how we separate the public business from the private business. It's how we evacuate strangers. Actually these are the liturgies of finance capitalism. And as we look at the way the City pursues its particular purposes these help us interpret them as part of a wider religious system. This is the second thing to note.

The Domination System hinders self critical thinking
The third thing to note is related and it is as follows. The City's liturgies have no rite of confession. They have no mechanism to acknowledge transgression, nor open up the possibility of grace and fresh imagination. With the systemic failure of the ballot box ever to interrupt the consensus, there is no point of reckoning with past sins and therefore no real possibility for new directions and new energies for the future. All business collapses into an edgeless airless present.

When the galleries are cleared and the doorways are sealed, the Chairman of Policy, Mr Stuart Fraser, rises to introduce a previously circulated 'non public' report, "Promoting London's Financial Services." Enterprising a sentence with no subject. Delivering an on-going programme of present participles. Offering a fiesta of "maintaining and enhancing" that managed to avoid any real reckoning with those nasty little nouns of 2008 such as debt or collapse or toxicity. Fraser explained to the Council Assembly:

"We do not make judgements about what went wrong, other people do that. We are apolitical which means we often have to bite our tongues. Getting involved in politics is a total misunderstanding of our role. Our task in the City Corporation is to turn a political crisis into a political opportunity." In other words the Corporation is an institution keen to sustain its own life – "to bolster our promotional efforts" and to "safeguard what we term the City 'brand'" – without asking the difficult question: what's actually gone wrong?

Two months after the City witnessed banking at the brink, after the worst collapse of confidence in the financial services in living memory; the City sees its role as cheerleader-in-chief for a new lobby group – the CityUK ("partnering prosperity"). The money the City continues to give to this lobby group enables it to maintain control of key appointments and key policy directions. So, for example, the report requires that "the overall composition of the Board and the choice of its chairman would be the City Corporation's prerogative."

Though funded out of the City's Cash – the fund that we are told serves "a philanthropic purpose for the benefit of all Londoners" – is it not inevitable this new cutting will grow into a plant with the same fungus in its roots and the same diseased and toxic fruit at its leaf? In due course will not its branches need to be gathered and thrown into the fire and burned?

The Christian counter-narrative of the Commons

In the meantime it is our task to tend the vineyards of our Commons. For Christians, flourishing is necessarily relational: the fruiting branch is always part of the vine and the health of the leaves and the health of the roots is intimately connected. It is not a mediated and abstracted principle. It's about sharing with one another the little we have so that together we have an abundance to enjoy. The key word in our scripture today is "abiding". It invokes a lovely mutuality between separate bodies over time.

We like to form ourselves into cells. That's why we meet together in upper rooms and small conventicles to sing hymns and spiritual songs and that's why we operate as motley crews arranged into parishes and chapters and deaneries and dioceses. That's why the Church is always experienced as local and particular, even where it may also be experienced as institutional and international. And that's why the key Christian virtue is charity, the love of neighbour, a calling to reciprocity, rather than philanthropy, the abstracted love of Mankind, where the relationships are always refracted through grant generating bodies and Corporate Social Responsibility officers and the giving always seems to roll down-hill.

And the City of London is that city set on a hill, a demonic parody of our calling as Christians to be a beacon and to proclaim an alternative reality. This Square Mile, which once bankrolled an empire, is still an imperious force in our nation's life. The City retains the arrogance of power, not just because of its money and its resources, but because of its unchallenged authority. And because its governing body, the City Corporation, is part of the Ancient Constitution its position is institutionally guaranteed through a network of ritual relationships, symbolically enacted. In other words the City has locus without being confined to a physical location: it is everywhere.

This institution and these relationships advance what may be termed the Domination System. This system doesn't begin and end with the City of London but here is the place where its doctrines are most clearly articulated. And in so far as it has its Gods and its high priests and its narratives of salvation and in so far as it sustains a range of practices that bring apparent coherence to random events and seeming meaning to our lives, the Square Mile is the Vatican City of this religion. Guildhall is the cathedral. And CityUk is a Pontifical Council. It is magnificent and it is idolatrous. And it needs to be regenerated. And all for His sake.

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Jesus Saves! (Buddha Recycles) by Rev Nemu

Danny Diskin has an incredible intellect. He is author of numerous books and articles in addition to being a teacher, indigenous healer, polyglot and father of twins. He and his family have supported OccupyFaithUK from its inception. If you see the twins running about in the documentary, they belong to his wife and him! In one of the few non-Christian submissions to this eBook, Danny asks what a Buddhist occupying position might look like. You can read more of Danny's musings at http://wp.nemusend.co.uk/

(Thanks to Alex Charnley for the Rev image.)

From Martin Luther to Martin Luther King, Archbishop Tutu and the liberation theologians, the Holy Spirit flows fast in activist veins. The protest of the Protestants began as a leafleting campaign attacking the Vatican think-tank at the centre of a transnational extortion racket, dictating how rulers and ruled should conduct their affairs. Today we have the IMF and the Fiscal Gospel, and a new Inquisition to guard our souls from economic heresy. But the missionary may not rest. My mission led me to Buddhafield Festival, with faith in my wellies to keep out the mud, and in the Holy Name of Yaweh to keep me from heresy. Thus I came unto the Buddhists, and the mud was deep indeed.

I was challenged as I distributed the OT, which is always encouraging. "Would thou wert cold or hot," laments the Revelator of Patmos. Someone arguing for an unfettered free market is already engaged, and invites a question: is the "invisible hand" really at work? Or is it the incorporated claw of another entity bailing out and fiddling rates, dragging us into debt and damnation?

Some "wert hot" about Occupy, either involved or sympathetic. Buddhafield, which began 17 years ago as a meeting of Buddhism and activism, hosted off-grid solutions, urban foragers and co-operatives activists, but there were also face-painting and skillful flirting sessions, ecstatic dance workshops, masseurs and healers, sun-saluting yoginis, singers of bajhans, readers of omens and bones. It could feel like young Prince Gautama's palace, where the wilting flowers of the gardens were cut at night to spare him the sight of decay in the morning. Beautiful Amazonian beadwork was on sale, but without information about the new Brazilian forestry code or the catastrophic Belo Monte dam. There were plenty of solar panels and a hardcore baby shit-scraping recycling team, but no rabble rising about fracking or land grabs, green-washing, GM crops and oil spills. I was cut off from my daily fare of doom, the music of the hooves of the horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The graven images of Buddhist iconography sit calmly, cultivating non-attachment, and Buddhists make a virtue of silence. What other festival stops the music at 11pm, and does not serve vodka? In truth, Occupy camps would have benefited from such mindfulness, but is there a middle way between the extremes?

The second Noble Truth is that the origin of suffering is desire. This is also the first ignoble truth of advertising, and the engine that turns the wheel of capitalism as well as samsara. Unchecked greed, ambition, and consumption are extremely urgent matters for me, since I used to live in the Amazon, and watched the trucks pass by laden with segments of giant trees, and drove for hours along roads with only the occasional Brazil nut tree and a scattering of cows upon the scorched rainforest. I also had the good fortune to live on the coast of Fukushima, a quiet and idyllic prefecture of Japan, before it became a nuclear disaster zone. Beloved friends, restaurateurs who treated me to sushi every week, today source their fish beyond their poisoned harbour. They live in fear of an aftershock further cracking the reactor, which may not be secured for decades. Japan's reactors were all turned off when Fukushima melted. Last month the first two were turned back on. At Buddhafield, however, as everywhere, there are plenty who care not a heathen hoot. "The End is Nigh!" and "the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!" are sentiments that cry out for exclamation marks, but where might a missionary find a corresponding sense of urgency in Buddhist scripture?

The third Noble Truth is that there is liberation, and perhaps some were seeking just that in a muddy field in Summerset. Many looked suspiciously at my newspaper, or froze at the mention of an idea – occupying, protesting, financial crime. One literally shuddered at the word "London." But the Buddha's journey to liberation began when he left his sheltered rose garden, to see the truths of sickness, old age, death and poverty outside the palace gates.

The Japanese are famously stoic even amongst Buddhists, but amongst them a new generation are taking to the streets en masse against nuclear power. Buddhists do demonstrate, and spectacularly, as in 1963, when a petrol drenched Vietnamese Buddhist burned silently in lotus for ten minutes before rolling backwards dead.The president he opposed was deposed, and as dead as the monk four months later. The Arab Spring also began with a self-immolation. "Would thou wert cold or hot?" These roasting Muslims and Buddhists respond in Fahrenheit. "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot," continues the Revelator of Patmos, "I WILL SPEW THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH". Of course, this was not really a spewing type of gathering, and disinterest is far more serious outside the Buddhist community, but how do we get people fired up without spewing?

The Fourth Noble Truth is about liberation through the eightfold path, and the causal web which generates suffering. This includes ethical livelihood, cultivation of discernment and consistent effort towards one's goals, all relevant to Occupiers, but the virtue of right speech is of paramount importance, particularly now, as we engage with outreach as well as outrage. A Buddhist teacher explained the four facets of rights speech when we occupied the Dharma Parlour for a session about what Buddhism could offer to activists.

Firstly, one must speak the truth, which is why we gathered at St. Paul's in the first place. To do so in compliance with the second principle, however, to abstain from slander, becomes more difficult. 99% versus 1% rhetoric can become a blame game, and if Occupy is to survive the waterfall on the horizon to float amidst the debris of big society, we can't afford to be bellicose or fractious, as the left so often does, under the strain of competing ideologies and personalities.

The third principle is to speak in ways that are pleasant to hear. As Occupy diversifies and we take autonomy and consensus into our lives and workplaces, we need to find ways to engage with others. Festival outreach, indy journalism, nomadic occupations and school visits are all underway, and all call for a refined vocabulary. Theatrical protests and billboard subversions communicate better than angry slogans, and in marches and actions, words with police and staff can be harmonious. Kindly words and non-aggression make wheeling a protest shaped like a 16.5 meter wind turbine into the Tate smoother.

Finally, one should abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Amongst ourselves at General Assembly or in a public address, the issues are important, and no-one wants to hear you babbling self-indulgent nonsense.

I took these concepts on a long paper round on the final morning, trying to plot the middle way between urgency and calm, speaking the truth but avoiding harshness. Among the many points of resonance between Occupy and Buddhism, is one of the six realms of samasara, the Asura realm driven by competition and paranoia, where boastful and territorial gods seethe with jealousy. This inner reality is reflected ever more clearly as finance spreads into every realm of Life Inc.

The famous 6th century description of the realm could equally be leveled at the archetypical bankster, pirate politician or corporate psychopaths:

"Always desiring to be superior to others, having no patience for inferiors and belittling strangers; like a hawk, flying high above and looking down on others, and yet outwardly displaying justice, worship, wisdom, and faith – this is raising up the lowest order of good and walking the way of the Asuras."

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What is at stake for the church? by Maureen Foxall

Maureen is a member of the United Reformed Church, theologian and mother. The following is a précis of her longer theological treatise on Occupy which can be found below.

During the Occupy encampment Chris Hedges wrote, 'The Occupy movement is the force that will revitalise traditional Christianity or signal its moral, social and political irrelevance'. Surely these words have a rather familiar ring to them, they are very similar to those used by Martin Luther King Junior in his letter from Birmingham Jail Alabama in 1963 when he said 'If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust' . So here we are half a century later repeating the same words, but this time the issue is not specifically for the black liberation movement but for the liberation of the 99% of humanity and the sustainability of creation suffering from the injustice of capitalism and consumerism. In this chapter we shall be considering what is at stake for the church in how it reacts to this new movement and try to discern what the spirit is saying to the churches and finally suggest some ideas that the church could take to make it more relevant in the 'Zeitgeist' of the 21st century.

