Never Walked In High Heels

Last week I decided to go to the Evensong service at St. Paul’s Cathedral. I walked up to the only accessible entrance of the famed cathedral to find it locked. Black iron gates clapped shut for security reasons, no guard posted at the door to assist, no number to call and receive an explanation, no alternate means of getting inside what is commonly referred to as ‘God’s House.’ I use a wheelchair and because of my disability, I was locked out of a church.

Upon later enquiry, a member of church staff stated that due to the Occupy London protests, the accessible door was locked every evening.

I tried all weekend to do the mental gymnastics needed for this reasoning to make any sort of sense. I’ve failed. If Occupy London intended to storm the church, they could do so just as easily at the front door as at the side. The Church of England has enough money and power to make someone available to open a gate if such extreme precautions are ever taken. But more importantly, a church should never take an action which comes out of fear and ends in exclusivity. Such behavior reminds me of Christ to tipping over the tables in the temple.

Visibly upset, I then went through the Occupy London camp, hoping that those who wish to help the ninety nine percent would be willing to enter the church which was acting as their host and inform a member of staff of my situation. I was met instead with glares and open mouths.

What does it mean if we live in a world where a church locks a physically vulnerable population outside at night and the very people our media hails as humanitarians refuse to help a person in front of them? If each have the genuine desire to give help to those who are forgotten and walked on by the wealth of this world, then does this not include the disabled? A quick look at any of the United Nations statistics of disability reminds us that this population is far from being the blessed one percent. The disabled are an example of the people the church is commanded to keep it’s doors open to. There is no other universally human condition than that of disability. Both the church and the radical activists are failing to help these people.

The church must wake up to the fact that it cannot lock its doors and then claim to be a force of good in the world. Likewise those such as the Occupy London camp have no right to feel that they are indeed changing the world when they refuse to help a person in need in front of them. Both are self righteous. Both are exclusive, elitist, and even arrogant. Neither are pointing towards progress.

What I encountered while attempting to go to Evensong is actually a perfect example of the state of this broken society. The church has locked their doors and made themselves inaccessible to all sorts of people for centuries, and young radicals have no desire to be reminded that someday their bodies will also fail them. The rights we fight for and the inaccessible hearts we fortify now are the exact challenges we will inherit when we can no longer stand. Whether it be from age, illness, or political muffling we are all headed towards a time of frightening vulnerability where a simple locked door can have massive implications.