Mediation in Store for "Occupy London" and St. Paul's Cathedral

We have been deeply concerned in recent days with the crisis of leadership at St. Paul's Cathedral in London over the intrusion onto their property of people participating in the London version of Occupy Wall Street, an entity calling itself Occupy London Stock Exchange (OccupyLSX). Three officials of the venerable and deeply significant institution of St. Paul's have resigned during the last week over the closing of the Cathedral for some days, the first closure since the air-raids over London in World War II. The resignations include the Dean of the Cathedral and the Chancellor, who each resigned for opposite reasons, the Chancellor because he was appalled that the Cathedral would shut out these people and the general public, and the Dean because he was criticized for doing so and for supporting legal action to have the protesters removed from Cathedral grounds.

Then, just late this afternoon (Tuesday, November 1), Episcopal News Service reported that the Cathedral, now being guided by the Bishop of London, has backed away from a strong legal stance. In kind, the City of London has paused in its own legal actions while an effort at connection is made with the protesters.

In a most imaginative move, the Cathedral has engaged Ken Costa, a prominent investment banker and active layperson in the Church of England, to lead an effort to interact with the protesters. Costa, formerly a senior executive at UBS and Lazard International in London, is the Chairman of Alpha International, an organization that presents courses in Christianity to people generally unacquainted with religion. A Warden of his local Church of England parish, he is also the author of God at Work, a book that endeavors to connect business and God. Costa will, according to the Cathedral's website, "spearhead an initiative reconnecting the financial with the ethical. Mr Costa will be supported by a number of City, Church and public figures, including [former Cathedral Chancellor] Giles Fraser, who although no longer [on the Cathedral staff], will help ensure that the diverse voices of the protest are involved in this."

This is the most positive development we have seen in the entirety of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and it is heartwarming to see that some constructive effort is being made to connect the protest with the piece of society against which it is protesting. Isn't it exciting that it's the Church who seems to be taking the leadership role here, and it's not a financial critic who's coordinating the response, but a financial market participant. We will watch it closely. And if you notice some similarity between the themes of Mr. Costa's work and those of Ways of the World, so do we. You'll hear much more about this effort from us.

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See the Episcopal News Service story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_130370_ENG_HTM.htm
St. Paul's website: http://www.stpauls.co.uk/
The site connected with Mr. Costa's work: http://godatwork.org.uk/ . See especially his article beginning on the homepage in which he describes a visit at OccupyLSX; this was written for the Financial Times and I read it there Monday, not aware of Costa's connection to the Church.