St Paul’s Cathedral forbid public reading of the Bible – police disagree!

Jul 24, 2018 by Andrew Symes

From Barnabas Fund.

Last week Barnabas Fund highlighted a video showing City of London Police arresting a man, now known to be Allan Coote, for reading the Bible in public outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The police officers claimed that cathedral staff had asked them to do so. Now a further video has emerged from several months ago of a similar event showing police stopping Mr Coote reading the Bible in public outside St Paul’s, with what appears to be member of the cathedral management standing close behind the police officers.

Ironically, Mr Coote was reading from the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew chapter 5 which includes the verses: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.” (Matthew 5:10-12, KJV)

In each of the videos the police justify their actions by stating that the cathedral staff have asked them to move on those reading from the Bible because the public precinct in front of St Paul’s cathedral is owned by the Church. However, in this second video (7:45-10:20 minutes inclusive) the police officer tells the cathedral staff: “I am of the opinion that this chap isn’t causing any breach of the peace. This chap isn’t impeding anyone. I am happy for him to stay here.” (7:42-7:52 minutes).

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