From a liberation theology perspective it is certainly easy to be sympathetic towards the Occupy Movement, indeed if one draws comparisons it seems very similar in its egalitarian nature, protestations for justice in society and its care for the people on the fringes of society to the early Christian movement. When St Paul's cathedral closed its doors to the public during the early days of the 'Occupation' and then later supported the City of London Corporation to evict the occupiers it could be seen by some as the church rejecting its roots. Almost as if the younger movement outside was so radical and idealistic that the older movement inside could not stand its energy, passion and enthusiasm but preferred to talk 'sensibly' through the problems instead of raising its voice in prophetic actions outside.

Yet with age often comes responsibilities and structure which restricts and limits us, for manmade organisations and legislation can take on a life of their own and end up with the ability of controlling us in ways we never could have imagined. Throughout its life the church has had to live in tension with the idealism of the Jesus who sent his disciples out without a moneybag but was personally financed by his followers and the realism of the necessity of money to live in the world. Over the years it has made many pragmatic decisions to survive and carry the Christian message over two millennia to the present day, but in doing so it may have lost the focus of its original message. Likewise many of the decisions made by St. Paul's chapter were pragmatic, for example they closed the doors of the cathedral in October on the advice of Health and Safety personnel, because they were unsure of the Occupiers outside and aware of the duty of safety they had for visitors and staff in an area normally open to the public. It was a sensible decision and without taking it things could have turned out very differently, but it was seen as poor Christianity by the media and most of the eyes of the world. Unfortunately (or maybe conveniently for the Banking Quarter, who had not allowed the Occupiers to camp in Paternoster Square) the reaction of the cathedral to the campers took the media's attention away from their original protest against economic injustice.

Tent against Cathedral

Whilst using tents was the only practical solution to enable an encampment, the symbolism of these structures erected outside some of our magnificent British cathedrals was extremely powerful. They were a reminder of the accommodation used in biblical times and the prophets that had railed for justice against the powerful of their day. It also symbolised the vulnerability practised by Jesus who prioritised serving others and promoting the concerns of the Kingdom above his need of self-preservation.

We may admire their architecture, but cathedrals are not only buildings that glorify God, but edifices to Imperialism and reminders of Britain's lost Empire which oppressed so many colonial states. In the crypt of St. Paul's one can find the tomb of Nelson and many other tombs of "great warriors". They symbolise a God who is tribalistic and blesses the victorious, rather than the Jesus who instructed us to love our enemies. Whilst this may be convenient for war loving governments it is not symbolic of a loving Father of all mankind. It is the church of Pax Brittania. While there is still time, the church needs to unleash itself from the chains that have imprisoned Christianity since the time of Constantine. Instead of just projecting the words of the powerful, it needs to listen to the voices of the nameless, the ones who are really affected by austerity measures. The value of listening and learning from the grass roots is stated repeatedly by liberation theologians and mentioned many times in the bible as the action which brought the people back to the way of God.

Finance

During the duration of the Occupy encampment the cathedral lost much of its income. Part of the chapter's remit is to be caretakers of these 'Grandiose Buildings' that are the most glorious of our British architecture and our nation would be impoverished without their presence. They are symbolic of our State Church and have a different role from ordinary parish churches. Whilst cathedrals have recently seen an increase in visitors who find their alternative atmosphere inspiring, they are still a great drain on the finances of the church. Some clergy who work within these institutions feel entrapped by the enormity of raising funds to maintain them and we should ask ourselves whether it is fair for us to put them in this position. The cathedrals should take the example of the Iona Community in Scotland; Iona Abbey which was rebuilt by the Iona community under the inspiration of George MacLeod now belongs to Historic Scotland but is still used by the Iona community for worship. Like the rich young man in Mark 10:17-27 the church should give up its treasures to liberate it from having to run a business and enable it to serve God and humanity. We know from chaplaincy work in many secular workplaces how effective 'churchless' ministry can be.

At present however, the church needs to be run as a business and take business like decisions. Whilst many parish churches can prioritise working with the poor in their localities, cathedrals have a specialist and costly role to maintain. Whilst the Cathedral did not evict the Occupiers themselves so that it could 'wash its hands of the vulgarities of eviction' they supported the London Corporation to do so. When they broke their promise to the Occupiers and allowed police to clear the steps on the night of the eviction many of the campers felt betrayed by the institution that should have been supporting them and their message of justice. There is a similarity here from the Priests and Scribes who also kept their holy hands clean and used the Romans, the political system of their day, to remove 'the inconvenient' Jesus from their midst. The relationship that had been built up between the church and Occupy LSX came crushing down in an act which signified that the cathedral had sided with the corporations. Was this to put themselves in the 'good books' of these very same financial establishments to gain loans from the 'Big Society Bank' which opened on 4th April 2012? The bishops had been promised its Mammon when Baroness Warsi had addressed them on 15th September 2010 . Just like in Amos' time, the religious establishment had chosen incorrectly between God's justice and Mammon. The church's investments also support this claim, struggling to pay clergy's pensions and salaries in additions to maintenance costs, they have invested nearly 10% of their capital in Hedge funds , the area of the market which is notorious for the massive pay packages it awards its traders. This seems to be completely contrary to the statement they made in April 2011 which stated that they would vote against excessive bonuses they felt were unjust.

Prophetic Voices

Wealth gives us power and access to doors and dinner tables that would otherwise be closed to us. So while we might rail about the pragmatic decisions of St. Paul's cathedral we must not forget the work it carries out within the heart of the Banking communities. Not only does it give pastoral care to people who work under a lot of pressure and instability, but it also challenges them with the ethics of the financial system in 'St Paul's Institute.' This is only one of the church's many organisations that are working to address the problem of poverty. Others include; Ekklesia, Christian Aid, ECCR and Church Action on Poverty. Unfortunately with the tirade of criticism from the media against the cathedral it failed to raise the public's attention to these organisations that do such valuable and prophetic work.

In 2001 Ched Myers wrote in his introduction to Sabbath Economics the following prophetic words, 'This historical moment, then, offers a unique opportunity for the church to renew its spirituality and its mission to the world'.... 'This is a good time for the church to rediscover the radically different vision of economics and social practice that lies right at the heart of her scriptures.' The Occupy Movement's presence and protest was very similar to the prophets' messages that fill the bible, so when the church eventually supported their eviction it appeared as if the church had forgotten its purpose and got its priorities incorrect. Yet as we have seen above there are prophets within the church and their position within the established organisation gives them a voice in society. Our media however prefers to publicise news about the church's quarrels over homosexuality and women bishops which does not help these prophetic messages to reach the majority of the public.

Purity

Whilst some of the users of the cathedral complained about the personal hygiene and appearance of some of the Occupiers and some of the people that the camps attracted, it was more likely that it was the difference between the pristine cleanliness within the cathedral and banking financial offices compared and the conditions of the encampment that was more discomforting. Giles Fraser has commented that the presence of the Occupiers certainly added poignancy to the set lectionary readings during this period which kept repeating "Blessed are the Poor".

The otherness of cathedrals can be inspirational, yet their elevation on steps high above the normalities of life can appear to be platonic in nature. Whilst the Occupiers may have been seen as a hygienic concern, it could also remind us of the purity laws of the temple structure of Jesus' day which were oppressive to their society. The church should look to its Christian heritage and instead of distancing Christ on a throne in heavenly realms; recognise that earth and bodies are not sinful, but that Jesus chose to come to this planet to take on human flesh. All creation should be valued and cared for. The church should be prepared to get its hands dirty in the earth (with projects like eco-congregation) and not remain aloof, spotlessly clean in ivory towers, especially in this day of severe environmental and economic crisis.

This is not one sided however and we should consider whether the Occupiers manipulated the situation to their advantage. There is a danger that activists feel self-righteous because they are standing up for ideals, as if they are keeping themselves innocent from the societal sin which we are all part of and are unaware of the problems which they are making by their behaviour and presence. This was evident from its statement 'We are the 99%' which seems to be scapegoating 1% of society and giving them total responsibility for the economic downturn we are suffering instead of recognising that even if they must take a larger share of blame, everyone has a part within the structure.

Redefine Eschatology

The Occupy Movement has forced the church and particularly St. Paul's cathedral to look at itself and question its purpose in society. It needs to discover that its role is more than just being the symbol of the state church and carrying out religious rituals but that it needs to be a liberating force for the whole of society. For if it can use its power to free us or at least change this oppressive capitalism system it will be liberating not just the 99% but the bankers who are also caught in its evil system.

Just like the time of the book of Revelation, at present we are living through a period of transition, a Millennial time. The church needs to rediscover or redefine its eschatological ideas and instead of being so concerned about the end times, and saving souls for the next world it should recognise that eschatology can also mean the end of a 'way' of life. This is necessary if humanity is to continue on this planet but it would need a spiritual revolution to take our focus away from acquisitiveness and competitiveness to the common good. Helping people to grow to this stage is where the gifts of the church are really needed and where it should focus its energy in this time of change.

It should teach how the original meaning of Revelation and many of the gospel passages were not of images of heavenly realms but a protest in symbolic language against Pax-Romana's Imperialism. It should encourage people to make their faith more practical and political and remind them that in serving others they are serving God.

Conclusion - What is at stake for the church?

There is a mixture of opinion about capitalism within the Christian church. Whilst some 'so-called' Christians promote the Prosperity gospel, other Christian leaders are proposing changing financial practices, and even more prophetic voices are reminding us that economic justice, common good and the stability of society is at the heart of many faiths. The Occupy movement challenges the capitalist system and protests against its injustice and unsustainability in this time of economic transition. Whilst much of the church recognised that this message was very similar to the Gospel's good news for the poor and welcomed this, the pragmatic realities of having these encampments in such close proximity to their buildings caused practical problems. This eventually resulted in St. Paul's and several other cathedrals evicting the Occupiers. This was seen by many as the church siding with the 'Powers' and not standing for its original principles whereas in fact it may be that the church simply does not recognise that some in society want it to have a different role in this millennial moment in history.

If the church really wants to be relevant in the 21st century it needs to overcome its internal theological preoccupations and its worry about decreasing congregations and self preservation. It needs to follow the example of its founder in embracing poverty and daring to stand against the status quo of capitalism and imperialism to enable liberation for the 99% of humanity and creation.

If it is unable to do so because of the enormous responsibilities it is carrying, the church needs to ask itself whether it is any better than the religious hierarchical systems of Jesus' day that were also unable or unwilling to do so. As we have seen movements and communities are developing that are free of the responsibilities of the church and are able to live with the alternative priorities that are more similar to Jesus'. Even if these groups do not call themselves Christian, the church should support and work alongside them, for they are symbolic of Christ's incarnation and resurrected presence on earth which often appears in surprising ways.

Indeed in Revelation language they are 'What the Spirit is saying to the churches'. Yet is the church too rigid and unable to change because of the weight it is carrying and the immense responsibilities society has given it? If so, we need to ask whether it still has the right to say that it is the Body of Christ on earth, and whether it still speaks God's Gospel truth of liberation and justice to His people in the world. For in essence that is what is at stake for the church today.

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Living with a Guilty Conscience by Canon Alan Amos

Alan is the priest-in-charge at Newington, Hartlip, Stockbury, Upchurch, Lower Halstow and Iwade. He was formerly Chaplain in Beirut and Damascus, 1975 - 1982. See http://www.thesix.org.uk

I think Christians down the ages have often been weakened by a spirit of complacency: the great victory has been achieved by Christ; all we have to do is to proclaim this, and coast along hanging onto the coat-tails of clouds of glory. This is far from the way that the first Christians saw things, living lives in the midst of danger and insecurity. Nor of course is it the experience of Christians in the Middle East today, facing hard and painful choices between undemocratic regimes and resistance movements that may morph into Islamist take-overs.

