Press reports of Ray Gaston’s arrest and trial
The following reports are taken from the Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Post:
- Demo-arrest vicar says: God called me (7 November 2002)
- Bishop backs war demo arrest vicar (12 November 2002)
- We support vicar Ray’s war ‘crime’ (13 November 2002)
- O Lord let us wait and see if I get charged (2 December 2002)
- Priest on demo charge (17 January 2003)
- Protest vicar carried from courtroom (19 March 2003) — see also the press release about this
- I broke law to obey God, demo vicar tells court (14 May 2003)
Yorkshire Evening Post Thursday 7 November 2002 (page 7)
Demo-arrest vicar says: God called me
EXCLUSIVE
BY PETER LAZENBY
•
THE CHURCH MILITANT:
Left, the Rev Ray Gaston
Picture: Tony Johnson
A MAN of the cloth had his collar felt after forcing police to arrest him during an anti-war demonstration.
The Rev Ray Gaston, Vicar of All Hallows Church, Hyde Park, Leeds, joined protesters attempting to block one of the city’s busiest roads and was one of four people arrested. He was taken into custody and released some hours later.
He is now waiting to hear if he will face court action.
The Rev Gaston said he was ‘called by God’ to stage the protest in Kirkstall Road, outside YTV’s studios. He said he had no regrets over his action and would stage such a protest again.
Mr Gaston and members of his congregation joined hundreds of protesters who were taking part in a day of action last Thursday against plans by the UK and US to attack Iraq.
The Leeds Coalition Against the War protest saw demonstrators sit down in the road.
Mr Gaston said he was twice removed by police who warned that if he repeated his action he would be arrested.
He did so and was arrested for obstruction. He was taken into custody and released on bail.
Mr Gaston, 40, Vicar at All Hallows for three years and a minister since 1996, said: ‘We feel we are called by God to oppose this war.’
Today he told of his role in the demo outside YTV, where a BBC TV Question Time programme was being recorded.
He said: ‘Again, we sang and prayed. It was during this that I felt I was called to take direct action. When some of the other people started sitting down in the road I felt called to join them.
‘I was lifted from the road twice and was told gently by a woman police officer that if I sat down again I would be arrested. I sat down again and was arrested.
‘I accept I was breaking the law but I feel I was following a higher authority. I was breaking the law to draw attention to the violence our Government is engaged in with its support for the war on terrorism and its support for the US in relation to war on Iraq.’
He said he refused to accept a caution because that would have been tantamount to agreeing not to repeat his action.
‘If things hot up I may be called to do it again,’ he said.
‘We must prepare ourselves to be engaged in non-violent, direct action against war. The, action was rooted in prayer and faith. Christians must speak out against this nonsense and stand with the Biblical prophets in speaking the truth to those in power.’
He is to report to police on November 29.
Mr Gaston reported his arrest to the office of the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds. Church England bishops have written to the Government voicing their opposition to war on Iraq.
Police said that one of the people arrested at the Leeds demo was charged with possession of an offensive weapon.
Yorkshire Evening Post Tuesday 12 November 2002 (page 6)
Bishop backs war demo arrest vicar
BY PETER LAZENBY
A VICAR arrested for taking part in a sit-down protest by anti-war campaigners in Leeds has won the support of his bishop.
The Rev Ray Gaston, Vicar of All Hallows Church at Hyde Park in Leeds, was arrested after twice being removed from the A65 Kirkstall Road outside Yorkshire Television during the demonstration staged by Leeds Coalition Against the War.
Mr Gaston said he was 'called by higher authority' to make the protest, in the knowledge that he was breaking the law. He is waiting to hear if he is to be charged.
Now the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, has said Mr Gaston's concerns are shared by many other Christians, and says he supports Mr Gaston's right to make his protest.
'The feelings being expressed by those who demonstrated in Leeds will be held by many within the Christian community who are deeply uneasy about the wisdom of war on Iraq,' said the Bishop.
