British churches have united in expressing their concerns about a controversial police raid on a Quaker meeting house last month.
The incident on 27 March saw around 20 uniformed members of the Metropolitan Police forcefully enter the Westminster Quaker Meeting House.
The officers searched the premises and arrested six young women belonging to a group called Youth Demand.
Youth Demand are a civil disobedience group that concerns itself primarily with anti-climate change and anti-Israel causes. The group is not affiliated to the Quakers but was using their premises to conduct meetings.
The group said it was meeting to plan further acts of protest and civil disobedience; however, police say the group was planning to bring London to a standstill.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the group, Churches Together in England, which represents a wide range of Christian traditions, has expressed its dismay at the heavy-handed police tactics used on the day.
The group noted that on the day of the raid, a Quaker Elder was present and would have simply opened the door for them, thus avoiding the need for violent action and damage to the premises.
In an open letter to Sir Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan Police, Bishop Mike Royal, general secretary of Churches Together in England, said that members of the group “support the principle of the right to peaceful protest and are deeply concerned at this unnecessary forced entry to a place used for worship”.
Churches Together in England also urged the police to conduct a review into the incident and have asked for a meeting with Quaker representatives “to discuss this matter further, to avoid such an incident happening in a place of worship again”.
Copies of the open letter have also been sent to the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