It isn't easy living with a guilty conscience, but it takes us closer to the kingdom of heaven than living with an anaesthetised conscience, because it brings us a kind of discontent with things as they are, and can release the energy to strive for things as they should be. There is a key biblical word that speaks to us about living with a guilty conscience, and it comes right at the beginning of the Gospel of St. Mark : repent ( Mark 1.15.) It means changing our mind, but more than that, it means changing our heart, the whole of our thinking, the direction of our lives. No half measures. A lot of the teaching of Jesus is aimed as steering people away from lip-service to God, away from half-measures. "The measure you give will be the measure you get back" ( Luke 6.38 ); so if we are tepid in our Christian service, and only include aspects of "who we are" in our self-offering, we are limiting the grace we may receive.

The longer we live, the more we realise that love of God is not an easy emotional response, but a demanding path on which to walk : "if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." ( Mark 8.14 ) Words which have perhaps lost their cutting edge through familiarity; being a pilgrim and walking the road can be a way of getting in touch with that cross, the one we have to bear as a follower of Christ.

Returning to my own guilty conscience, I recognise it in the following respects: First, those drones bringing destruction to village communities in the tribal areas of Pakistan. I cannot reconcile my conscience with the American government's attempt to justify the deaths of innocent young men because they happen to be of the age of combatants and are in an area which is hostile to American aims in Afghanistan. There seems to me a clear choice here between right and wrong, and President Obama has come down on the wrong side of the line. And then my conscience itches further, because of our government's reluctance to criticise our American allies in any important aspect of their policy. See Clive Stafford-Smith's report,  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/02/drone-age-obama-pakistan

Second, the increasing gap between rich and poor. We can see this in our own country. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. There seems a profound lack of social conscience among those at the top of the riches ladder. This is portrayed with skill in Martin Rowson's fat-cat cartoons (The Guardian). Am I happy just to coast along accepting the current state of affairs? I am no economics expert; there is no point in me as an individual putting up a flagpole and running up an "anti-capitalist" flag if I do not know what I am talking about. So my guilty conscience is a challenge to me to educate myself better about what is happening around me, and in society, and in the world, and the reasons for this. And then I might make a more effective contribution, along with others, to changing things.

However - and I do not want to unsay what I have said – ultimately it is love that changes things. That is why Occupy Faith speaks to me in a way that Occupy – by itself – might fail to do. Anger only takes you so far. Anger and love together are transformative. Following Jesus is still at the heart of what we are called to do, if we are people motivated by Christian faith. And following Jesus we may recognise God's love in the lives and witness of people of other faiths who dedicate their lives to justice and humanity. Occupy Faith and its pilgrimage for justice has shown me that I have a guilty conscience that cannot be ignored.

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Occupying Theology

A big thank you to Maureen for making her research available to us through this eBook. Her analysis is thorough, her conclusions both hopeful and disturbing. Maureen is particularly concerned about the state of the church today. Her passion for justice jumps out at every turn, and she is relentless about the church's need to rise to the challenge brought to it by the presence of the Occupy Movement. There is an excellent resource for further reading in the bibliography, much of which is hyperlinked for convenience. Take your time to read this thesis, making it an act of worship.

The Church and the Critique of Capitalism  
A study of the Occupy London Movement and the reaction it received from St. Paul's cathedral and the wider church

By Maureen Foxall

Contents

Introduction, Description of Methodology and research

Overview of chapters

Chapter 1 \- Theological Reflection on Capitalism

Literature Review

Theological Reflection on Capitalism

Chapter 2 – Occupy LSX

Roots of the Movement

Definition of Occupy LSX

Demands of Occupy LSX

Chapter 3 – Response of the church

Summary of interaction between St. Paul's cathedral and Occupy LSX

Comments of church leaders

Chapter 4 – Theological Reflection: What is at stake for the church?

Bibliography

Speeches

Documents

Appendix

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Introduction, Description of Methodology and Research Methods

Occupy London Stock Exchange (Occupy LSX) is part of a global movement which continues to protest against the corrupt power of the richest 1% of society and the unjust structure of capitalism. On 15 October 2011Occupy LSX set up camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. Their preferred choice of site had been in Paternoster Square which can be found in the centre of the Stock Exchange offices in the City of London, however when the police prevented them from camping there, they moved a few metres away to the forecourt of St. Paul's cathedral. This coincidence not only had a great effect upon the staff and clergy of the Cathedral, causing the Canon, Dean and part time chaplain to resign in the first few weeks of the encampment, but also affected the church as a whole. Indeed many believe the Occupy movement has challenged the mainstream church about its relevance and purpose.

This contemporary cultural study will investigate one of the greatest problems of the world in this 21st century, the inequalities caused by capitalism and the unsustainability of its system. We shall be considering the church's critique of capitalism, its reaction to the Occupy movement which camped upon the doorstep of St. Paul's cathedral and other cathedrals in Britain and reflect upon whether its actions and opinions reflect Christ's Gospel of Good News for the poor. Therefore the methodology used within this paper is liberation theology, in which God has a bias for the oppressed and demands that justice is practised for the common good. It seems the perfect pattern for this study as Occupy's focus is the injustice of the 99% being oppressed by the 1% of humanity through the capitalist system. It is similar to the methodology used by Christ when he located himself primarily alongside those who were marginalised in his society and critiqued the dominant factors operating in the oppressive structure of his society.

The method used in this paper is primarily document research. This may not be thought of as a modern method, and when based primarily on published literature it has the danger of not being contemporary. It also can be limited by only illuminating the official outlook of the social and political elite writing from their context for a particular purpose with only official views being allowed to be published. This has the effect of people not expressing their personal views honestly. With the introduction of the internet however document research has been revolutionised. Global communication is now almost instantaneous and information is more readily available to a much wider audience, it could therefore be described as a democratiser of knowledge. With the addition of personal blogs and the ability for people to add comments after articles, it enables us to gain personal views of the general public; this allows voices from the grass roots to be heard which is appropriate for the methodology of this paper. Many of the documents used for this paper are internet based as the Occupy movement is such a contemporary issue that has been much publicised, and there is a profuse of material which is easily available on the web. In addition although Giles Fraser is presently writing a book, little has been published on the British movement. It is also evident from my investigation how the coverage of the situation differed greatly in the newspapers which showed their particular persuasions and how the actual presence of the media changed the situation profoundly. Their coverage had the benefit of broadcasting the protest of the Occupiers which was important, however if they had focussed more on the demands of the Occupiers rather than on the church's reaction to them, the occupation may have been more productive. Without the media it may not have put the same pressure on the Chapter of St. Paul's cathedral which resulted in three of its members resigning.

I believe this paper could have been improved if I had personally taken part in the Occupation and visited more sites. Whilst this would have resulted in better quality material it may also have given research biased to one side and lost its balanced perspective. I visited Occupy encampments at St. Pauls and Sheffield cathedral. I also had the pleasure of hearing Giles Fraser speak at Evesham Parish church on 24th March 2012 as part of their lent series of discussions entitled 'When worlds collide' when his presentation was 'The church and the marketplace '. Here I also had the opportunity of asking him what he felt this dissertation should contain, (see appendix). It also met Ulrich Duchrow who is a professor from Heidelberg and the author of two of the main books I used for this paper, when he spoke at the 'Eye of the Needle' event organised by Ekklesia in Bristol on 22nd March 2012.

Overview of Chapters

Chapter one is a Literature Review which gives us a brief overview of the wide spectrum of Christian opinions on capitalism. This is followed by a theological reflection which draws primarily from the work of Ched Myers and Ulrich Duchrow.

Chapter two is the Case Study which endeavours to describe the Beliefs and history of the Occupy LSX. For this I focussed primarily on the statements produced by the General Assembly of the movement and took my material from their official website, as these were authorised by Occupy LSX. The brief history of the encampment was compiled from press articles from a selection of newspapers.

Chapter three reflects on the church's response to the Occupy Movement. We shall look at the behaviour of the staff of St. Paul's cathedral and draw from some comments from those concerned, church leaders and, in accordance with liberation theology, people from the grass roots.

Chapter four is a theological response and reflects on the Question, 'What is at stake for the church?' It concludes with the question of what the church's message should be for today in this economic climate and makes some recommendations about actions which the church could take to revitalise Christianity in the 21st century.

Chapter 1: Theological Reflection on Capitalism

Literature Review

The South African Kairos document , describes three types of theology, 'State theology' which justifies the status quo with its oppressive structure, 'Church theology' which is the official opinions of the churches and usually are of a reconciliatory nature, recognising that there are problems and making suggestions to reform systems, and 'Prophetic theology' which demands clear and incisive responses in situations of crisis. The literature review below divides into these categories, with the prosperity gospel as 'state', Williams and the Vatican statements as 'church' and Myers, Wink and Duchrow as 'prophetic'.

Beginning from the conservative end of the spectrum we find the Prosperity Gospel which advocates that prosperity is a blessing from God and believes that there is a correlation between how righteous and how rich one is. It interprets scripture out of context and uses it to promote the ideology of capitalism. It appears that more serious academic books have been written about the dangers of this theology than in favour of it but prosperity theology has become powerful through rich mega American style churches and organisations, that promote it and which have strong political influence. Through satellite television many tele-evangelists have massive audiences that enter our homes and cultural psyche. Two books from this perspective that sold in their millions include 'The Prayer of Jabez' by B Wilkinson and 'Your best life now' by J Osteen. The Prosperity gospel has its roots in the Protestant Work ethic which dates back to the time of the Reformation and in particular Calvinism when people were being encouraged to work in the secular world. This was written in the context when the churches wanted people to develop enterprise and trade and accumulate wealth for investment and charitable giving, this developed into the capitalism we have today. Weber's work 'The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism' is a classic text on this subject.

Michael Novak is a Catholic theologian who has written in favour of capitalism. He describes it as the system which promotes the dignity of the individual through freedom of choice and human rights. He leans heavily on the 'Centesimus Annus' which was an encyclical written by John Paul II in 1991 at the time of the collapse of communism and is partly a reaction against it. Novak promotes the rights of property of the individual which is found in this 'Catholic social teaching' but writes less about the regulations needed within the system to prioritise the needs of the common good which is also found in this Pontificate paper.

Over the last few years Archbishop Rowan Williams has been a prolific writer on the justice and ethics of the practices of the Banking system. During the Occupy Movement he wrote several articles for the Financial Times saying that although he did not disagree with capitalism per se, he recognised the need for stricter regulations of its financial practices. This agreed with a document that had been recently released by the Vatican entitled 'Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority.' In one of the articles Williams presses for three reforms: Separate Investment and High Street banking which have been working together since the repeal of the restrictions of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999 which has been blamed as a major cause of the present financial crisis; Banks should be recapitalised with public money and should in exchange reinvigorate the real economy; The Financial Transaction tax, or so called 'Tobin or Robin Hood' tax should be introduced.

The Church of England's Mission and Public affairs Archbishop's Council also produced a report in November 2011 as a response to the Occupy Movement in which it reflects Rowan Williams' ideas that capitalism per se is not incorrect but that there are many ways to practice it, some of which are more communal than others. It describes how stricter restrictions are necessary and that without such regulations as contract laws and anti-monopoly rules the market is not sustainable. With globalisation, markets have outgrown nation states and therefore cannot be so easily controlled by laws and are open to the abuse of power. Therefore they are no longer operating to the best theories of free markets. These Anglican and Catholic writings seem to be taking the middle ground in this argument.

Further to the left we find the writings of Ched Myers who amongst his prolific writings offers us 'Binding the Strong Man' in which he has given us a political reading of the gospel of Mark with the emphasis on societal and economic justice. Myers has also written 'The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics' in which he reminds us that the original understanding of many scriptural readings were about economic justice but have been misunderstood from within our culture. Walter Wink has given us political understanding of scripture with his 'Powers Trilogy' whilst these may have less to do with economics per se, they deal with the power structures within society which it is part of.

