Friday, March 29, 2013

UK priest in bizarre blood ritual for Burma

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Saturday, 30 March 2013 13:40 Mizzima News

In one of the more bizarre protests against oil and gas investment in Myanmar in recent times, an English priest commemorated the Christian festival of Good Friday on March 29 by pouring his own blood over the floor of a petrol station before lying down to block the entrance.

English vicars Fathers David Fudger and Keith Hebden outside Total petrol Station in Mansfield on Friday, March 29, 2013. (PHOTO: St. Mark's Church magazine)

According to the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, the Rev. Dr. Keith Hebden of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire took action to protest French company Total’s investments in Myanmar.

“After pouring his blood, he laid down in front of the entrance with a notice reading: ‘Boycott Total for the sake of Burma: Total Regime Change Now!’” the report said.

Church of England vicar Hebden, who is also an associate of Ekklesia and an advisor to the Seeking Justice campaign at his local deanery, is quoted as saying: “There are things we can do to bring about change. Boycott Total Oil and Barclays Bank and put pressure on their directors to disinvest in the killing fields of Burma before it’s too late and the genocide is complete.”

Friday was not the first time that Rev. Hebden had brought attention to his cause with an act of public demonstration; Gloucestershire media reported in 2011 that the vicar had nailed books to a cross as part of a protest against cuts at a local library.

Full Ekklesia report: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18267

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