Over 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on Colchester City Council to retract a Community Protection Notice (CPN) against Bread of Life Community Church.
The CPN bans the church and its members from its long-standing practice of publicly preaching in the city centre. The church says it never received any complaints until local officials started putting pressure on the church last year.
Initially officials are alleged to have asked church members to turn down or turn off their amplification, despite there being no ban on amplified sound in the area concerned. Later however, officials are alleged to have started complaining about the content of the message being preached, particularly references to hell.
The CPN accuses the church of preaching a message that causes “harassment, alarm and distress". The preaching is also described as “unreasonable” and as having a “detrimental effect on the community”.
A petition started by Christian Concern, which is supporting the church, asks the council to withdraw its CPN and to protect freedom of speech and religion and the right of churches to peacefully share the gospel.
Christian Concern has said that use of the CPN is “unprecedented” as it targets the whole church and all of its members. Typically such measures are used to restrict the actions of individuals.
At time of writing the petition has been signed by over 10,600 people and states: “Bread of Life Community Church has been sharing the Christian message in public. This is not because they are behaving inappropriately - they record and livestream all their outreach and no evidence of harassment has been shown.”
“They are being suppressed because of the content of their message – the life-giving gospel that Christians have preached on UK streets for centuries. Please retract your Community Protection Notice against Bread of Life Community Church, recognising the freedoms of speech and religion that they are exercising.”
Colchester City Council said it would not be appropriate to comment as legal proceedings are active.
Bread of Life Church shared a photo on its Facebook page of Pastor Stephen Clayden meeting Nigel Farage. The church said the pair discussed "Jesus, evangelism, and the Bible".
"Bread of Life Community Church is grateful for his support," the post said.