At present many organisations like The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) are developing and gaining support to help focus church attention on society's problems during this time of economic crisis. One of the organisations that are producing excellent articles is the Thinktank Ekklesia. This organisation was very involved with the Occupy movement as one of its associate directors Symon Hill was one of the occupiers at St. Paul's. Another of its directors Simon Barrow helped to produce the European Kairos document in May 1998 which was a prophetic warning about the impending financial crisis and how people should take action to be counter cultural and develop grass roots alternatives.

The final writer we shall include in this brief review the German Lutheran Ulrich Duchrow who has written several books on anti-capitalism including 'Alternatives to Global Capitalism' and 'Prosperity for people, not for profit.' He states that alternative structures need to be developed if we are to stay authentic to our Christian and Judaic heritage that was originally counter cultural but was later ruined when Christianity was accepted into the Roman Empire by Constantine and the religion became part of the oppressive culture. His views are having a resurgence of popularity today and many of the suggestions of alternatives micro-economies that he wrote about in 1995 are becoming more mainstream realities.

Theological Reflection on Capitalism

There are various kinds of capitalism but the deregulated one that is being practised at present within the major financial cities of the world is having a global detrimental effect, widening the inequalities between the rich and poor which recent studies have shown has a detrimental effect for all of society. The insatiable appetite of consumerism drives us to have infinite desires in a world with limited resources which is causing environmental damage that may soon become irreversible. In this next section we shall be taking a theological reflection on our unjust economic practices. We shall draw mainly from the work of Ched Myers and Ulrich Duchrow as this is more sympathetic towards the liberation methodology of this paper. It includes a brief review of the Judaic practise of Sabbath economics which led onto the practises of the early church which were alternative to the society of their day.

Societal injustice is not a new phenomenon and has been present for thousands of years. Duchrow believes that our present system is the climax of a development that started 3000 years ago. He describes how in archaic societies (3000 – 800 BCE) city kingdoms and empires created hierarchies in society through conquest however when the use of money was introduced (800 – 400 BCE) and people started to exchange more widely in monetary instead of communal terms, it effected people's psyches and egos so that they focussed more on their individual gain rather the stability of a community which they may not be part of. This naturally affected the way people felt, thought and behaved towards each other. As this society developed the dominant class demanded tributes which led to the period of slave labour and serfdom which was spread more widely with the Hellenistic and Roman empires.

With the altered economics and change of societal behaviour of 800 – 200 BCE also came the period called the Axial age in which religions and philosophies developed in the cultures of China, India, China, Greece and the Middle East. Whilst this did not happen at exactly the same time they developed in almost parallel ways even though these cultures were so distant from one other. Karen Armstrong suggests that this was a reaction of the war, violence and economic oppressive structures that were developing in these societies. She describes how religions were developed to formulate the alternative ethos of justice in each culture and how for the Axial sages it was the sacred rights of all beings and not orthodox belief and practices that was true religion. If people were generous and kind to each other then they would survive better in these oppressive societies. Duchrow develops it further in his thesis that 'It is exactly the new economy, based on money and property, which prompts the Axial Age's religious and philosophical revolution'.

As we are focussing on the Occupy Movement and church we shall focus on Christian methodology in this theological reflection but in order to do this we need to look at the Jewish tradition out of which Christianity grew. The Jewish ideal is the regulative system called Sabbath Economics which enables justice and stability in society. It is based on the ideas of gift and limits, which can be traced back to the story of creation, when after 6 days of activity God limited his action and rested on the Sabbath. It celebrates that God's gifts are enough for all but because of the sin of accumulation and greed there is an inequality in wealth and there must be redistribution which is good news for the poor. The Sabbath economic structure was alternative from the societal structure which surrounded Palestine which, because of large irrigation projects on the Nile and in Mesopotamia, were highly productive agricultural areas but also had great inequality and social stratification.

The legalities of economics, the importance of just relationships and the prophets' critique of those whose priorities are wealth and power almost fill Jewish scripture. Exodus 16 describes the story of the Israelites gathering manna from the wilderness on their exodus journey of liberation from Egypt. In it God teaches them to change their attitude of accumulation from greed, based on self-preservation that they had developed in slavery in Egypt, to that of trust, self-limitation and cooperation for the common good. The manna raining from heaven is symbolic the Divine gifts of rain, sun, soil and seed from which bread is made. In this passage Moses instructs the people to gather the manna in a specific way which characterises the alternative economic structure. Firstly there should be just enough for themselves, (Ex 16:16-18) for 'In God's economy there is a thing as too much and too little.' Secondly it should not be stored up, (Ex 16:16:19-20) which was opposite to the store houses of Egypt, and thirdly (Ex 16:22-30) there should be a period of rest, the Sabbath, not just for humans but also for the land. This is repeated in (Ex 23) the instruction to let the land rest on the 7th year to enable the poor and wild animals to have food and remind people that the land belonged to God. These instructions were to prevent greed, accumulation and compulsiveness which is so prevalent is today's economic financial practices.

Other instructions that prevent social stratification and enables realignment in society can be found in Deuteronomy 15:1-81 where we find the year of jubilee which was the practice of releasing people and debt slaves on every 7th year. During this year people were to rest from working the land (Lev 25) although they were allowed to eat the produce from it. These restrictions were also practised every 50 years in the year of Jubilee when land would be returned to its original owners and all slaves would be released (Lev 25) Another legal structure to prevent profiteering was that of the restrictions of usury found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy which prevented people taking interest off loans given to their kinsmen but allowed interest payments from foreigners. The practise of usury necessitates the flow of money from the borrower to the lender widening the gap between rich and poor, so the limitation of this was another way of keeping Jewish society just and stable.

The legal economic code was meant to liberate the Jews from the oppressive system that they had suffered in Egypt but were not always practised as we can see from the protests of the prophets. Furthermore, just as Samuel had warned in (1 Samuel 8 : 11 – 18), when the Israelites chose to have a monarchy similar to the empires surrounding them the elite started oppressing the poor within their own country. Priests also enjoyed the privileges of the elite and put more priorities on religious rituals rather than justice which Amos and many of the prophets did not see as authentically following the laws of Yahweh. Later when the Jews were ruled by Hellenistic powers in 2 BCE Torah economic practices were no longer allowed, resistance groups responded with the non-violent resistance described in the book of Daniel.

By the time Jesus was born the Roman Empire was controlling Israel. They legalised property rights 'Dominium est jus utendi et abutendi re sua, quatenus juris ratio patitur'. This gave people a comprehensive, full right to property which was not limited in time thus negating the Jewish ideal and practice of Jubilee and Sabbath economics. Following in the example set two centuries earlier and maybe identifying himself with or at least being inspired by the description of the Son of Man in the book of Daniel, Jesus sets out on his mission of inclusive compassion and non-violent resistance. Ched Myers states that he believes that Paul saw the 'Christ event' as 'Cosmic Jubilee'. After Jesus gathers a number of disciples around him, they live and travel as an egalitarian group. During their journey He carries out many symbolic non-violent actions against the oppressive structure of Pax Romana and the priestly elite who ruled the temple structure, announcing that his way was liberating and good news for the poor and marginalised of society for whom he was biased. Instead of the seven year structure of debt release he instructs his disciples to practice this Jubilee law every day when he teaches them the Lord's Prayer daily which includes the words, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."(Matthew 6:12). He impresses on his disciples the importance of resisting the hierarchical structure of Empire when he tells them that the one who wants to lead must be the servant of all (Mark 9:35).

As far as we know Jesus does not give the disciples a specific economic code with which to live by. Many believe this is because he believed the world was about to end, however we might consider whether he believed that instead of the 'world' he thought that the present 'world order' was about to come to an end. Jesus also might have realised that whatever instructions he would have given, over time these would have been misused by those in authority and power, as we have seen so many times throughout history. He preferred us to take each situation individually and concentrate on what action is necessary to alleviate the suffering of the oppressed. This should include listening to the poor and alienated to learn from their wisdom and experience and gain their opinions on how their problems could be overcome.

After the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Christ, Paul recognised that the economics of Torah could not be practised widely in gentile lands so founded and encouraged smaller alternative communities within these gentile areas. These were to live in egalitarian structured societies, where meals and money were shared equally and priority was given to the needs of the poor. Myers believes that this is evident from Paul's letter to the Corinthians in which he struggles to counter the dominant Hellenistic culture in Corinth which was prosperous and had great inequalities within its society. Although Paul encouraged churches to be non-hierarchical, Paul stated that Christ ruled overall and was sitting next to God in the Royal Courts of Heaven which may reflect his Jewish background. It may also reflect that Paul recognised that even in egalitarian styles of community people often prefer a leader and that Christ needed to be recognised as such. We may question however whether the hierarchical church structure and the theology of Christ the King that is so popular today is one that Jesus really would have preferred.

It is evident from the above how Christianity, Judaism and many other religions have economic justice, common good and social stability at the heart of their value systems. Whilst money can be a useful instrument to mediate exchange and when used for the common good, when looked upon as a commodity to be accumulated as in capitalism it is destructive of community and individuals, for human beings can only survive as social beings. It brings three types of violence, 'structural' which enables legal robbery of society and the earth legally, 'direct' as wars are waged over commodities like oil, and military powers and 'cultural' as the powers control the media which affect our thinking. Capitalism captures and distorts human desire into the sinful directions of individuality, competitiveness, accumulativeness and hierarchies which destroys community whereas Christianity liberates us and directs our desires towards an egalitarian structure enabling the common good.

Unfortunately with the development of many of these faiths religious praxis, rituals and creeds and spiritualisation have taken priority over the importance of justice. When the Christian church was adopted by the Roman Empire by Constantine it stopped its critique of Pax Romana and it became part of the rich, powerful and oppressive structure. Whilst this secured its continuance it also changed its message so profoundly that one wonders whether it lost its relevance. Since this time there have been many prophetic voices trying to draw our attention to the dangers of Empire and capitalism with the most recent of these being the Occupy Movement.

Chapter 2: Case Study of Occupy LSX

In this section we shall be looking at the roots of the 'Occupy London Stock Exchange' movement, (which we shall also call Occupy LSX), we shall look at how they describe themselves and the official demands made by their General Assembly. On the whole we shall use present tense because although the St. Paul's encampment has been evicted, the Occupy movement is still very active and is planning more public action in May

Roots of the Movement

London Occupy is a part of a worldwide movement demonstrating against the economic injustice and inequality caused by the capitalist system. The global movement started in 2011 having been inspired by the protest on 15th May held in the central square of Puerta del Sol in Madrid where activists, later called the 'Indignants' built ramshackle camps. The movement then spread across Europe, where it was especially welcomed in countries suffering from severe economic crises. On 13th July a Canadian anti-consumerist magazine called Adbusters published a poster depicting a ballerina balancing on top of the brass bull of the New York Stock Exchange with the words 'Occupy Wall Street, Bring tent' . The idea spread rapidly through social networking sites and two months later a camp was erected in Liberty Square in Manhattan's Financial District on September 17th 2011 which became known as Occupy Wall Street.

With the aid of international networking, a global day of protest was planned for one month later. According to the Guardian over the 24 hours of October 15th there were demonstrations in '951 cities in 82 countries' It was a truly global movement with thousands of people taking to the streets including 10,000 in Times Square in New York, tens of thousands in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, 4,000 in Berlin, 5,000 in Frankfurt, 500 in Stockholm, and 100 in the Philippines. In London police prevented the protesters from using their preferred position in Paternoster Square in the Stock Exchange, so the occupiers collected outside Saint Paul's cathedral. As evening fell 2,000 people had gathered and 250 tents had been erected - this was the birth of the Occupy LSX encampment that was to continue for over four months outside the Cathedral. Other Occupy sites were developed in London including Finsbury Square, Islington which was set up to help solve overcrowding problems at St. Pauls and at the time of writing is still in existence. It has also occupied an empty Grade 2 listed court and police complex, Old Street Magistrates Court, where they planned to symbolically 'Stage a trial of the 1%', and took over an unused office block in Hackney, east London belonging to the investment bank UBS which they named the "Bank of Ideas" . This contained a library, children's nursery and even a cinema. The Occupy Movement had encampments in many cities in Britain; these were often in public squares, for example in Birmingham where they camped outside the Council House or outside cathedrals as in the cities of Sheffield, Bristol and Exeter. This paper however shall be focussed on the St. Paul's encampment as its proximity to this historic religious building in the heart of London helped to stir the questions within the church's institution and were the focus of much media attention.

