Birmingham Christian Union Suspended; Mission Forced into Freezing Tent

This week following the de-recognition of the Birmingham University Christian Union in December, the student group was forced to hold a mission in a freezing tent in the middle of the campus.

|PIC1|The Student Union Guild (SUG) suspended the Christian Union (CU) and froze its bank account on the grounds that the CU constitution was not inclusive enough. Specifically its constitution made no mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT).

Concern was also raised that the CUs use of words like ‘men’ and ‘women’ could be regarded as excluding transsexual and transgendered students.

The Birmingham CU has claimed that the SUG wanted to impose its own nominee onto the executive of the CU.

The SUG has said the Christian Union should be opened to people of other faiths and should use the term ‘people’ instead of ‘men’ and ‘women’, so as to include transsexual and transgendered students.

Andy Weatherley, a staff worker at the University and College’s Christian Fellowship (UCCF) expressed his view on the situation: "As a Christian Union, we restrict membership to only those people who profess faith in Jesus Christ," reported the Church Times.

|TOP|He continued: “It is a fundamental right of any organisation to be able to include in its membership only those who abide by its ethos and focus. We believe this to be true of all organisations within the Student Union, not just religious or ethnic ones."

He also pointed out that “While our meetings are open to all people, believers and unbelievers, when it comes to being a voting member or leader of the Christian union we feel it is perfectly respectable to restrict access to people who call themselves Christians."

The Birmingham CU, which is affiliated to the UCCF, has spoken to its solicitors, instructing them to tell the guild that failure to return their funds and find a democratic way forward will result in the CU initiating court proceedings.

The CU’s funds are thought to contain up to £5000, less than £100 of which comes from the SUG. The majority of the funds have come from individual and church donations.

|AD|The Birmingham Guild of Students spoke of their decision to de-recognise the Christian Union: It is a fundamental right of any organisation to be able to include in its membership only those who abide by its ethos and focus. We believe this to be true of all organisations within the Student Union, not just religious or ethnic ones," reported the Church Times.

The Guild continued by expressing its intention to return the money to donors: "The Guild is approaching the group about transferring funds to the national organisation - the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship - to be spent on University of Birmingham students."

The President of the Guild, Mr Richard Angell spoke on Tuesday of the attempt to put one of its leaders on the CU executive: "It is a way of supporting the society. There are 158 societies for him to sit on; so it wouldn't have been very often,” according to the Church Times.

He continued by saying that it was up to students to define their own gender, and that: "Any student member should be able to become a member of the CU, as they should be able to become a member of any other society, including Hindu, Jewish, and Islamic societies."