Occupy protesters in London won a major victory Tuesday when St. Paul’s Cathedral and the City of London dropped plans to evict the protest encampment from church grounds. The Right Reverend Michael Colclough is the canon pastor of St. Paul’s.

Right Reverend Michael Colclough, St. Paul’s canon pastor: “The chapter has today decided not to go ahead with any legal action against the protesters that surround the cathedral… Sometimes we make mistakes. We then have the humility to say that, and we set out on another path. But I don’t think any member of chapter would be ashamed of saying that today.”

Protester Tanya Paton has been serving as a liaison between the Occupy movement and the church.

Tanya Paton, protester: “We’re delighted. I mean, we’ve never sought to get involved in an argument with the church, and it was never our intention to cause the sort of disruption that they’ve had by us being, you know, here to occupy. And we’ve always wanted to address the social issues and the economic issues, and I think the distraction of legal action and eviction have taken away from that very thing that we both share in common with the church in raising these really, really fundamentally important issues.”

Several religious leaders in Britain criticized St. Paul’s for even considering evicting the protesters. Phil Summers is a senior minister at a Methodist church in Tower Hamlets.

Phil Summers, senior Methodist minister: “Jesus was constantly saying being rich is not necessarily a good thing and needs addressing, and those who have too much power and too much wealth should look at themselves, and even talked about temples being torn down and systems being changed and the poor being fed. So, I mean, the basic point that the people here have is a basic gospel point.”