Nearly 40 members of the “A Sustainable Faith Conference” marched 5 blocks from the church hosting the get-together to the downtown St Pete Publix last week to hold the latest of many pray-ins in the Publix produce aisle. The group, made up largely of clergy from the Tampa Bay area, kneeled in the store as different pastors took turns reading the prepared prayer for Ed Crenshaw and other Publix leadership. You can watch a great video of the pray-in here.

The march and action were guided in part by the widely-respected Christian author Brian McLaren (left, foreground), shown here at the gathering of the participants immediately ahead of the pray-in.

As Publix consumers looked on, Brian led the group in prayer. Later he told Free Speech Radio News that he hoped the disagreement would not lead to a boycott: “What’s interesting is other grocers are starting to come on board and so, the options will be there for customers if they decide–you know, we’d rather shop somewhere that takes their ethical responsibilities to the harvesters, and in a sense takes the ethical responsibilities to their customers more seriously.”

After a brief but powerful action, the participants stood and left the produce aisle, the waves from their action still rippling among the customers and Publix employees remaining behind in the store.