Definition of Occupy LSX

In order to describe the movement we shall study the 'Statement of Autonomy' with which the General Assembly at Occupy St. Paul's agreed to define themselves on 14th December.

Independent \- Its first clause 'Occupy London is a people's movement. It is party-less, leaderless, by the people for the people'. This message is repeated later in the statement with 'We wish to clarify that Occupy London is not and never has been affiliated with any established political party, candidate or organisation. Our only affiliation is with the people'. This emphasises that whilst some campers may be affiliated with other organisations, the Movement itself is independent.

Egalitarian \- Whilst is can be agreed that the occupy movement was not affiliated to any party, as with all individuals, humans are affiliated to different beliefs and have various priorities of values. In living together as a community differences arose and were discussed and decisions were made in a consensus style manner which reflected the non-hierarchical, egalitarian structure of its society, which is noted in this clause by defining themselves as 'leaderless'. However the group has divided itself into committees to enable them to focus and work on a variety of issues.

Anti-capitalist behaviour \- The second clause tries to distance Occupy from any monetary gains of the movement due to capitalism and anyone who is trying to use it as such. 'It is not a business, a political party, an advertising campaign or a brand. It is not for sale'. Again this is repeated by 'Those seeking to capitalise on this movement or undermine it by appropriating its message or symbols are not a part of Occupy London'.

Welcome – 'Welcome' is mentioned three times in the statement, this welcome is offered to: all who are non-violent; those who hold a diversity of opinion; and those organisations who can support Occupy and are open to questioning their own value systems. Later in the encampment some homeless people and those from the fringes of society arrived in the tents to shelter from the winter cold, they were also welcomed and cared for.

Non Violent – 'The movement wishes to seek change through non-violent processes' . For example consensus decision making where all have a voice rather than partisan debate which often divides communities. The non-violent priorities were adhered to throughout the encampment and camp's eviction.

Flexibility \- Occupy claims to be open to diverse opinions and willing to amend or modify proposals if they are compatible with their stated intentions. Meanwhile any organisation is welcome to support them if they are open, flexible, and willing to question and change if necessary. Through this Occupy states that it requires openness and a willingness to learn from each other rather than becoming traditional and institutionalised.

Co-ownership \- Occupy claims that the movement belongs to no-one in particular but all those who are giving their time and effort working together to create it.

Community \- The building blocks of community, 'Collective resources, dignity, integrity and autonomy' and 'standing together in solidarity' are 'valued above money'.

To summarise then, at its beginning Occupy described itself as an independent Movement that challenged the inequalities of the capitalism system by non-violent methods It had an egalitarian structure and practised this through consensus decision making. It had a strong sense of community and co-ownership yet was determined to remain open and welcoming to others and continue learning as well as teaching. Luke Bretherton described the Occupy movement as a Temporary Autonomous Zone where one could experience a 'completely different space and time so they are freed to see the oppressive nature of the current system' that practised millennial politics in a time of transition.

Yet as time progressed natural kinships and relationships grew and cliques developed which had a divisive effect upon the movement and made democratic decision making more difficult. The mail reported Occupy as becoming an 'Animal Farm' with the elite being accused of misusing funds and having secret meetings and members of the committee stepping down. Yet Occupy still exists is planning a return to protest more publicly in May.

Demands of Occupy LSX

During the four and a half months of the St. Paul's Occupy encampment, its General Assembly announced several statements which described their protests and demands .

The first statement 'The United for Global Democracy statement' was released on the global day of action on 15th October. It was a manifesto that had been produced over four months through consultation with several international groups, activists and people's assemblies. In it they demand global democracy, 'Global governance by the people, for the people' and quoted the words of Verdana Shiva 'Today we demand replacing the G8 with the whole of humanity – the G7,000,000,000.' The IMF, WTO, global markets multinational banks, the G8/G20, European Bank and UN Security Council are defined as undemocratic and compared with the dictators Mubarak, Assad and Gaddafi. It states how all humans are 'born equal' and how 'global institutions that do not reflect this should be overturned' and the way that we are losing control over our economy, health, education, housing environment and safety through these organisations should be stopped. Finally it demanded global democracy in a variety of languages to unite people with the other protests that were being carried out globally on the day.

The 'Initial Statement', released on 26th October, was 'agreed by over 500 people' on the steps of St. Paul's cathedral. It originally had nine clauses; however one was added later on 19th November. It protests that the current system that benefits the rich corporations at the cost of the remainder of humanity and creation is unjust and promises to stand with other occupations and the oppressed throughout the world to work towards an alternative. The additional clause 8 concentrates on how the present system is unsustainable and is causing environmental damage and climate change and how a new economic system is necessary for future generations.

The 'International Statement' was announced to coincide with the meeting of the G20 leaders in Cannes on 3rd November. In the report posted with the statement Occupy LSX rejects the validity of decisions made by the G20, calling it 'unjust, unaccountable and lacking transparency'. It also asks why decisions that 'affect 7 billion people are made by powerful elite behind closed doors', the statement claims the unsustainability of the 'global system', saying that it is 'Undemocratic and unjust' and favours the rich minority. It states how it relies on 'infinite growth' where only limited resources are available and this causes environmental destruction and increasing inequality in wealth. Occupy LSX says how alongside occupy movements across the world it is seeking for an alternative system that is 'democratic, just and sustainable' and will originate locally from 'people and their environment' focussed on 'caring for people's needs' rather than 'military or corporate profit'.

Three weeks after occupying an area in the centre of the Financial Quarter in London, The Occupy City of London Policy group announced a statement regarding the governance of the Square Mile in London and other financial organisations. This mainly called for transparency, calling for information about lobbying activities to be able to be made public, asking that the breakdown of the City Cash account be fully published, advocacy on behalf of the bank and finance industries since 2008 to be detailed and that all of its activities be made subject to the Freedom of Information Act. This document was the first set of agreed demands and was agreed by 200 occupiers. It was a sign of hope that the Occupy movement would be able to renew negotiations with the London Corporation, after previous talks had broken down.

On 15th November an article was published on the Guardian newspaper website asking for public opinion on what should be included in the Occupy LSX Corporation Statement that was being planned. After gathering and discussing ideas the Occupy LSX Corporations group made a statement on 25th November. Beginning with the fact that over fifty per cent of the largest economic entities were corporations rather than countries it continued to state, 'With its relentless pursuit at all costs, the present corporate system fits the definition of a psychopath, driving the rapid destruction of our society and the natural environment'. Capitalism benefits the small minority to the cost of the 99%. Occupy LHX made the following proposals to change the system: Abolish tax havens and tax avoidance schemes, stop corruption and make legislation to ensure that all corporate lobbying activities towards the government are transparent and overseen by an independent body, make executives and board members personally liable for their decisions and misdeeds of their corporations. Occupy LSX completed the statement by saying that many people working in Financial corporations had supported them, and offered opinions and information which they felt was a positive development and invited anyone else to do so.

The 'Economics Statement' was agreed on 6th December but not released until after a meeting held in the Bedouin tent at St. Ethelburga's church. In this meeting which was held on 7th December, the 50th day of the encampment, members of the Occupy LSX were able to address Hector Sants, the chief executive of the Financial Services Authority about their concerns. The statement was released the following morning and outlined some of the changes that Occupy LSX feel are necessary. These were that the banks and financial institutions need to become accountable to society, that the severe austerity measures are misguided and need to be halted, that consumerist society is unsustainable, that capitalism increases inequality in wealth, the need to stop tax avoidance, and the introduction of independent regulators.

To conclude, it is clear from the above Statements that the protest of London LSX was the injustice and unsustainability of the capitalist system which is oppressing the 99% of humanity and abusing creation. Whilst it was not suggesting alternative systems per se, it modelled the egalitarian and autonomous style of society it desired. At no time did it turn its focus into making protesting statements against the church outside which it had camped, yet St. Paul's Cathedral was to play a major role in the story of London LSX. The coincidence of the next section of this paper will focus on the church's reaction to the movement that it found on its doorstep.

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Chapter 3: The Response of the Church to the Occupy LSX Movement

Summary of Interaction between St. Paul's cathedral and Occupy LSX

When Occupy LSX was not allowed into Paternoster Square and started to set up their tents outside St. Paul's cathedral it became not only a protest about capitalism but, to many of the eyes of the world, a challenge to the church. Whilst occupiers had set up outside other churches and cathedrals in the UK and worldwide it was the attention that was focussed on Occupy LSX during the early days and the reaction of the cathedral that grabbed the headlines. Some believe that this was to take the attention off the real purpose of the protest which was to challenge the Financial Institutions about the injustice of the capitalist structure. The postmodern juxtaposition of tent and temple raised prophetic questions about the relevance of the church in 21st century. In this paragraph we shall primarily remember the actions taken by the Cathedral during the Occupy LSX camp and then reflect on some of the opinions and statements made by church leaders about the Movement and the church.

According to several blogs when the camp was originally set many occupiers believed it would only be on a short term basis and as the camp progressed into the second day the Cathedral was kept open with church services taking place as normal. Giles Fraser, who at this time held the position of the Canon Chancellor of the Cathedral, spoke to the protestors and said that whilst he had not given them permission to the occupation, he respected their democratic right to protest. Over the next few days the size of the camp continued to grow and officials of the cathedral said that they were considering closing the cathedral due to health and safety regulations. When it eventually closed its doors on 21st October it was the first time it had done so since the Second World War.

This brought a lot of public negative reaction towards the cathedral. An anonymous Quaker commented:

'The searing challenge that the Occupy movement has presented to the church is that it simply tries to live the values it espouses. This had the effect of drawing back the veils of delusion peddled by and about what the church stands for and the world has been turned upside down long enough for the rest of the country to see that the secular Occupy movement more sincerely reflects the teachings of Jesus the leveller and lover of humanity than the institution that falsely trades on his name. The Church of England has been spectacularly exposed for the charlatans they really are. No amount of media training can or could conceal that fact. I hope it lasts long enough to shift the axis of power enough towards the Christians who work for a republic of heaven on earth'.

On the 26th October, the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres said that although the protestors had "raised a number of very important questions," he believed it was time for them to move on. The following day Fraser resigned from his position in St. Paul's because he said he could not agree to the idea of the church forcibly evicting peaceful protestors, an action that looked likely because of talks between the cathedral and the City of London Corporation.

St. Paul's reopened to the public on 28th October, stating that it would go to the High Court the following week to try to evict the protestors. The decision to take legal action prompted a junior chaplain of St. Pauls, Rev Dyer to follow Giles Fraser's example to leave. In his letter of resignation he wrote that he was sorry that the cathedral could not support the Occupiers as they had a 'genuine and prophetic complaint that had much in common with the values of the gospel'. The third member of the clergy to resign was the Dean, the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles on 31st October. He claimed that the public criticism of the actions taken by the cathedral in this complex situation had made his position 'untenable' and that he felt that a fresh approach and new leadership could be exercised if he stepped down.

