New York's Trinity Church forced to cancel Halloween fest over Occupy Wall Street camp

From Fox news NY-

Occupy Wall Street campers have made Halloween at a church in lower Manhattan simply too scary, church officials told FoxNews.com.

Citing an “abundance of caution,” the Rev. James Cooper of Trinity Church said the Episcopal parish at Broadway and Wall Street in Manhattan has canceled it popular Halloween activities due to safety issues arising from a sidewalk encampment in front of the place of worship.

“Canceling a beloved family event is not a decision taken lightly,” Cooper said in a statement issued Sunday. “Last year, more than 1,200 people took part. However, we are deeply concerned about the escalating illegal and abusive activity the camp presents.”

Linda Hanick, a spokeswoman for Trinity Church, said nine people have been arrested in connection to the encampment in the past two weeks, including a man who was arrested after he put an air horn to the ear of a longtime maintenance superintendent at the church on Oct. 11. The maintenance worker was “traumatized” by the incident, she said.


Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/16/occupy-wall-street-camp-leads-to-cancellation-halloween-festivities-at-new-york/#ixzz29YUMvMvK

New York's Financial District in Chaos on 'Occupy Wall Street' Anniversary

From US News and World Report-

There was sound and some fury — and dozens of arrests — Monday as the Occupy Wall Street movement marked its one-year anniversary by trying to bottle-up the fat cats in the Financial District.

But the demonstrators quickly found themselves penned-in by cops, who arrested 63 people as of 10 a.m., police sources said — including retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard, a decorated Vietnam vet who served as a military chaplain during the Iraq War.

There was plenty of raging against the man, but no reports of serious violence between police and protesters.

Demonstrator Robert Cammiso said the activists’ goal is to be heard — not necessarilly get arrested.

"This may be the last opportunity we have before the election to have the voices of the people heard," said Cammiso, 47, a construction worker from Brooklyn.

More here-

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/09/17/new-yorks-financial-district-in-chaos-on-occupy-wall-street-anniversary

Episcopal clergy convicted after N.Y. “Occupy” demonstration

From The Washington Post-

A retired Episcopal bishop and a Harlem priest were among seven people convicted Monday (June 18) on charges of trespassing on property owned by one of the Episcopal Church’s wealthiest parishes at the height of the Occupy protests.

Bishop George Packard, who oversaw the military and federal ministries before he retired, and the Rev. Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, were sentenced to four days of community service. They had faced up to 90 days in prison on the most serious charge, Packard’s lawyer, Gideon Oliver, told Episcopal News Service.


An eighth defendant, Mark Adams, was sentenced to 45 days on charges of trespassing, attempted criminal mischief and attempted possession of burglar’s tools, reportedly for trying to use bolt-cutters to slice through the fence surrounding a parcel of land owned by Trinity Church, off Wall Street in downtown Manhattan.

Trinity’s rector, the Rev. James Cooper, said the landmark church supported many of the Occupy movement’s goals and would continue to welcome protestors to its facilities in the Wall Street neighborhood, but said in a statement that it did “not support the seizure of private property.”
More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/episcopal-clergy-convicted-after-ny-occupy-demonstration/2012/06/19/gJQAxOWcoV_story.html

Bishop, Vietnam war hero, convicted of trespassing in Occupy Wall St. protest

From The New York Daily News-

Retired Episcopal Bishop George E. Packard, who won both the Bronze and Silver Stars for his service in Vietnam, was convicted Monday of trespassing on Trinity Church property during an Occupy Wall Street protest last December.

Packard, dressed in purple vestments, was the first of hundreds of protesters to use a makeshift staircase to climb over an eight-foot fence into Duarte Square on Dec. 17, 2011.

The bishop and eight others were convicted and sentenced to four days of community service and a $200 fine.

Packard, who also served as a chaplain in the Iraq War, said he felt no ill will against Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr., who presided over the bench trial.

He saved his ire for the church, which he said should have dropped the charges.

"Trinity Church has chose to hop back and forth between being the aggrieved and trespassed party on the one hand and the sympathetic ear and support for those who deserve a message of mercy and forgiveness on the other," he said.

