[OccupySheffield] Winter Carnival Proposal

Tue Nov 29 03:00:30 GMT 2011

Dear Occupiers,

If you were at the conference in London on 19-20 Nov, you might have heard
of the Winter Carnival proposal.

This is a vision of a way to expand the Occupy movement beyond the tents
and into the general population, using the natural alliance the Occupy
Movement has with churches.

This alliance is not one of belief, but one of urgent goals: economic and
social justice, true democracy and caring for the weakest in our society.

It's a vision of growing the movement to truly encompass the 99%, of people
coming together this winter and lighting their dark streets, walking
shoulder to shoulder and acknowledging their common desire for a more just
world for themselves and their children.

This vision involves a Winter Carnival – a local event held at the Cathedral
 by and for the Occupation and any allies who come forward. One part of the
Winter Carnival may be a visit from a “Touring Occupation” originating in
London. Alternatively, since we don't want this event to be London-centric,
we can imagine simultaneous carnivals taking place in different cities in
parallel each with its own candlelit walk (see attached).

One important part may be a debate held inside the Cathedral.  In
1647, the Levellers
held debates at Putney Cathedral to determine what course the people of the
UK wanted the country to take – apart from the monarchy and the existing
government. What do we want and how do we get there?
The time has come to have that dialogue anew.

For both the church (any church - the Church Universal) and the Occupy
movement, the goal here is outreach.  The idea is that any organization
would be welcome to participate, from local green parties and activists
like UK Uncut to churches and faith groups of all descriptions who share
our vision and goals.  The idea is that we stand together and celebrate the
fact that the ideas of the Occupation are already beginning to triumph.  But
we need to truly reach the 99%. We want to start that process of outreach
by walking in the streets with all our allies, lighting the darkness of
winter with candles, by engaging, teaching, listening and learning.

At this point, we visualise the Winter Carnival as a nation-wide event (or
rather series of events), starting January 7th and continuing over eight or
more weekends. We have made no provisions involving Ireland but are
including the Irish occupations in this mail because during our last
gathering, at least one of you (Occupy Cork) appeared to express some
interest.

Would you be interested in working together with us to bring a Winter
Carnival to your city?  It would be work, but it is the kind of work and
organizing that can be done by supporters who are not able to camp.

Attached is a proposal for you to consider and perhaps bring to your General
 Assembly or outside supporter. Note this is an idea in development - a very
powerful idea that could really bring the movement forward - but it has not
yet been approved by the General Assembly at St. Paul’s, Finsbury Square or
Bank of Ideas. We'll be bringing it to the attention of Occupy London's
first joint general assembly (OLSX/OLFS/BoI) this Friday.

We have made first contacts with around 22 bishops in the UK on the subject
and may have contacted one near you.

Please let us know if you would like to be involved in an outreach project like
this with us, if you have any other suggestions or even if you simply want
to know who we contacted near you and whether they have responded.

We'd like to leave you with the Occupier's Prayer, presented to us at a
lunchtime assembly at OLSX about ten days ago. This was from a man who came
up to the microphone to ask if he could celebrate his 90th(!) birthday on
the site. The GA unanimously agreed.

He then proceeded to read the prayer he had composed for the Occupy
movement (see attached). We felt that his words captured all the points
made in the Occupy London statement but translated into a
spiritual/religious text.

For those who can't read the text from the pictures, here it is reproduced:

*Occupier's Prayer*

LORD, make me an instrument of Thy power to combat evil;
Where there is sabotage of Thy creation; Let me strive to safeguard it.
Where greed seeks to destroy our moral heritage; Let me be first to oppose
it.
Where power and money combine to undermine our community life;
Let me hasten to affirm the supremacy of love of neighbour.
Where there is passivity and conformism to powers of darkness;
Give me courage to radiate the light of truth.

DIVINE MASTER, grant that I may not so much seek to live a quiet life as to
join with others to    enhance life, not so much to grab as to give, not to
evade my social duty as to shoulder it, and not to fear power as valiantly
to strive with others that it shall serve worthy ends; for it is in
striving to act with love that we affirm love, in devoting ourselves to
noble causes that we are redeemed, and in giving ourselves utterly to the
wellbeing of our neighbours, to the service of truth, beauty and the joy of
Thy creation, we rise to the life immortal. Amen.

Kind regards

Winter Carnival Committee
Contact
Rachel Mariner On behalf of the Outreach Working Group (
outreach at occupylsx.org) and Multifaith and Belief Working Group of Occupy
London  * <rachelmariner at gmail.com>rachelmariner at gmail.com * 01223243006 *
46 Fendon Road Cambridge CB1 7RT * 07960907937
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.email-lists.org/pipermail/occupysheffield/attachments/20111129/8c20b51d/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: WinterCarnival.rtf
Type: application/rtf
Size: 42255 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://www.email-lists.org/pipermail/occupysheffield/attachments/20111129/8c20b51d/attachment.rtf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: JohnOfPurton.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 916195 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://www.email-lists.org/pipermail/occupysheffield/attachments/20111129/8c20b51d/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: JohnOfPurton2.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 760139 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://www.email-lists.org/pipermail/occupysheffield/attachments/20111129/8c20b51d/attachment-0001.jpg>