Throughout the next few months the position of Occupy LSX and the City of London Corporation was battled in court. On 20th December St. Paul's Chapter told the High Court that it was prepared to be a witness in the City of London's Corporation bid to evict London LSX but was not prepared to take action itself. This may have been a signal that the relationship between Occupy and the church was improving. The two organisations were beginning to work together and had held an important meeting held at St. Ethelburga's church on 7th December in which the Occupiers had enjoyed the opportunity of questioning Hector Sants, the chief executive of the Financial Services Authority. It was the first meeting of the London Connection which was an initiative set up by Richard Chartres, in the wake of the Occupy Protest. The Bishop also visited the Occupy encampment on Christmas day. However the decision of the cathedral to support the City of London's bid was looked upon negatively by the protestors one of whom commented that it appeared that St Paul's was taking action 'by the back door'.

Over the winter period the occupation fell from the headlines. It almost seemed as if the corporation controlled media intended people to forget the protestors and their message. On 3rd February, whilst Occupy LSX was still in situ on its doorstep, the financial times even described the occupy protest in past tense as having happened the previous year. This may have also occurred because the Financiers preferred not to notice the situation that had developed outside its door, for as the winter progressed whilst some sat in pristine warm conditions, the Occupiers were being frequented by the outcasts of society, the alcoholics, the homeless and the mentally ill. This was evident when I visited the encampment on the morning of 24TH January 2012. The cathedral was being polluted with graffiti and excrement, noise levels had risen because of alcohol consumption and numbers of visitors to the cathedral had dropped, lowering its income. These were the reasons given by the cathedral in supporting the City of London Corporation's bid to remove the campers.

After Occupy LSX had postponed the eviction by winning many court appeals, the London Corporation finally won its battle to remove them. At midnight on 28th February, five spotlights lit the square outside St. Pauls and bailiffs told the occupiers that they had to pack up and leave or else they would be obstructing a court order and would be arrested. At 2am the lights were switched off for a few minutes and when they were turned back on again four people, whom the occupiers thought were policemen were standing on the Cathedral's balcony. The police then declared that St. Paul's had given them the permission to clear people from its steps. The cathedral who at first did not comment on their action, later said that they had wanted to clear the steps in order to clean them.

Many of the protestors were shocked and felt betrayed by the action of the Cathedral. The director of Ekklesia said ""The tragedy is that while Christians were praying on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, the cathedral gave permission for them to be forcibly and violently removed. The cathedral has backed and colluded in this eviction." Another said "We were hoping the cathedral would provide some sort of sanctuary for us on the steps but that wasn't to be ...it shouldn't be surprising - given that seven out of the nine trustees of St Paul's are ex-heads of this bank or this asset management company - that they have sided roughly with the corporation and not with genuine Christian principles."

Yet had all the church sided with the corporation? There seemed a diversity of opinions from within ecclesiastical circles. Occupy had affected the religious establishment and challenged it to its core, yet still brought forth a variety of opinions. We shall now continue on to examine some of the comments made by church leaders about the Occupy Movement.

Comments of Church Leaders

When the Occupy Movement encamped outside St. Paul's cathedral it seemed as if many from within the religious establishment were uncertain what to say. Many clergy welcomed the message of the Occupiers, just economics and a fair redistribution of wealth which they recognised as the message of gospel, but they were also concerned with the church institution's pragmatic needs of health and safety, income and having to bridge the divide of being welcome to all. The statements below reflect the diversity of opinion over this complex situation. They also reflect how the opinions changed as the practicalities of living next to an encampment worsened over time as it attracted people from the fringes of society. Some of the most helpful statements used are from the lent talk which Giles Fraser gave at All Saints Parish church Evesham. Others are from famous social justice campaigners who visited the site to encourage the protestors. Less positive comments are mainly drawn from clergy living in close proximity to the Occupy encampments of Bristol and Exeter and from a statement of Robert Gordon, the manager of St. Paul's Institute.

Occupy as a Prophetic Cry for Attention

Giles Fraser was one of the most prolific speakers on the movement which should be of no surprise as it affected his career profoundly when he resigned from his position as Canon Chancellor. Fraser was already involved with the concerns of the Occupy Movement within the church with his work in the St. Paul's Institute which holds discussions with those working in the banking quarter about the ethics of financial practices. Like many other members of the clergy he welcomed the message of the Occupy Movement for whilst in the middle class cathedral economics were being discussed politely, on its doorstep, loud and angry voices were being raised in non-violent protest like Old testament prophets outside the Temple of Jerusalem. Fraser commented "The demand for social justice was being trumpeted slap bang in the boiler room of global capitalism." He later celebrated how the steps of St. Paul's had been used as a sort of theatre for a national debate of global importance and how this was be the "Real work of the church." He also remembered how poignant it had been to have to preach during that time as most of the readings were on caring for the poor. Five months after his resignation it was still evident how much Fraser had been affected by the movement as speaking about it nearly brought him to tears. Recently he even wrote in the Guardian "Occupy returned the issue squarely to one of basic fairness and inequality. And for all the personal darkness that resulted from my resignation, Occupy may well have saved my soul."

Two of the more famous social activists who visited Occupy were Jim Wallis and Jesse Jackson. Not surprisingly their comments were full of encouragement. Wallis commented that "Nothing that's happening in the world is changing the conversation more than the Occupy movement. Here at St Paul's, the Church gets to be in the middle of it. . . The unique thing about the Christian faith is the incarnation: in Jesus Christ, God hits the streets. This is incarnation." Two weeks later Jackson compared the 'Occupiers' with Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela saying that they too had been ostracised and rejected by their governments as radicals but were now exalted for standing for the truth. He also said that the occupiers represented "Jesus standing outside the Temple" and that they were a part of "a global spirit, which is now sweeping the nation and the world, fighting for justice for all of God's children."

Yet not all the clergy enjoyed the raised noise levels and complained that it interrupted their prayers within in the cathedral. It was used as one of the reasons to support the eviction by the City of London Corporation.

Occupy as an Alternative Lifestyle

Some clergy including Rowan Williams, found the way that the Occupy movement were protesting against the injustices of capitalism without suggesting specific economic regulations frustrating. Reverend James Lawson meanwhile found the lack of set agenda liberating. He wrote on the Occupy LSX website that people who were expecting a set of demands were 'missing the point of the movement' which was based on 'Prefigurative politics'. This is reaching your agreements in a pragmatic through the experience of living together rather than purely based on theory. He described it as 'being the change you want to see in the world' and that the 'joy, laughter and desire' of the Occupy LSX were the things that gave revolutionary energy needed to 'bring the alternative future into the present.' He invited the church to recognise that Prefigurative politics 'could even enlarge Christian's understanding of the realized eschatology of Jesus who brought the great banquet of the future kingdom into the present in the festivity of his meals with sinners?'

Giles Fraser who has lived in community with the Franciscans viewed Occupy's lifestyle in a variety of ways. He recognises that working in the banking quarter is so highly pressured that people seem to 'live to work' without any respite and questions the value of this lifestyle which one cannot enjoy. He said that ministering to these sorts of people was difficult and that one had to example a complete alternative. This is exactly what the Occupy Movement did; try as they might these financiers could not ignore the campers on their doorsteps who were showing them an alternative way to live. Dr. Danah Zohar describes this as "Spiritual Capital" which is the wealth one has based on its deeper meanings, values and purposes that reflects ones beliefs and aspirations, instead of the business culture of today that operates on the four negative emotions of fear, greed, anger and self-assertion.

Meanwhile Fraser also recognised the danger that activists can fall into of feeling self-righteous and protecting their own innocence instead of recognising that we all have some guilt and responsibility in the way that society is. He said "But I also have a suspicion of the idea that you just develop your own little world which.... Keeps my hands clean of the nasty world in which we live. And actually there is no such thing as clean hands, we all claim shares in the way of the world."

Occupy as an Invasion of Space

As the encampment progressed into the cold winter it became a haven for drug users and homeless people and Fraser praised the occupiers for the hospitality they showed these people from the fringes of society which he wrote 'contrasted sharply with the indifference of a City that didn't seem to give two hoots'. However, by most it was viewed an inappropriate intrusion of the area usually reserved for the privileged elite whose money, class system and rules can distance them from such people and Fraser reflected on whether this was the real reason they were evicted. He commented that 'Occupy is stubbornly about the physical reality of space' and that for many it was just 'too messy, too in your face'. In Evesham Fraser commented on how expensive it was to maintain St Pauls and how over the last 10 years they had raised 42 million pounds necessary to clean its building and that it was 'such a bind' It was therefore not surprising that when the 'whited sepulchre' started to become polluted with graffiti, excrement and waste there was so much concern. He believed that the focus on graffiti, hassle, income and visitor numbers had been a mistake and came through the cathedral thinking that being the caretakers of the historic building was its purpose instead of it just being an aid to and expression of the worship of God. At Evesham he said that although he loved the building, "if you're not careful you can end up being the less than spiritual arm of the National Trust, a sort of the National Trust at prayer." He suggested that some seem to worship Christopher Wren whose forte was not 'Jesus born in a stable' instead of the God who spoke of the rich giving up their wealth. He writes, 'What the camp does is challenge the church with the problem of the incarnation – that you have God who is grand and almighty, who gets born in a stable.'

Yet stables are often dirty places and this concerned not only St Pauls but many other cathedrals around the country. In his Guardian article Andrew Godsall, the canon chancellor of Exeter Cathedral wrote about the Occupy Movement who camped on 'his lawn' \- Exeter's cathedral green. His complaint was that he believed that the encampment was a violent invasion into the space of the 'original Occupy movement' the church who held the same principals. He claimed that the Occupiers had shown no consideration towards the feelings of the inhabitants of the cathedral's green causing some of them to fall ill and that this invalidated their claim that it was a non-violent, peaceful protest. The Dean of Bristol, David Hoyle also wrote an article in which he describes how although the protestors were welcomed to begin with, over time the camps became problematic with drug and alcohol abuse, cathedral vergers were regularly abused with one even being attacked and the encampment had become a meeting place for homeless and marginalised people. By Christmas these problems had taken precedence over the economic and political agenda at the heart of Occupy.

In his article released after the eviction of Occupy LSX, Robert Gordon the manager of St. Paul's Institute described how he believed that when the church failed to embrace the Occupy Movement wholeheartedly it had been accused of ignoring the agenda of social and economic justice. He felt this was unfair as the church had an impressive record of being able to activate large numbers of people to enable it to be at the forefront of challenging social injustice. He described how 'the physical gravitas of Occupy was both its greatest strength and its most difficult challenge' and how the insular focus it had put upon its own development had eventually become its prime agenda. This had damaged Occupy's inclusive and participatory democracy that energised it and this later developed into cliques and divisions which made real engagement very challenging. Yet he also recognised that both movements of the church and Occupy want to move in the same direction to overcome injustice and that in this transitional moment in history we need to work together rather than judge each other.

Chapter 4: What is at stake for the church?

During the Occupy encampment Chris Hedges wrote 'The Occupy movement is the force that will revitalise traditional Christianity or signal its moral, social and political irrelevance'. Surely these words have a rather familiar ring to them. They sound very similar to those used by Martin Luther King Junior in his letter from Birmingham Jail Alabama in 1963 when he said, 'If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust'. So here we are half a century later repeating the same words, but this time the issue is not specifically for the black liberation movement but for the liberation of the 99% of humanity and the sustainability of creation suffering from the injustice of capitalism and consumerism. In this chapter we shall be considering what is at stake for the church in how it reacts to this new movement and finally suggest some ideas that the church could take to make it more relevant in the 'Zeitgeist' of the 21st century, we shall try to be the ears to discern what the spirit is saying to the churches.

