You can’t do God here, lay preacher told
A PREACHER has claimed St Paul’s Cathedral would not let him read aloud from the Gospel on its doorstep.
Alan Coote, 55, said he read scriptures aloud outside the landmark church on Saturday when he was arrested for “breaching the peace” after security staff called the police.
Having initially been asked to move on by the cathedral’s security staff and then by police officers, the preacher refused and was subsequently arrested before being released “just round the corner”.
Mr Coote, a bus driver from east London, said: “Nobody was complaining about me.
“People were quite happy for me to do it, in fact, they waited for me to finish and came up to me asking me ques- tions about it.” But security staff at the cathedral complained, saying he was on private property.
“I quoted to them a constitutional position from the Epistle Dedicatory that encourages the Bible to be read in the Church of England and on its land,” he said.
While many people do preach in the area, they normally do so on public land near the cathedral. Mr Coote said: “I was arrested and driven away, but they just drove down the road and released me just round the corner.”
Mr Coote has had a long-running battle with the cathedral’s security staff since he began preaching there in January. He said that staff had tried to move him on 10 out of the 11 times he went to preach there this weekend alone. He has remained steadfast in his view that he is not doing any wrong. St Paul’s Cathedral staff eventually came forward with a compromise, offering him half an hour a week at the site, but Mr Coote declined the offer.
“There should not be a limit,” he protested. “If I want to go all week, I should be allowed to do this without interruption.” If I want to read from Genesis, which would take me all week as it contains around 50 chapters, then I should be allowed to do that.
“I may want to go there and read for three days a week at least.”
Mr Coote later returned and was allowed to preach. Sgt Marcus Allen said this was “not causing a breach of the peace” and that “it would be remiss of me to move him on in a place of worship”.
In 2011, St Paul’s Cathedral allowed anti-capitalism protesters to set up camp outside for three months.