So, the protestors have finally been moved from St Paul’s Cathedral and the place ‘deep-cleaned’.
![st-pauls_occupy_2152803i[1]](https://i0.wp.com/data7.blog.de/media/072/6226072_312700758f_m.jpeg)
Such an uplifting sight.
The maiden aunts inside St Paul’s can go back to peering nervously through their lace curtains of incense at the real world outside.
So that’s all right then.
(pic from Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9110392/Occupy-London-anti-capitalist-protesters-evicted-from-St-Pauls-Cathedral.html)
Godschool's Blog 
Of course Jesus was removed permanently and was remembered for at least 2000 years. Some protest against the Roman authorities.
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Against the Jewish religious establishment and their spiritual blindness … now that does ring a bell or two!!
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Doesn’t?
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I feel very upset about it all.Why are they so blind?
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You and me both, Kathryn. I am FURIOUS. I may be being unfair, but to me it looks all too much like the ‘establishment’ being most concerned for its status rather than for justice. And of course, the suspicion arises as to whether St Paul’s is funded by elements in the city.
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A long time ago, a certain radical who the Christian world know as Jesus Christ, (that’s the Anglicised version of the name, as, you and lots of other people will know) also took issue over the oppression of the poor and the shenanigans of money marketeers. As I remember it, the story goes that in Christ’s fury at the sight of it, the tables were turned. Okay it was in a building, not outside it. Just because the scenery is different, it does not mean that the morals are in any way compromised. It seems to me that some clothéd men didn’t quite get it, or, could it be, they were greatly discouraged from getting it by other types of well heeled and clothed men, some even, wrapped in words writ in a different kind of media to that which the ‘holy’ ones words are immersed?
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Some of Jesus’ strongest strictures were reserved for the religious establishment. Grrrrr!
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Yes….that is why he was so ‘popular’ amongst, and perplexing to, the mighty of the land
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They do not like being the subject of criticism – but then, I suppose that applies to most of us!
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None of us individually enjoy negative criticism, constructive criticism can be iffy too, in that it is sometimes uncomfortable to act on. That said, when the majority of the representatives of Christian biblical care and morals brigade cannot be comfortable operating and working with what they are truly meant to support in a broader setting, that is, caring about the influx of poor and disempowered in society which has mainly been caused by the dubious actions of a powerful cohort, there is something seriously amiss with the establishment, both in social and religious political terms. Archbish – the high priest – took his time considering what to say in public while the storm raged around the regrettable public behaviours and pronouncements of the St Paul’s clergy, bar one notable exception.
I think we are in agreement on this; I brook no excuses though for the arrogance and stupidity of the St Paul’s Clergy et al who do appear to be in the pockets of the very paymasters who have helped turn the world as it was, upside down.
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Yes, we’re in agreement. The Bishop of London only started backing down and behaving more positively when the ABC got involved behind the scenes. I constantly regret the fact that our bishops are ‘selected’ rather than ‘elected’ in an opaque system in which very few people have any say. Consequently although sometimes we find ourselves with excellent bishops, far too many are still coming from one or two colleges and public school systems and are being ‘preferred’ (if that’s what it is, which I doubt) because they are considered ‘able’. Not sure who does the considering. Certainly not the person in the pew. I understand that the Bishop of London has never had any job in a parish, which explains a great deal.
I don’t know if they have paymasters in the city, but their desperate attempts to salvage their status infuriated me almost more than anything else. This is so NOT how we are called to be: Kingdom principles were nowhere in sight, apart from in Giles Fraser’s resignation!
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The Bishop of London is not the cleverest crumb in the cake; he’s got a hell of an ego, which no-one ever told him should be left at the door. Drive, desire, and the ability to really care in the real world, not a clerical administrative one – or any administrative one divorced from life as lived on the ground – would be a good starting point for a senior pastor.
The elevation of these men, and it is men in the C of E, sounds incredibly similar to the secret processes in the R.C See. Talk about a secret society of misfits! The faith communities that are meant to support these clergymen appear really very secondary to the purpose, perhaps irrelevant, in so much of the structure. It’s no wonder there has been a reversal and change in religious behaviours in the world at large.
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I heard very similar views being propounded in a radio interview recently – can’t remember by whom. The church does split into ‘the real’ and ‘the establishment’ and the trouble for all of us is that the latter has nearly all the say in decision-making, despite nods to a ‘democratic’ process.
Pity they aren’t all perfect, like me 😉
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I wish I had heard that interview…sounds like fertile minds think alike!
Do you think ‘they’ will ever get the message?
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Only if we manage to disestablish the C of E, methinks!
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That’s a hornets nest, with the inevitable question of ‘then what’?
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It’s my humble opinion that it would do ‘us’ the world of good. We would learn what it is not to be privileged, but to take our place in the market of ideas and faiths. It would be a wake-up call and force us as a whole church to work out what our priorities really should be – instead of leaving that very necessary question to the few.
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Erm…in a different time and at a different level, doesn’t that have some similarity in the thinking by the illustrious Henry VIII.
It could be a case of be careful what you wish for.
Some revolutions have been quietly progressing for years. The establishment famously deal with these things with benign neglect and often get away with it.
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Yes. Too woolly for anyone to get hold of anything and object 😉
Not quite sure how you get to Henry 8 from disestablishment … which would put us on level pegging with all the other denominations. But of course that would cut our ‘cherished’ ties with the crown, with privilege, status and influence.
What makes me think this is unlikely??
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I’ll leave you to ruminate on disestablishmentarianism!
🙂
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:)) ha ha. Think I’ll give it a miss for today 😉
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