Trespassing Case Adds Strain to Church's Ties With Occupy Protesters Protestors were arrested last December for congregating in this lot at 6th Avenue and Canal Street. When Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Zuccotti Park last fall, Trinity Church, the historic Episcopal institution just a couple of blocks south, became an ally. Church officials expressed sympathy for the protesters, many of whom became frequent visitors to a Greenwich Street community center run by the church. But hours after the police dismantled the camp at Zuccotti Park last November the relationship between the protesters and the church became strained. Seeking to establish a new encampment, some protesters cut through a fence surrounding a lot near Duarte Square that is owned by the church and streamed onto the grounds. About 20 people were arrested. Dozens more, including Episcopal clergy members, were arrested a month later, after Occupy supporters again entered the lot using a wooden ladder to climb over the fence surrounding the property, at Canal and Varick Streets. As about a dozen people arrested that day prepare for trials scheduled to start on Monday in Manhattan Criminal Court, the disagreements between the occasional allies are still simmering. In recent weeks Occupy supporters have cited the tradition of Christian charity while imploring Trinity to forgive the trespassers. Clergy members like the Rev. John Merz of the Church of the Ascension in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and the Rev. Michael Ellick of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village have asked that church officials not cooperate with the prosecution. A petition making that request has more than 13,000 signatures. On Thursday, the church's rector, the Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, said on the church's Web site: "Trinity has welcomed and continues to welcome O.W.S. members, like all members of its community, to its facilities in the Wall Street area. However, Trinity unequivocally does not support the seizure of private property. The Episcopal Church, at least in the United States, has long championed progressive causes. Yet Trinity also looms large in the city's cultural and political landscape. The church is a pillar of the Financial District and through its property arm, Trinity Real Estate, one of the largest landlords in Lower Manhattan. Complicating matters are two different views of what may be at stake in the trespassing cases. Dr. Cooper has said he received assurances from the district attorney's office that those going to trial would not face incarceration or fines unless they had multiple open cases or were accused of additional offenses. Gideon Oliver, a lawyer representing some protesters, said trespassing convictions carried sentences of up to 90 days in jail. In a second message on Thursday, Dr. Cooper said that after the offers of noncriminal dispositions had been rejected by the defendants and withdrawn by the district attorney's office, the church intervened to have the offers renewed. A spokeswoman for the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said that violations or adjournments in contemplation of dismissal had been offered to all but two of the 65 people arrested on Dec. 17 at Duarte Square. About 18 cases remain open, she added. Among those who have chosen to go to trial is George E. Packard, a retired bishop, who said he wanted a public airing of Trinity's decision not to allow the protesters to use its land. "What a statement it would have been for this church at the top of Wall Street to give refuge and succor to this passionate group of people who have put their finger on the fact that there is no fairness in contemporary life," Mr. Packard said. I'd like to have Trinity talk about why they act like a corporation and not a church. On a recent Sunday, as Occupy supporters picketed outside of Trinity, Dr. Cooper emerged and spoke with them, saying at one point, "We asked that the property not be occupied." Jack Boyle, one of those arrested at Duarte Square, replied that the lot was "vacant land" and added that he had gone on a hunger strike that would last until charges against him and others were dropped. The two continued talking for several minutes before parting ways, civilly but without resolving their differences.