An organization that organises the freshers’ fair at Goldsmiths University has backed down from its decision to ban a church from the event, following an intervention by The Christian Institute.
Grace Church Greenwich has paid for a stall on the fair for a variety of years, but were recently informed by Native, the corporate that runs the booking process, that they may not accept the church booking.
The company said that “attributable to a recent update in our company policy, we are not any longer in a position to facilitate bookings for religious groups at these events”. Similar issues on a variety of campuses have been reported by Good News for Everyone, the group formerly often called GideonsUK.
The church minister, Andrew Sach, warned Native that their actions could constitute illegal discrimination. The company refused to fall down, saying that it couldn’t support “campaigns that explicitly promote specific religious teachings”.
Things escalated when the church contacted The Christian Institute, which proceeded to issue a proper legal letter saying that Native could possibly be guilty of “direct discrimination on grounds of faith or belief contrary to sections 13 and 29 of the Equality Act 2010” and that Grace Church “have grounds for a claim under the Act”.
Further escalation was avoided when Native suspended its policy against religious bookings, while conceding no admission of liability.
Sach told Evangelicals Now, “Some of those campuses don’t have any Christian Union, so stalls like ours are the one gospel witness to the hundreds of scholars who attend.”
Sach added that he wanted “to encourage other churches to arise for the religious freedoms that we currently enjoy under UK law if you happen to find yourselves denied a platform on similar grounds”.
Pro-life groups have previously encountered similar difficulties. In each Scotland and England, some pro-life groups have needed to fight for the precise to affiliate with universities – often a obligatory step to run a stall on the freshers’ fair and advertise around campus.
Other groups promoting questionable causes appear to have little issue. Last 12 months the Family Education Trust warned that young people were being put in danger by “kink” and “BDSM” clubs operating on campuses and promoting them at freshers’ fairs.
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