The first problem we must take into consideration is the wide spectrum of the church. As we have seen from the literature review there is great diversity in the beliefs that go under the title of Christian and therefore church. One part of the spectrum focuses on personal salvation and promotes the message of eternal life through the atonement of Christ's crucifixion. Their worship is charismatic, with passionate preaching and often seems to display spiritual gifts. Yet often their theology promotes prosperity and the capitalist system. At the other end of the spectrum we find the prophetic part of the church that understands the Kingdom of God as the alternative to the oppressive Empire system and promotes economic and societal justice. It recognises sin more as a societal rather than personal phenomenon and understands that Jesus was crucified as a person who opposed the powerful status quo that was oppressing people and how we as Christians are called to act and suffer likewise.

From a liberation theology perspective it is certainly easy to be sympathetic towards the Occupy Movement, indeed if one draws comparisons it seems very similar in its egalitarian nature, protestations for justice in society and the care that it showed people on the fringes of society to the early Christian movement. When St Paul's cathedral closed its doors to the public during the early days of the 'Occupation' and then later supported the City of London Corporation to evict the occupiers it could be seen as the church rejecting its roots. Almost as if the younger movement outside was so radical and idealistic that the older movement inside could not stand its energy, passion and enthusiasm but preferred to talk 'sensibly' through the problems instead of raising its voice in prophetic actions outside.

Yet with age often comes responsibilities and structure which restricts and limits us, for manmade organisations and legislation can take on a life of their own and end up with the ability of controlling us in ways we never could have imagined. Throughout its life the church has had to live in tension with the idealism of Jesus, who sent his disciples out without a moneybag but was personally financed by his followers and the realism of the necessity of money to live in the world. Over the years it has made many pragmatic decisions to survive and carry the Christian message over two millennia to the present day, but in doing so it may have lost the focus of its original message. Likewise many of the decisions made by St. Paul's chapter were pragmatic, for example they closed the doors of the cathedral in October with the advice of Health and Safety personnel, because they were unsure of the Occupiers outside and aware of the duty of safety they had for visitors and staff in an area normally open to the public. It was a sensible decision and without taking it things could have turned out very differently, but it was seen as poor Christianity by the media and most of the eyes of the world. Unfortunately (or maybe conveniently for the Banking Quarter, who had not allowed the Occupiers to camp in Paternoster Square) the reaction of the cathedral to the campers took the media's attention away from their original protest against economic injustice. One could view the situation of St. Paul's from polemic positions but this would not reflect its complexities, the personal ideal against the pragmatic reality, which we shall now endeavour to debate to draw some conclusions.

Tent against Cathedral

Whilst using tents was the only practical solution to enable an encampment, the symbolism of these structures erected outside some of our magnificent British cathedrals was extremely powerful. Although obviously different in style, the tents were a reminder of the accommodation used in biblical times and the prophets that had railed for justice against the powerful of their day. It also symbolised the vulnerability practised by Jesus who prioritised serving others and promoting the concerns of the Kingdom above his need of self-preservation.

We may admire their architecture, but cathedrals are not only buildings that glorify God, but edifices to imperialism, and reminders of Britain's lost Empire which oppressed so many colonial states. In the crypt of St. Paul's one can find the tomb of Nelson and many other tombs of "great warriors". They symbolise a God who is tribalistic and blesses the victorious, rather than Jesus who instructed us to love our enemies. Whilst this may be convenient for war loving governments it is not symbolic of a loving Father of all mankind. It is the church of Pax Brittanica. While there is still time, the church needs to unleash itself from the chains that have imprisoned Christianity since the time of Constantine. Instead of just projecting the words of the powerful, it needs to listen to the voices of the nameless, the ones who are really effected by austerity measures. The value of listening and learning from the grass roots is stated repeatedly by liberation theologians and mentioned many times in the bible as the action which brought the people back to the way of God.

Finance

During the duration of the Occupy encampment the cathedral lost much of its income. Part of the chapter's remit is to be caretakers of these 'Grandiose Buildings' that are the most glorious of our British architecture and our nation would be spiritually impoverished without their presence. They are symbolic of our State Church and have a different role from ordinary parish churches. Whilst cathedrals have recently seen an increase in visitors who find their alternative atmosphere inspiring, they still are a great drain on the finances of the church. Some clergy who work within these institutions feel entrapped by the enormity of raising funds to maintain them and we should ask ourselves whether it is fair for us to put them in this position. The cathedrals should take the example of the Iona Community in Scotland. Iona Abbey which was rebuilt by the Iona community under the inspiration of George MacLeod now belongs to Historic Scotland but is still used by the Iona community for worship. Like the rich young man in Mark 10:17-27 the church should give up its treasures to liberate it from having to run a business and enable it to serve God and humanity. We know from chaplaincy work in many secular workplaces how effective churchless ministry can be.

At present however, the church needs to be run as a business and take business like decisions. Whilst many parish churches can prioritise working with the poor in their localities, cathedrals have a specialist and costly role to maintain. Whilst the Cathedral did not evict the Occupiers themselves so that it could 'wash its hands of the vulgarities of eviction' they supported the London Corporation to do so. When they broke their promise to the Occupiers and allowed police to clear the steps on the night of the eviction many of the campers felt betrayed by the institution that should have been supporting them and their message of justice. There is a similarity here from the Priests and scribes who also kept their holy hands clean and used the Romans, the political system of their day, to remove 'the inconvenient' Jesus from their midst. The relationship that had been built up between the church and Occupy LSX came crushing down in an act which signified that the cathedral had sided with the corporations. Was this to put themselves in the 'good books' of these very same financial establishments to gain loans from the 'Big Society Bank' which opened on 4th April 2012? The bishops had been promised its Mammon when Baroness Warsi had addressed them on 15th September 2010. Just like in Amos' time, the religious establishment had chosen incorrectly between God's justice and Mammon. The church's investments also support this claim, struggling to pay clergy's pensions and salaries in additions to maintenance costs, they have invested nearly 10% of their capital in hedge funds, the area of the market which is notorious for the massive pay packages it awards its traders. This seems to be completely contrary to the statement they made in April 2011 which stated that they would vote against excessive bonuses they felt were unjust.

Prophetic Voices

Wealth gives us power and access to doors and dinner tables that would otherwise be closed to us. So while we might rail about the pragmatic decisions of St. Paul's cathedral we must not forget the work it carries out within the heart of the Banking communities. Not only does it give pastoral care to people whom Giles Fraser described as not particularly happy because of the pressure and instability they are working under, but it also challenges them with the ethics of the financial system in 'St Paul's Institute.' This is only one of the church's many organisations that are working to address the problem of poverty. Others include, Ekklesia, Christian Aid, ECCR and Church Action on Poverty. Unfortunately with the tirade of criticism from the media against the cathedral it failed to raise the public's attention to these organisations that do such valuable and prophetic work.

In 2001 Ched Myers wrote in his introduction to Sabbath Economics the following prophetic words; 'This historical moment, then, offers a unique opportunity for the church to renew its spirituality and its mission to the world'.... 'This is a good time for the church to rediscover the radically different vision of economics and social practice that lies right at the heart of her scriptures.' The Occupy Movement's presence and protest was very similar to the prophets' messages that fill the bible, so when the church eventually supported their eviction it appeared as if the church had forgotten its purpose and got its priorities incorrect. Yet as we have seen above there are prophets within the church and their position within the established organisation gives them a voice in society. Our media however prefers to publicise news about the church's quarrels over homosexuality and women bishops which does not help these prophetic messages to reach the majority of the public.

Egalitarianism

The Occupy Movement tried to keep itself egalitarian at its onset but even after a few months found it was very difficult to remain so. Natural affinities developed and with the concerns of managing the encampments, the Bank of Ideas and the Court, problems caused the movement to become more insular and concerned with itself rather than practising its democratic ideals of being open to all. Arguments and divisions occurred in many of the Occupations which caused some people to leave.

This problem was found even with Jesus' original movement and he kept emphasising how the disciples should be brothers and sisters and look upon each other as equals with leaders being the servant of all. Occupy shows that hierarchies are a natural phenomenon, may be helpful in constructing society and take a lot of effort to avoid. The hierarchical structure of the Anglican Church is also imperialistic, more styled on the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church rather than the egalitarian nature of the Jesus movement and early church. This problem can also be seen in the parish church system, where the clergy enjoy salaries, housing, status and protect their right to a day off whereas the laity are expected to give in collections for them to enjoy these privileges and offer their spare time to do voluntary work. From the above chapter we can also see some ways in which it has become insular and often seems more concerned with its own problems than humanities real priorities of global justice and the sustainability of creation.

Purity

Whilst the personal hygiene and appearance of some of the Occupiers and certainly some of the people that the camps attracted may have been less desirable than that of some of the people in the pews, it was more likely to be the difference between the pristine cleanliness within the cathedral and banking financial offices compared with the conditions of the encampment that was more discomforting. We have seen how Fraser found that the presence of the Occupiers added poignancy to the set lectionary readings he had to preach upon which kept repeating "Blessed are the Poor".

Surely we all fear and want to separate ourselves from what we do not know but the judgmental attitude and unwillingness to build relationships was a failure of both some Occupiers and some clergy.

The otherness of cathedrals can be inspirational, yet their elevation on steps high above the normalities of life can appear to be platonic in nature. Whilst the Occupiers may have been seen as a hygienic concern, it could also remind us of the purity laws of the temple structure of Jesus' day which were oppressive to their society. The church should look to its Christian heritage and instead of distancing Christ on a throne in heavenly realms; recognise that earth and bodies are not sinful, but that Jesus chose to come to this planet to take on human flesh. All creation should be valued and cared for. The church should be prepared to get its hands dirty in the earth (with projects like eco-congregation) and not remain aloof spotlessly clean in ivory towers, especially in this day of severe environmental and economic crisis.

This is not one sided however and we should consider whether the Occupiers manipulated the situation to their advantage. Giles Fraser talked about the danger of activists feeling self-righteous because they are standing up for ideals. They feel as if they are keeping themselves innocent from the societal sin which we are all part of and are unaware of the problems which they are making by their behaviour and presence. This was evident from its statement 'We are the 99%' which seems to be scapegoating 1% of society and giving them total responsibility for the economic downturn we are suffering instead of recognising that even if they must take a large share of blame everyone has a part within the structure. We could question whether many Occupy groups used Cathedral lawns for encampments because they felt that they would be safe and supported by their religious neighbour or because they knew it would appear very negative for the church if the institutions that are supposed to promote caring for the poor would evict them. In some cities the campers did not want to take responsibility for the damage they were doing to the regular users of the cathedral, not just in reducing incomes and threatening jobs but in their behaviour. As the Dean of Exeter has described, some of the regular users were frightened and looked upon the Occupiers as an invasion of private space. There is a similarity here to Acts 3, when Peter and John healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple which the Temple priests looked upon as an invasion of their 'sacred space'.

Redefine Eschatology

The Occupy Movement has forced the church and particularly St. Paul's cathedral to look at itself and question its purpose in society. It needs to discover that its role is more than just being the symbol of the state church and carrying out religious rituals but that it needs to be a liberating force for the whole of society. For if it can use its power to free us or at least change this oppressive capitalism system it will be liberating not just the 99% but the bankers who are also caught in its evil system.

Just like the time of the book of Revelation, at present we are living through a period of transition, a millennial time. The church needs to rediscover or redefine its eschatological ideas and instead of being so concerned about the end times, and saving souls for the next world it should recognise that eschatology can also mean the end of a 'way' of life. This is necessary if humanity is to continue on this planet but it would need a spiritual revolution to take our focus away from acquisitiveness and competitiveness to the common good. Helping people to grow to this stage is where the gifts of the church are really needed and where it should focus its energy in this time of change.

It should teach how the original meaning of Revelation and many of the gospel passages were not of images of heavenly realms but a protest in symbolic language against Pax Romana and encourage people to make their faith more practical and political and remind them that in serving others they are serving God, for Jesus said, 'Whatever you do for the least of others, you do that for me' (Matt 25:40).

Conclusion \- What is at stake for the church?

