Christian Unions win Right to Christian Leadership

University Christian Unions (CU) have gained a compromise deal which will allow them to restrict leadership roles to only those that practice Christianity.

The common sense compromise is part of a set of guidelines hoping to ease tensions between religious groups and student leaders operating on university campuses.

The guidance was published Thursday by the National Union of Students and the UCCF, the Christian Unions, the umbrella body for university CUs, and the Equality Challenge Unit.

It says that it is possible for societies to hold members-only meetings and can make membership a requirement for anyone wanting to hold leadership positions.

An assumption has been allowed to stand that anyone joining a religious society would naturally support the aims and objectives within the constitution.

The announcement follows a protacted tug-of-war between CUs at Birmingham and Exeter universities and their respective student guilds over claims that Christian societies were discriminating by excluding students of other faiths from gaining membership and from holding leadership positions.

In 2006, tensions reached a peak when both Christian societies had their bank accounts frozen and were banned from using student union facilities for failing to amend their constitutions as ordered by their respective guilds.

What followed were threats of legal action by both Christian unions.

Although the latest developments have been intended to reconcile the warring groups, critics fear that they may in practice have little effect, as individual student unions will have the choice of whether to adopt the guidelines or to ignore them.

Ben Martin, a spokesman for Exeter's Evangelical Christian Union who was on the executive last year, said he welcomed the guidelines, but the effectiveness would be measured once the guild decided to follow them or not.

Martin said: "If the guild says OK, we understand the guidelines ... then obviously we won't need to push forward. In some respects it's how the university and the guild look at the guidelines that will determine what we do. We don't want to push on [with legal action]."

Pod Bhogal, a spokesman for UCCF said the guidelines were a "really positive" step and his organisation would encourage CUs to take them seriously.

The Rev Richard Cunningham, the director of the UCCF, said: "We hope these guidelines will help in the very rare cases where certain student guilds have had difficulty understanding the deeply held convictions of the members of the CU and will also help CUs play an even more active and productive role as members of the SU."