'The Rev Ray Gaston has kept me fully informed on the events and his own involvement. His own views are sincere and deeply held and I support his right to peacefully protest about this important issue.'
After his release Mr Gaston, 40, Vicar at All Hallows for three years and a minister since 1996, said: 'We feel we are called by God to oppose this war. I accept I was breaking the law but I feel I was following a higher authority. I was breaking the law to draw attention to the violence our Government is engaged in with its support for the war on terrorism and its support for the US in relation to war on Iraq.'
He said he refused to accept a caution because that would have been tantamount to agreeing not to repeat his action.
The Bishop is this week attending the five-day General Synod of the Church of England, which establishes Anglican policy on national and international issues, including its attitude to the proposed attack on Iraq, which now hinges on Iraq's response to the return of UN-backed weapons inspectors.
The Church's current policy, expressed in a letter to the Government from the Church's House of Bishops, is to oppose an attack on Iraq. It said there was 'concern within the Church about the justification for and consequences of such action'. The House of Bishops said: 'We believe that if military action were to be considered as a last resort, the outcome in terms of suffering on all sides could be immense.'
The Church of England said in a statement: 'The Synod debate takes place against a backdrop of the threat of military action against Iraq.'
Yorkshire Evening Post Wednesday 13 November 2002 (page 12)
We support vicar Ray’s war ‘crime’
REGARDING the Peter Lazenby article Demo-arrest vicar says God called me (November 7). As members of All Hallows congregation, we write to express our wholehearted support for our Vicar, Ray Gaston, and his action during the anti-war demonstration on Thursday 31 October.
We believe that as Christians we are called to oppose the violence and horror of war and to join with others in denouncing a world order that sets us against each other.
We believe that terror and violence, perpetrated by individuals or states; are the clear consequences of the way we run the world: where some of us lead rich and comfortable lives At the expense of others, whose lives are valued as worthless and expendable.
Peace will never come until we change our hearts and work for a world of fullness of life for all people.
We must shed our cynicism and fatalism, dare to dream of a different way, and work to make this dream become reality.
In making his protest in this way, Ray Gaston, a man of peace, followed in the footsteps of Gandhi and all those other peacemakers, in the hallowed tradition of non-violent direct action.
His arrest has drawn public attention to the need for each of us, clergy and lay people, of all faiths and none, to follow his or her conscience in finding our own way to make our protest.
Trish Davie, Thomas Dixon, Sarah Fishwick, Jackie Friend, Phil Gardner, Julie Greenan, Moira Halliday, Natalie Hensby, Alan Horne, Jean Horne, Ruth Hutchison, Pippa Julings, Sheena McMain, Diane M. Smith, Laura Smith, Anna Parkes, Rachel Parkes, Kate Saul, Andrew Shackleton, Elaine Wilford, Stephen Wilford, Tim Wilford.
• THE established church has always been too quick to get behind warmongering
leaders in the west with its ‘God on our side’ attitude. It was heartening,
therefore, to read of a priest (YEP, November 7) willing to take
whatever peaceful action was necessary to oppose Bush and Blair’s desperate
need for war. I would have thought it was the duty of priests to strongly
defend their beliefs and give a lead to their communities.
LESLEY SMALLWOOD e-mail Leeds
• ‘FROM many a mangled truth a war is spun.’ The task of the church and
all Christians is to expose the hypocrisy and lies behind George Bush
and Tony Blair’s War on Terrorism. Not to speak out is to give a message
of compliance. Vicar Ray Gaston’s action showed Christian solidarity not
only with the millions of people across the world who oppose war on Iraq,
but also with the poor and oppressed peoples of the world, who are exploited
every day in order to line the pockets of rich nations like our own.
