Brent Council refuses to budge, after effectively stopping Willesden's Good Friday ecumenical procession from going ahead

The Harrow Observer reported yesterday that Brent Council has refused permission to close local roads in Willesden for the ecumenical Good Friday procession. The New Testament Church of God, St Andrew's Church of England, St Mary Magdalen RC Church and Willesden Green Baptist Church will now be unable to use the roads for their Good Friday walk of witness. Brent Council refused permission to close roads because it says it was not given enough notice, therefore the march will have to use the local pavements instead.

The London Evening Standard reports that Father Hugh MacKenzie, parish priest at St Mary Magdalen's Catholic church (Willesden Green), wondered "...whether the council would have had more flexibility if this involved a homosexual rights or Islamic group." He also added that, "Our march is a long-standing tradition here - a chance for us to get together and do something public. The idea of procession and journey is important in the Christian faith".

The Harrow Observer mentions that the local MP, Sarah Teather (Lib Dem), is supporting the churches, after she was contacted by local Christians who are concerned about health and safety if they have to use narrow pavements. Sarah Teather is quoted as having said: "It is important that the Good Friday procession is allowed to take place on the roads. Brent is a multicultural area. The turnout at the annual St Patrick's Day parade shows that many people appreciate the celebrations of cultures other than their own."

A spokesman for the local authority blamed red-tape, mentioning that, "There is a strict legal procedure we have to follow which includes advertising and consultation, and this takes about five weeks." He added, "We are very sorry to say there is now not enough time for us to legally facilitate this march".

The march is due to start at 1:00pm at Convent of Jesus and Mary Infant School in Park Avenue and will finish at 2:00pm at St Andrew's Church of England in St Andrew's Road, Willesden.

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A few weeks ago, it was reported to me that the police had considered stopping this year's Good Friday Walk of Witness (now called The Crucifixion in Victoria) from Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall to Westminster Cathedral. This annual procession takes place at 12:00 noon, and is usually led by the Archbishop of Westminster, the Dean of Westminster and the principal minister at Central Hall.

Because the Royal Wedding is scheduled to take place at the Abbey on the following Friday, it seemed that the police were concerned about having large numbers in the area. Last February, I heard that the Met was seriously thinking about stopping this year's Walk of Witness / Crucifixion, but it seems that common sense prevailed at last. The event is now scheduled to go ahead, and the Most Rev Vincent Nichols will give an address outside his Cathedral around 1:00pm.

[Image: A scene from last year's Crucifixion in Victoria / Walk of Witness event; attributed and credited to Marzin Mazur © Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk at Flickr Catholic Church (England and Wales), and published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence; source Flickr]