Read more:

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/bishop-vietnam-war-hero-convicted-trespassing-occupy-wall-st-protest-article-1.1098181#ixzz1yEYhvFkw

Also the Times-

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/nyregion/8-occupy-protesters-convicted-of-trespassing-on-trinity-church-property.html

Occupy protestors on trial for trespass at NYC church lot

From The Chicago Tribune about New York-

Eight Occupy Wall Street protesters went on trial on Monday on trespassing charges for scaling a fence in lower Manhattan to stake a new base of operations for the movement after being evicted from its main encampment late last year.

A retired Episcopalian bishop, George Packard, was among those on trial in Manhattan Criminal Court for breaking into fenced-in Duarte Square, a lot owned by historic Trinity Church, an active Episcopal parish founded in 1697.

They were part of a larger group of 65 protestors who were arrested on December 17, 2011, for pushing their way onto the church-owned land. It was an effort to secure a new base not far from Zuccotti Park, where the original Occupy encampment stood until police raided it in November 2011.

Through its protests, which spread across the country, Occupy Wall Street started a national conversation on economic inequality last fall. But the movement has struggled to maintain its viability after police cleared most of its encampments in various cities.

In his opening statement on Monday, Assistant District Attorney Lee Langston said the protesters made a "deliberate decision" to violate the church's property rights, despite a locked fence and signs warning against trespass.

More here-


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-occupy-newyorkbre85a1je-20120611,0,177112.story

Pressure On Trinity Church To Call Off Occupy Wall Street Trespassing Charges

From New York-


Trinity Church, a massive New York land owner with an estimated $1 billion in real estate holdings, is once again at odds with Occupy Wall Street, the movement that sprung up in its back yard.
The relationship between Trinity and Occupy has been fraught almost from the start, but tensions escalated last winter, after the NYPD evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park, when protesters asked the church for sanctuary in an unused church-owned plot in Duarte Square.

The church refused, and on December 17, the protesters, led by clergy including retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard, jumped the chain-link fence anyway, prompting dozens of arrests.

Many of those arrested that day are scheduled for trial next Monday, June 11, charged either with violation-level trespass or with criminal trespass in the third degree, a charge which can carry three months of jail time.

More here-

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/06/pressure_on_tri.php

Christians were dragged from St Paul’s while they prayed

From London-

A group of Anglican clerics have called on St Paul's Cathedral to fully explain why praying Christians were dragged by police from the steps of the famous landmark during the eviction of the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp.

Five praying Christians were forcibly removed from the cathedral steps during the operation, despite the fact that an eviction order had only been granted for the land opposite St Paul’s which is owned by the City of London Corporation.

The group had gathered on the steps to pray for the evicted protestors in the mistaken belief that they would not be removed.

The five Christians that were forced off the steps have written an open letter to St Paul’s calling on them to explain whether the cathedral gave police permission to remove them.

The letter to Canon Pastor Michael Colclough, seen by The Independent, has been countersigned by twenty-one people including 11 Anglican clerics and six Baptist ministers.

More here-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/christians-were-dragged-from-st-pauls-while-they-prayed-7547262.html

Court orders occupiers out of St. Paul’s Cathedral

From The Washington Post-

Britain’s High Court on Wednesday (Jan. 18) ordered anti-corporate protesters evicted from a camp they have occupied for three months outside London’s iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The demonstrators, identifying themselves as the Occupy London Stock Exchange movement, set up their camp on Oct. 15 as part of a global “Occupy” campaign targeting corporate greed.

But after a lengthy legal battle, High Court Justice Keith Lindblom granted possession orders and injunctions against the protesters to the City of London Corporation, which owns the land, calling the action “entirely lawful and justified.”

When the encampment, which eventually included some 200 tents, was set up, it forced the closure of the 17th-century St. Paul’s for the first time since World War II.

