occupy LSX - day 7 - shift in faith

Today:

- the catherdal issued this statement which basically can be summed up by the following excerpt from the Dean's open letter to OccupyLSX:

"With a heavy heart I have to tell you that St Paul’s Cathedral has to be closed today until further notice, because of the legal requirements placed upon us by fire, health and safety issues."

- a statement was issued by OccupyLSX in return, basically stating that the camp feels it has met the requirements placed by the London Fire Brigade, and Health & Safety officials.

The conclusion of an emergency meeting held this afternoon was a consensus that the camp will stay in place for now, and continue to pursue a positive dialogue with the church, in terms of finding out what exactly are the issues to health & safety, given the above all-clear.

I took a BBC reporter to task for 

In other news, tomorrow there will be celebrations of the camp's first week anniversary; there will be a public assembly at 1pm; and there is a march around the city, due to leave the Cathedral at 2.30pm - come along and bring your friends.

Final thing - I've realised a few things over the past week:

- I possibly should not be allowed a twitter account, as I quote and retweet with a vengeance, and have probably dizzied anyone attempting to follow

- My usual reticence to blog about news and current affairs, especially international events stems from not feeling I know enough about them.  I've blogged all this week, following events at OccupyLSX, but the reason I've felt able to do that is because I've been there.  I still don't feel qualified to get too deep into the politics of it, but I can relay my impressions and experiences.

- I really enjoy blogging and spreading the word.  So maybe this will be the springboard for me to move onto things further afield.  Events in Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya (and the list goes on and on) and of course those around the UK, are all ones that I am deeply interested in, and want to raise awareness of.  But I still worry - about my lack of knowledge, about passing on information I don't know for sure, about making an idiot of myself...  I'm thinking Twitter (especially in the past week) has been a good introduction to attempting to approach a more 'to hell with it' attitude (today I had a go at a BBC reporter for being biased in his live report - which he denied!).  I guess I'll see.

Meanwhile, just a few photos from today.

Emergency assembly - spirits remained high - as did numbers

Rather confusing sign - are they closed or not?

Hmmm - the hi-vis jackets seemed to have cleared the camp - but they've moved vans into Paternoster Square...