St Paul’s clerics meet protesters

30 October 2011 Last updated at 06:43 ET

Protesters are to be offered the chance to hold a debate in St Paul’s Cathedral

The Bishop of London and the Dean of St Paul’s are meeting protesters who are camping outside the cathedral.

The senior clerics are speaking to the Occupy London demonstrators about their grievances and asking them to leave.

The Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, Dean of St Paul’s, and Dr Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, met protesters at 09.30 GMT.

Legal action to evict the protesters is being taken but that process could take months to complete.

St Paul’s reopened on Friday after closing for a week, for the first time since WWII, because of health and safety fears caused by the protest camp.

Cathedral authorities are offering members of Occupy London, also known as Occupy London Stock Exchange (OLSX), who are protesting against corporate greed, the chance to hold a public debate in the church.

But they are also to once again ask the protesters to leave the churchyard at the cathedral.

A number of Church of England figures have criticised the way in which the situation has been handled by the authorities at St Paul’s.

And the cathedral’s decision to begin the eviction process against the demonstrators prompted Dr Giles Fraser to step down as canon chancellor on Thursday.

It was Canon Fraser who told police to allow the protesters to set up camp outside the cathedral on 15 October after they had been prevented from camping by the London Stock Exchange in privately-owned Paternoster Square near St Paul’s.

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