At first, cathedral authorities told London police to stay back while allowing some protesters inside the premises. The protests triggered debate within the cathedral’s clergy, leading to the resignations of Dean Graeme Knowles and Canon Chancellor Fraser Giles when the corporation pushed initially to get the demonstrators moved.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/court-orders-occupiers-out-of-st-pauls-cathedral/2012/01/18/gIQAnDXw8P_story.html

It Looks Like Occupy Wall Street Is Starting A Fight With Trinity Church Now

From New York-

Nearly a week after Occupy Wall Street protesters attempted to takeover Duarte Square -- a Trinity Wall Street-owned piece of real estate -- an Episcopal minister in the city received some strange mail.

The mail was sent to the minister's home and it was addressed with his full name (including his middle name and his church title).

In the envelope, there were three superimposed photographs of Occupy Wall Street protesters being arrested at Duarte Square.

The captions on the pictures said, "Jim Cooper's Legacy," "The Trinity Episcopal Church Welcomes You" and "Do not forget the trust you committed to you as a priest of the Church of God," which is from the rite for the Ordination of a Priest in the Book of Common Prayer, p. 534.

There was no return address, but there appears to be a New York City postmark. What's more is there was no letter or note enclosed, just the superimposed pictures.

It's unclear who sent the mail or if other Episcopalians have received similar packets.

"Receiving it made me think, 'Is this a joke?' but then I couldn't think of who would send such a thing," the minister, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, told Business Insider.

"While the note wasn't threatening, I still wondered how someone got my home address and even knew my middle name," he said.

Read more:

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-22/wall_street/30545601_1_episcopal-parishes-duarte-square-business-insider#ixzz1hMS1S6ac

St. Mark's Cathedral to Occupy Seattle: No room in the parking lot

From Seattle-

St. Mark's Cathedral, while professing its love for social justice, has denied a request by Occupy Seattle to pitch tents as "offices" in the cathedral's parking lot, a few blocks north of the movement's recent Seattle Central Community College encampment.

The pre-Christmas no-room-in-the-parking-lot decision was made by St. Mark's governing Vestry, which has in the past allowed the Tent City homeless encampment to pitch multiple tents in the lot of the Episcopal cathedral.

"The heart of the cathedral community is in social justice, but legal and financial constraints made it unrealistic for us to approve the request," said the Rev. Canon Rebecca McClain, senior priest on the cathedral staff.

Coast-to-coast actions by churches show that the nimbus of the Occupy movement is wearing thin.

Trinity Church, the wealthy Episcopal congregation in New York's lower Manhattan, has fed and clothed Occupy Wall Street protesters -- but has refused to let them camp on a church-owned gravel lot. Several demonstrators were arrested there last weekend after scaling a chain-link fence onto the lot.

More here-

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/St-Mark-s-Cathedral-to-Occupy-Seattle-No-room-2418633.php

So, a Bishop Walks Into a Paddy Wagon...

From The Village Voice (with video)

As we reported earlier, at least 50 arrests were made yesterday as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators attempted to occupy Duarte Square and One New York Plaza. One of the most notable and vocal of the arrestees is retired Episcopalian Bishop George Packard. Packard was the first person over the fence surrounding Duarte Square, which is owned by Trinity Church. On his blog, Bishop Packard wrote before heading to the square, "I am still baffled that the Episcopal Church of which I have been a member all my life could not--through Trinity--find some way to embrace these thousands of young people in our very diminishing ranks." Shortly after entering the land owned by his affiliated Church, police slapped cable ties around his wrists and sent him to jail.

More here-

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/12/so_a_bishop_wal.php

Episcopal clergy arrested after entering Trinity Church property

From ENS-

Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard and at least two other Episcopal priests were arrested Dec. 17 after they entered a fenced property — owned by Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street — in Duarte Square in Lower Manhattan as part of Occupy Wall Street‘s “D17 Take Back the Commons” event to celebrate three months since the movement’s launch.

Livestream video showed the former Episcopal bishop for the armed forces and federal ministries, dressed in purple vestments and wearing a cross, climbing a ladder that protesters erected against the fence at about 3:30 p.m. and dropping to the ground inside the property. Packard was the first to enter the site. Other protesters followed, including the Rev. John Merz and the Rev. Michael Sniffen, Episcopal priests in the Diocese of Long Island.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2011/12/18/episcopal-clergy-arrested-after-entering-trinity-church-property/