P DAVIES Mytholmroyd
Yorkshire Evening Post Monday 2 December 2002 (page 7)
PROTEST VICAR FINDS THE LAW WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS
O Lord let us wait and see if I get charged
BY ANDREW HUTCHINSON
•
WAITING GAME: Rev Ray Gaston at Bridewell Police Station in Leeds city
centre, with his solicitor Ruth Bundy.
PICTURE: DAN OXTOBY
A VICAR is being forced to play a waiting game in finding out whether he will face prosecution for taking part in a sit down anti-war protest on a busy main road.
The Rev Ray Gaston was arrested after twice being removed from the A65 Kirkstall Road outside Yorkshire Television on Thursday, October 31.
Mr Gaston said he was ‘called by higher authority’ to make the protest, staged by Leeds Coalition Against the War, in the knowledge he was breaking the law.
He refused to accept a caution because that would have been tantamount to agreeing not to repeat his action, and was granted police bail on suspicion of obstructing a police highway.
Rev Gaston, vicar of All Hallows Church at Hyde Park in Leeds, had expected to learn his fate when he answered police bail at Leeds Bridewell station on Friday.
But the 40-year-old has now been told a file is to be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service by police for their opinion as to whether a charge of obstructing traffic should be laid.
And he was re-bailed to attend Leeds Bridewell station on Thursday, January 16.
After answering bail Rev Gaston told the Yorkshire Evening Post he stood by his actions.
‘I feel I was right at the end of the day to break the law to draw attention to the criminal intentions in hurtling towards war,’ said Rev Gaston, ‘And the continuing support of the US’s so-called war on terrorism.’
A defiant Rev Gaston added: ‘I would do the same again because until we stop putting thoughts of national security before working for justice for people in the world, we will never have peace.’
The Rev Gaston’s solicitor, Ruth Bundy, of Leeds-based solicitors Bundy Harrison, criticised the delays surrounding the vicar’s case.
‘It seems extraordinary that his happened on October 31 and we are now at the end of November and a decision has still not been taken. It is very strange.’
Yorkshire Evening Post Friday 17 January 2003 (page 2)
Priest on demo charge
He faces court over war protest
EXCLUSIVE
BY GRANT WOODWARD
REBEL priest Ray Gaston is heading for court after being charged by police for his part in an anti-war demonstration.
The Vicar of All Hallows Church, Hyde Park, Leeds was arrested after twice being removed from Kirkstall Road in Leeds last October during a peace rally.
He was yesterday charged with obstructing the highway, which carries a maximum fine of £1,000. If convicted he will have a criminal record.
Mr Gaston, who plans another antiwar demonstration this weekend, told the Yorkshire Evening Post he was prepared to fight his case in court.
‘I will contest it as I was standing up against the breaking of international law by this Government,’ he said.
‘My actions were based on my faith which says that God is a God of nonviolence.
‘I therefore feel very strongly that I was called by a higher authority to stand up against the war and act in the way I did.’
Mr Gaston was bailed to appear at Leeds Magistrates Court on January 29. The Diocese of Ripon and Leeds today told the Yorkshire Evening Post it supported the 40-year-old’s right to engage in peaceful protest. Spokesman John Carter said: ‘While the church wouldn’t necessarily condone breaking the law, the views of Ray are probably shared by a large number of Christians.’
He continued: ‘We also have to bear in mind that the Archbishop of Canterbury himself has a criminal record for breaking into Greenham Common in the 1980s.’
Mr Gaston said his congregation had given him their full backing and he had been sent numerous letters of support.
The most touching was from an 89-year-old who asked him what she could do to oppose the war.
‘She said that if she was 40 years younger she would be sitting in the middle of the road with me,’ he said.
Despite being charged over the incident outside Yorkshire Television on October 31 last year, Mr Gaston vowed to continue his protests against war on Iraq.
He said he would be taking a coachload of 30 of his parishioners to Bradford this Saturday for a demonstration in the city’s Lister Park.
A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said: ‘A 40-year-old has been charged with obstructing the highway and is due to appear at court on January 29.’
