Following the recent eviction of the Occupy London encampment outside St. Paul’s Cathedral, Joseph Cottrell-Boyce argues that the episode illustrates the church’s growing irrelevance:

While publicly making vague noises expressing regret that it had all come to this, Church authorities were quietly colluding with the Corporation of London. At the final hour they authorised police to forcibly remove protesters from the cathedral steps; outside the scope of the Corporation’s eviction order. …

If the Church of England wants a place in public life then it has to earn it. It has to be relevant. In matters of social and economic justice its leadership will have to go beyond making nice statements and start using their considerable resources and influence to fight for the most marginalised in society and against corporate greed and spiralling inequality.

 Read the full column here.

John D. Boy is an assistant professor of sociology at Leiden University. He was an associate editor for Frequencies. He holds a PhD in sociology from the City University of New York.

  1. John D. Boy Author

    In a similar vein, Giles Fraser argues in the Guardian‘s Comment is Free blog that

    the response of St Paul’s to the Occupy movement has been a lost opportunity to reach out to a wider demographic and thus to construct a new and compelling narrative for itself. As Occupy faces eviction, St Paul’s remains trapped in stories of past glory.

    Read his column here.

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