Will you help save the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life? Will you pray and act to preserve its vital ministry to train and equip Christian leaders from the Global South, especially those who are poor and marginalised?
Great peril threatens the specialist library in Pewsey, UK, used by hundreds of OCRPL students around the world. Four weeks have passed since its shock closure by staff of an American entity called Nexcus on 1 October. The librarian was forced off the site, and his entry pass removed and last week was made redundant.
The OCRPL board and senior executive staff have written letters to the Nexcus board, pleading with them to re-open the library. But it remains closed.
Its beautiful building, housing 110,000 books, plus periodicals, historic manuscripts and precious Christian artefacts, is owned by a British charity called Servants Fellowship International (SFI). It is an irreplaceable world class collection, described by a senior university official as “exquisite resources”.
The library is currently used by over 800 students and staff of OCRPL, by Christian leaders in the associated GILD network and by The Shepherd’s Academy course writers as well as others. Most are in the Global South and many are from marginalised and impoverished contexts.
Yet, Nexcus claims the library is not being used. Does Nexcus even acknowledge our church leaders, reseachers and students as library users?
While online access has not been blocked, this resource will soon falter and fail because there is no librarian to do the skilled tasks necessary to sustain it.
The flow of funding promised by Barnabas Aid for the running costs of OCRPL has been stopped. OCRPL also needs the independence its board requested for the sake of the security of staff and students living in places of pressure or persecution.
OCRPL is registered as a charity in England. So is SFI, the owner of the library building and its contents as well as the owner of the conference centre, now otherwise occupied. Will you contact the Charity Commission of England and Wales and urge them to intervene to protect this library which has been snatched away by Nexcus?
Action:
- Please pray that the Lord will guide the members of the Nexcus board into paths of righteousness and teach them to love poor and persecuted Christians of many races and nations around the world.
- Pray for all the trustees of SFI that God will give them great wisdom an d courage to save their library that it may continue to be a blessing to God’s people around the world, including OCRPL.
- Please circulate this message to as many as possible.
- Please write to the Charity Commission of England and Wales. Its Chief Executive Officer is called Mr David Holdsworth and you can contact him on david.holdsworth@charitycommission.gov.uk Ask the Charity Commission to intervene to save the Moscrop Library at The Old Rectory, Pewsey, Wiltshire. Explain how vital it is for the students who are the charitable beneficiaries of OCRPL. Give OCRPL’s full name, Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life, and its registered charity number 1139185. If you use the library yourself, say so and how helpful it has been to you. If it is safe for you to do so, mention which country you live in and how studying with OCRPL has helped you and your ministry.
- Please write to the Nexcus board (email addresses below). Plead with them to restore the library so that OCRPL and others may use this wonderful resource for the Kingdom of God. Ask them also to reinstate its faithful librarian who knows the books like the back of his hand. Ask that the Old Rectory be available so that OCRPL students and staff can use it again.
Mr Colin Bloom ccb@barnabasaid.org
Rev. Ian Clarkson ian@branches.org.au
Rev. Michael Hewat michael@whcc.org.nz
Mr John Marsh John.E.Marsh@comcast.net
The Marquess of Reading simon@readingbm.co.uk