A former trustee of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) says she resigned ‘over a matter of principle’, weeks before the outcome of an investigation into two senior staff members was announced. Jen Charteris, the trustee in question, also acknowledged there were systemic failures within UCCF for years.
The charity itself has tried to clarify the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Charteris and five additional trustees – including chair Chris Willmott – following the investigation. Four trustees, Stephen Rigby, Glynn Harrison, Abigail Joy Marthinet-Glover and John Stevens – resigned just before the outcome was made public in a statement on 4 October.
In a subsequent statement on 10 October, Simon Day, acting chair of the trust board, said: ‘[The trustees] who have resigned have done so for a wide range of reasons, including some entirely unconnected with the [4 October] statement, others directly related, and still others only indirectly related. None of the trustees who have resigned are in any way implicated in wrongdoing.
‘None of the trustees, whether past or present, reject the report and recommendations of the independent investigator. We who remain are committed to implementing those recommendations, as well as reviewing UCCF’s governance structures, to ensure that UCCF is in the best possible shape to support our ongoing ministry among students.’
In the wake of the statement, Stevens – the FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) national director – said he ‘grieved what had happened’. Writing on social media, he clarified: ‘It ought to be obvious to everyone from the timing of my resignation from the UCCF trust board, just two days before the statement was issued, that my resignation was directly connected with the statement.’
He said he had given the board his reasons, and ‘much as I would wish to, I cannot say anything further at this point’ adding that it has been ‘a highly emotional few weeks’. Stevens commented that the other trustees who resigned ‘acted with integrity in reaching their decisions’.
Charteris – the first of five trustees to resign – also issued a statement saying she resigned from the trust board ‘over a matter of principle’, but could not give specific reasons because of legal constraints.
She said she has personally apologised to the complainants ‘for the way that certain practices have been allowed to endure in UCCF over years, for the hurt this has caused, and for our slowness to put things right systematically’.
Meanwhile, National Director Richard Cunningham and Field Director Tim Rudge are expected to make a phased return to work.
Several allegations of misconduct and employment law breaches were made against the organisation, but while many were not upheld, the outcome of the internal review left many unanswered questions about the culture within UCCF.
The investigator heard from more than 50 individuals and found staff had previously felt unable to speak out. Several complaints about standard employment practices relating to Christian Union staff workers were upheld, with some terminations ‘badly handled’ in a way that caused the individuals ‘considerable upset’. The investigator concluded these were ‘potentially unlawful’ but rejected claims of sex discrimination against women.
The UCCF trust board was first made aware of concerns about UCCF’s employment practices in March 2021, but it wasn’t until it received a letter from the complainants’ solicitors in December 2022 that an internal investigation was launched. The board received the investigator’s report back in June.
On 4 October, Willmott published a statement on behalf of the trustees apologising for the hurt caused. UCCF said it has acted on all the investigator’s findings and recommendations, which will include appointing an HR director and strengthening staff training from top down.
Simon Day confirmed that UCCF filed a serious incident report with the Charity Commission in January and recently met with representatives of the Commission to update them. It has been sent a written update on the conclusion of the investigation and all recent trustee resignations.
UCCF is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) and shares the same building in Oxford. An IFES spokesperson said: ‘This investigation began because people felt hurt and mistreated; all the way through it has caused pain and mental stress for many, and we grieve with them.’
It stressed that the UCCF is an independent organisation, and IFES has had no official role in the investigation. However, it said it has provided pastoral support to the trust board and staff in the past months and ‘will continue to do so while they work through the full implications of their report’.
