St Paul's Cathedral Set to Ask Occupy London Protesters to Leave

By Ivana Kvesic, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Occupy London movement is facing issues of location, again.

On the outside of one of London’s most famous landmarks, St Paul’s Cathedral, sit hundreds of makeshift tents that house protesters inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement emanating out of New York City.

Occupy London protesters originally attempted to occupy the London Stock Exchange but failed to occupy the area and moved over to the monumental cathedral last Saturday.

Now, outside the cathedral sit hundreds of protesters that have created an information center, a makeshift kitchen, and set up toilets for themselves.

However, it appears that the movement may be causing issues for the cathedral, and cathedral officials have released a statement Wednesday politely asking protesters to consider how their actions could impact the availability of the church for worship.

The cathedral statement says, “St. Paul’s Cathedral stated on Monday that it was still trying to provide worship and welcome to all in spite of the presence of the protest camp in the churchyard.”

The church continued by saying that it has asked everyone to respect the risk that they present to the “life” of the Cathedral but ultimately said that the increase in scale and nature of the protest camp is forcing the Cathedral to review “the extent to which it can remain open for the many thousands coming this week as worshippers, visitors, and in school parties.”

Cathedral officials added, “The consequences of a decision to close St. Paul’s cannot be taken lightly.”

Officials have reportedly told some journalists that although they do not want to see the protest movement go, they are concerned about the protest growing in size and scale and ultimately putting the life of cathedral in jeopardy.