Essex Church Fights Council Order Against Its Street Preaching

Christian Concern says it delivered a petition with more than 27,000 signatures to Colchester City Council this month in defense of the street ministry of Bread of Life Community Church. AOL reports that the church's pastor, Stephen Clayden, handed the petition in at Colchester Town Hall on Wednesday. The Christian Post reports the Essex church is fighting in court after the council banned its use of loudspeakers and ordered its preachers to stop warning people about hell.

AOL reports the council served the church, which is based in Clacton, Essex, a community protection notice, or CPN. According to Christian Concern, the notice told the church to "stop using amplification or loudspeaker" and to "stop intimidating behaviour." It also told the church to stop "religious messaging" mentioning "hell," and it labelled the preaching "unreasonable" with a "detrimental effect on the community." Clayden told AOL that a ban on engaging or intimidating behaviour limits the church's ability to preach its message as the Bible tells it.

A council spokesman said the council had received "multiple complaints over a period of time regarding conduct and behaviour that caused alarm and distress to members of the public". He said council officers spoke with those involved, explained the effect of the behaviour on others and gave guidance on what was expected. When complaints continued, he said, a Community Protection Warning was issued, followed by a CPN.

Christian Concern says Bread of Life has preached on the streets of Colchester for more than six years, and that there had been no complaints against the church before the notice. The church runs a regular foodbank collection and has bought warm clothes for people who need them. Its Colchester outreach, led by Tony Needs, has several people who regularly share the message of Christ with passersby. Christian Concern notes that open-air preaching in Britain goes back at least to 1739, when George Whitefield and John Wesley began preaching outdoors.

Supporters gathered with the church on Colchester High Street when the petition was delivered. Clayden preached from Romans 10 and said the church would never stop preaching the gospel. "We're not using amplification, so abiding by the CPN," he said. "But the gospel belongs on the streets." Andrea Williams, who spoke after him, said keeping the streets open to the gospel also keeps the pulpits open.

Christian Concern says the church's appeal against the notice will be heard in the Magistrates' Court on 22 and 29 October. Pray that these preachers speak with grace as well as courage, as Colossians 4:5-6 asks, and that the court hears them fairly.

Read Colossians 4:5-6