This paper has shown that there are a variety of Christian opinions on capitalism. Whilst Christian leaders are proposing changing financial practices, more prophetic voices are reminding us that economic justice, common good and the stability of society is at the heart of many faiths. The Occupy movement challenges the capitalist system and protests against its injustice and unsustainability in this time of economic transition. Whilst the church recognised that this message was very similar to the Gospel's good news for the poor and welcomed this, the pragmatic realities of having these encampments in such close proximity to their buildings caused practical problems. This eventually resulted in St. Paul's and several other cathedrals evicting the Occupiers. This was seen by many as the church siding with the 'powers' and not standing for its original principles whereas in fact it may be that the church simply does not recognise that some in society want it to have a different role in this millennial moment in history.

If the church really wants to be relevant in the 21st century it needs to overcome its internal theological preoccupations and its worry about decreasing congregations and financial concerns. It needs to follow the example of its founder in embracing poverty and daring to stand against the status quo of capitalism and imperialism to enable liberation for the 99% of humanity and creation.

If it is unable to do so because of the enormous responsibilities it is carrying, the church needs to ask itself whether it is any better than the religious hierarchical systems of Jesus' day that were also unable or unwilling to do so. Giles Fraser describes this enlarged perspective as morally transformative. As we have seen movements and communities are developing that are free of the responsibilities of the church and are able to live with the alternative priorities that are more similar to Jesus'. Even if they do not call themselves Christian the church should support and work alongside these, for many believe that they too are symbolic of Christ's incarnation and resurrected presence on earth which often appears in surprising ways. Indeed in Revelation language they are 'What the Spirit is saying to the churches'. Yet if the church is too rigid and unable to change because of the immense responsibilities society has given it, we need to ask whether it still has the right to say that it is the Body of Christ on earth, and whether it still speaks God's truth of liberation and justice to His people in the world. For in essence that is what is at stake for the church today.

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R Williams, 'Time for us to challenge the idols of high finance', Financial Times, (London, 01/11/2011),  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a561a4f6-0485-11e1-ac2a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1qsAZfyqA

J Meikle, 'Occupy London: Archbishop of Canterbury backs new tax on banking.', (The Guardian, 2/11/11)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/02/occupy-london-archbishop-canterbury-tax

L Bretherton, 'Fight the future: The battle of St. Pauls', (ABC Religion and Ethics, 2/11/2011)  http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/11/02/3354294.htm

A Stratton, 'Occupy London protestors issue demands to lord Mayor', (The Guardian, London, 8/11/2011),  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/08/occupy-london-protesters-issue-demands

S Rogers (blog), 'Occupy protests around the world', (The Guardian online 14/11/2011)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupy-protests-world-list-map

S Ryan, 'Help Occupy London write a statement on corporations and big business', (Guardian online, 15/11/2011)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/15/occupy-london-statement-corporations-big-business

P Owen and P Walker (blog), 'Occupy London takes over empty UBS bank', (The guardian online, 18/11/2011)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/nov/18/occupy-london-takes-over-empty-ubs-bank-live

"Cotswold Quaker" comment 25/11/2011 on A Doherty and S Hill article "Occupy the church" (New Left Project, 25/11/2011)  http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/occupy_and_the_church

E Allen, 'They've turned Occupy into Animal Farm', (Mail Online, London, 2/12/2011)  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069061/Animal-Farm-St-Pauls-protesters-accused-equal-others.html

E Thornton 'Jim Wallis – 'God hits the streets' in cathedral protest' (Church Times, issue 7759, 2/12/2011) http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=121388

M Linden, 'FSA chief to meet with Occupy protestors', (The Independent, 7/12/2011)  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fsa-chief-to-meet-with-occupy-protesters-6273334.html

K Rowlinson, 'Occupy protestors lose their halo as church lashes out', (The Independent, 9/12/2012)  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/occupy-protesters-lose-their-halo-as-church-lashes-out-6274536.html

P Walker 'Jesse Jackson cheers on Occupy London protestors' (The Guardian, 15/12/2011)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/jesse-jackson-occupy-london-protesters

C Davies, 'St Paul's cathedral tells court why it wants Occupy London to go', (The Guardian, 20/12/2011)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/20/st-pauls-occupy-london-court

P Walker 'Occupy London protestors takeover disused court' (The Guardian, London, 20/12/2011)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/20/occupy-london-protesters-take-over-court?INTCMP=SRCH

E Thornton,' Protestors celebrate Christmas as judge postpones decision',(Church Times issue 7763 30/12/2011 ) http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=122516

G Fraser, 'Giles Fraser: Bankers are victims too, in the City cult', (Church Times, Issue 7767, 27/1/2012) http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=123568

G Fraser, 'Occupy London's eviction is a failure for the church, not the camp', (The Guardian, 31/1/2012) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/31/occupy-eviction-st-pauls-cathedral%20http:/www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/31/occupy-eviction-st-pauls-cathedral)

S Jones, 'Church of England doubles hedge fund investments', (Financial Times, 3/2/2012)  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9659eefa-4e86-11e1-8670-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1r3Y8vcd8

D Hoyle, 'It's not about taking sides', (Church Times, Issue 7769, 10/2/2012)  http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=124176

G Fraser, 'Occupy LSX may be gone, but the movement won't be forgotten', (The Guardian, London, 28/2/2012)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/28/occupy-london-gone-not-forgotten

Telegraph (writer not named), 'Occupy London Timeline', (The Telegraph online, 28/2/2012)  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9110341/Occupy-London-timeline.html

H Siddique (blog), 'Occupy London protestors evicted – Tuesday 28th February' (The Guardian online, 28/2/2012)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2012/feb/28/occupy-london-protesters-evicted-live-updates

G Pitcher, 'The church has come out of the St. Paul's eviction very badly', (Mail online, 28/2/2012)  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2107617/Occupy-London-eviction-The-Church-comes-badly-St-Pauls-eviction--better-future.html

A Godsall, 'Occupy Exeter offered no invitation only invasion', (The Guardian, 10/3/2012)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/mar/10/occupy-exeter-offered-no-invitation

R Gordon, 'A Tale of 2 Occupies', (St. Paul's Institute, London, 12/3/2012)  http://www.stpaulsinstitute.org.uk/dialogue/robert-gordon/opinion/2012/mar/12/a-tale-of-two-occupies

G Fraser, 'What will the developers bring to this resurrection at the Elephant?', (The Guardian, 1/4/2012)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/01/welcome-parish-saved-my-soul

J Lawson, 'Rev James Lawson wonders if Occupy has presented a last chance for Christianity', (The Occupied Times, London, no date given - marked as 'posted about 70 days ago') http://theoccupiedtimes.co.uk/?p=2359

Appendix

Giles Fraser: Quotes of Lenten talk and discussion "When worlds collide: "The church and the marketplace" held at Evesham Parish church 26/3/2012

Part of Evesham Parish Church Lent Talk season 2012 "I dream a world"

1. "I've spent some time in community with the Franciscans I have two feelings that run aside each other a pro and con. On one hand I think there is something about modelling a different example about how to live which feeds exactly into what I wanted to say about enough which is the idea that there is something about a more simple way of living is actually rather important and that there is joy in that. Of course the simple living gets easily corrupted. But I like the idea that you can model alternatives.

2. But I also have a suspicion of the idea that you just develop your own little world which is in a sense about, this little economy which we are making for ourselves keeps my hands clean of the nasty world in which we live. And actually there is no such thing as clean hands, we all claim shares in the way of the world.

3. I'm more of a compromiser in as much as I want to get stuck into the very heart of economy and if that means sometimes. It isn't about protecting my own innocence. Sometimes I feel that there's a sort of self-righteousness about activism that's about protecting innocence. So on the one hand I think the example is incredibly powerful and that's exactly what we need and yet I don't want it to become a sort of ghetto because those things are really, really small, somewhere in between."

Q "Is money damaging to the soul?"

4. "Yes it's right. It's not a happy the place the city of London for a lot of people who work there. There is no correlation between wealth and joy and you see it there in such a clear way with people who are working unbelievably hard, taking vast amounts of coke and not being able to sleep. They are working all hours they could possibly work and for what? There are places there that are places of real darkness for people. It's actually very difficult to minister to people in those sorts of situations because you really have to model a completely different way of life. But it's almost a parable that reflects back on lot on who we are, it's a magnified form of who we are. I don't want to distance myself from that I want to see myself. My great philosopher hero is Gillian Rose and she was on the group of people who designed Auschwitz as a visitor experience. She said the problem was when people went round there was that they always identified themselves solely with the victims which was not deeply morally transformative but you come out crying. The thing that is really transformative, the thing that scares and changes people is to get them to glimpse any identification with the perpetrators. To get them to see how they got to do that to glimpse your reflection in the face of the Nazi gargoyle. We too need to see ourselves not just as the victims of the darkness of the banking system but part of the system of which it is visible expression."

5. Q "It's a real blessing for me that you are here tonight in my neighbourhood because I'm writing a dissertation on the Occupy Movement and the Church's reaction to it and I just wondered if there was anything that you think I should put in it."

6. "It's so difficult for me to talk about the Occupy movement, it was so traumatic to me what happened that I could even get upset if I talk to you. I just think the church made the wrong call on that and I couldn't stay. There's a strange thing we do in the church if there is any tension and you have to go and preach a sermon I tell my curates to preach on the readings. So in the middle of the occupy thing I thought Giles just preach on the readings so I go in open the text with the cameras all around at St. Paul's cathedral , what are the readings Blessed are the poor, so that was really, really powerful.

7. People have all sorts of different views about what happened there, but for me the reason I resigned was not prepared to be a part of a forceful eviction of peaceful protestors that was entirely clear. And I meant it when I said about my colleagues there were points of conviction on all sides in that debate. It wasn't a straight forward debate and there are other cathedrals that had to face it have all said it isn't a straight forward thing. I do not believe some of the arguments that were used. It wasn't about access of the cathedral in the way it was described and I think it was raising issues I mean the idea that the front steps of St. Paul's cathedral became a sort of theatre for a national debate over a subject like this was actually something. I know there was a naivety about what would Jesus do and its easy to pile into that but, for the first time the people who were talking about this, people maybe not coming up with all the answers but people were talking about this. This is exactly what the church should be doing and I couldn't be part of an eviction of that. Good luck with what you have to write."

Q "The church seems to be full of stuff, buildings, property, hierarchies and self-importance. What are your views on that?"

8. "It's such a bind isn't it? There's no easy answer. I think St. Paul's was one of the classic problems with this. St. Paul's is a phenomenally expensive building to maintain and a beautiful one, a building that I love and I don't have that sort of innocence that I think we can wash our hands of practical realities. My brother is chair of finance committee on St. Pauls so I know about this. It cost 42 million pounds to clean the place and we've just had a ten year programme for it and it costs millions and millions of pounds to keep the whole place going. No on the one hand, I see both ways, I see the way in which these beautiful buildings are part of our Christian inheritance, they're not just rain shelters, they evoke something of the faith which we want to protect and preserve and is wonderful. On the other hand if you're not careful you can end up being the less than spiritual arm of the National Trust, a sort of the National Trust at prayer and forget the fact that, you know the thing is that, I would love for us all just to go back to the gospels and see how scary that stuff is that you're asked to do. And it's not about the maintenance I'm not in any way disparaging what happens we have to live that tension between the practical reality, St. Francis of Assisi and all that and what we have. I suspect we have the balance wrong at the moment."

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Occupying Art

Thanks to Revd Elizabeth Gray-King for her kind generosity in allowing the use of her beautiful art. You may wish to spend some time meditating on the pictures and allow thoughts, associations or simple awareness to arise. The titles are given below - use the hyperlinks to match title to picture.

Striving for Righteousness

Unafraid

Word Became Flesh

Am I Free

I Am Your Neighbour

And it was Good

Communion/Eucharist/Last Supper

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