Yorkshire Evening Post Wednesday 19 March 2003 (page 5)
Protest vicar carried from courtroom
EXCLUSIVE
BY GRANT WOODWARD
A VICAR was carried out of a courtroom by security guards today after he staged a protest against the war on Iraq.
The Rev Ray Gaston was at Leeds Magistrates’ Court to hear the date of his trial following his arrest for obstructing Kirkstall Road at an anti-war demonstration in the city last October.
As District Judge Keen asked him to stand to hear his trial date, Mr Gaston, vicar of All Hallows Church in Hyde Park, replied: ‘Rather than stand before you I prefer to kneel, not to the authority of this court but to the authority of God.’
A dozen or so of his supporters in the public gallery stood and unfurled a banner protesting at military action against Iraq.
Mr Gaston, 40, continued: ‘I call on us all here to kneel either physically and in our hearts before God and to join me in prayer at this time of crisis for our world.
‘Let us pray for the people of Iraq that they may know the love and mercy of God as bombs rain down on their land and homes.’
District Judge Keen left the courtroom while security guards ejected Mr Gaston and his supporters, who were singing a Greek prayer of repentance, from the building.
Mr Gaston pleads not guilty to the charges and will stand trial at Leeds Crown Court on May 14.
Yorkshire Post Wednesday 14 May 2003 (page 1)
I broke law to obey God, demo vicar tells court
BY CHRIS BENFIELD
A vicar who says God led him to cause rush-hour chaos by sitting down on a zebra crossing to protest against the war in Iraq was told yesterday that British law took precedence over instructions from on high.
The Rev Ray Gaston, of All Hallows Church in Hyde Park, Leeds, was in Leeds Magistrates Court to deny obstructing the highway in a demonstration against the threats to go to war in Iraq.
Gaston, 41, wanted to call a theologian to quote St Thomas Aquinas in his defence.
Prof Tim Gorringe, of Exeter University, was supposed to be the star witness. He said before the case: ‘There is a phrase in Acts 5 which says we have to obey God rather than Man, and Aquinas said this means that if the common good is not being served by the law, we have a positive duty not to obey the law.’
The judge ruled against the theology professor being allowed to expound this argument in court, but he was allowed to say Gaston was ‘one of the outstanding parish priests of his generation ... well known throughout the Anglican Church and widely respected’.
Gaston gave evidence about why he felt justified in causing ‘minor inconvenience to people trying to get home for tea’.
Last October 31, after the prospective Archbishop of Canterbury said war on Iraq would be immoral and illegal without another UN resolution, he and some of his congregation prayed for guidance, making particular use of a Litany of Resistance, which ends: "We will walk as pilgrims of peace."
They joined a demonstration in Kirkstall Road, Leeds, outside Yorkshire TV, during the rush hour. The vicar was twice lifted off a zebra crossing by police and was arrested when he sat down on it a third time. He refused to accept a caution, because that meant admitting he was wrong and would not do it again. He told police he had been obeying a ‘call from God’.
Gaston told the judge: ‘It has been made to sound as if I think God speaks in my ear. It is more that one feels drawn to particular actions, in the context of prayer and faith and study of the scriptures and traditions of the church.
‘Throughout Christian history, there have been circumstances in which people have felt that they had to break the law of the land in order to obey God.’ But prosecutor Mehran Nassiri said a good motive was not a lawful excuse.
After retiring for 45 minutes, district judge Michael Wood said: ‘I accept the Reverend's beliefs were sincere, but they do not give him the right to break the law of the land.’
He gave Gaston a conditional discharge —that he would not offend again within six months — and ordered him to pay £200 costs.
But the vicar said afterwards: ‘I will not allow this decision to restrict my actions if it appears urgent that I need to take civil disobedience action.’
He was working as an Aids counsellor in Leeds before going into the ministry, and worked in Gipton, Leeds, before he became vicar of All Hallows in 1999.