Banned church wins battle to be at new students’ fair

A Greenwich church, with help from The Christian Institute, has successfully defended its right to book a stall at a university freshers’ fair in response to a ban on religious groups.

While attempting to reserve a spot at Goldsmiths University freshers’ fair, Grace Church Greenwich was told by Native.fm – the organisation to which the university had outsourced the booking process – that “due to a recent update in our company policy, we are no longer able to facilitate bookings for religious groups at these events.”

Andrew Sach, Minister at Grace Church, told en that they wrote back, suggesting that this might amount to unlawful discrimination under section 29 of the Equality Act 2010. The response from Native.fm was that they were open to working with “religiously affiliated groups on secular initiatives” but couldn’t support “campaigns that explicitly promote specific religious teachings.” Sach told en of the frustration he felt: “So it’s okay to be there as a Christian organisation as long as we don’t do or say Christian things?” According to Sach, GOOD NEWS for Everyone! (GNFE) [formerly GideonsUK] ran into similar issues trying to book at multiple locations across the UK.

Grace Church appealed to The Christian Institute (CI). Sam Webster, CI’s in-house solicitor, took up the matter on Grace Church’s behalf, at no cost to the fellowship. Webster wrote a formal letter to Native.fm arguing that their actions constituted “direct discrimination on grounds of religion or belief contrary to sections 13 and 29 of the Equality Act 2010.” Webster further suggested that “GNFE and Grace Church therefore have grounds for a claim under the Act.”

“But he also explained that Native.fm could avoid us escalating the matter, by simply agreeing to allow all future bookings from us and other religious groups,” Sach told en. To the joy of Sach and Grace Church, they received a reply from Native.fm’s lawyer, saying that “without admission of liability, Native. fm has decided to suspend our policy on engagement with religious organisations and the related restrictions on booking through Native.fm with immediate effect.” Grace Church and GNFE are now in the process of booking freshers’ fair stalls for 2026.

For several years, Grace Church has paid for a stall at local freshers’ fairs. Sach described the church’s intentions as “the hope of making connections with both Christians and interested unbelievers as they arrive at university.” The church sets up an espresso machine and, while offering free coffee, gets into conversations about Jesus. “A few stalls down, our friends at GOOD NEWS for Everyone! … hand out free copies of the New Testament,” Sach continued. “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 described his reasons for sharing the church’s story: “First, 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. Secondly, to draw attention to the excellent work of The Christian Institute, to whom we are full of gratitude. Thirdly, to give praise to God for keeping the door open for the message of the gospel. We pray that next autumn many freshers would hear of Jesus and be welcomed into [gospel-preaching] churches.”