A company 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 at the fair for a number of years, but were recently informed by Native, the company that runs the booking process, that they could not accept the church booking.
The company said that “due to a recent update in our company policy, we are no longer able to facilitate bookings for religious groups at these events”. Similar issues on a number of campuses have been reported by Good News for Everyone, the group formerly known as GideonsUK.
The church minister, Andrew Sach, warned Native that their actions could constitute unlawful discrimination. The company refused to give way, saying that it could not support “campaigns that explicitly promote specific religious teachings”.
Things escalated when the church contacted The Christian Institute, which proceeded to issue a formal legal letter saying that Native could be guilty of “direct discrimination on grounds of religion 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 these campuses have no Christian Union, so stalls like ours are the only gospel witness to the thousands of students who attend.”
Sach added that he wanted “to encourage other churches to stand up for the religious freedoms that we currently enjoy under UK law if you find yourselves denied a platform on similar grounds”.
Pro-life groups have in the past encountered similar difficulties. In both Scotland and England, some pro-life groups have had to fight for the right to affiliate with universities - often a necessary step to run a stall at the freshers' fair and advertise around campus.
Other groups promoting questionable causes appear to have little issue. Last year the Family Education Trust warned that young people were being put at risk by “kink” and “BDSM” clubs operating on campuses and promoting them at freshers' fairs.
