English church fights street preaching rules

Leaders of Bread of Life Community Church will appear in court Thursday morning to challenge city council restrictions on street preaching and ministry, according to the Christian Legal Centre. Since 2022, the church’s members have gathered each week outside a closed shopping center in the city of Colchester, northeast of London, for services that each last about two hours. During that time, they preach, sing hymns, distribute Bibles, and offer conversation and prayer to passersby, according to the Christian Legal Centre.

But then in March, the city ordered the church to stop using sound-amplifying equipment and end what it described as engaging or intimidating behavior toward the public. The council stated in a notice that references to hell in the church’s religious messages caused harassment, alarm, and distress, according to the Christian Legal Centre.

Breaching the city’s formal notice would be a criminal offense and expose the church to prosecution. The case was likely the first instance in which authorities used a Community Protection Notice to restrict the public ministry of an entire church, rather than a particular individual, according to the Christian Legal Centre. The church is appealing the notice and asking authorities to revoke it.

The church acknowledged that it used sound systems and that some people complained about the outreach, but denied claims that its members behaved aggressively or broke the law. Its lawyers planned to argue that describing biblical preaching on hell as intimidation could be content-based censorship of protected religious speech, according to the Christian Legal Centre.

A spokesman for the Colchester city council said the notice was issued after the city received complaints that continued over a period of time. Complaints continued despite earlier communication between the council and church leaders, the spokesman told The Telegraph.