London, England - Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops warned student unions last night that they would be acting illegally if they banned Christian societies from campuses. They claimed Christian students were facing "considerable opposition and discrimination" at universities.
The move followed decisions by student guilds and associations at three universities, Exeter, Birmingham and Edinburgh, to suspend Christian groups from membership or use of premises on the grounds that their constitutions or meetings are exclusionary and discriminate against non-Christians and particularly gay people. Other university unions, including Heriot-Watt University and some London medical schools, are said to have taken similar action.
It is understood that at Edinburgh a course looking at biblical teaching on relationships, sex and marriage was banned because the students' association claimed it breached anti-discrimination policies.
A letter signed mainly by evangelical Church of England bishops and organisations including the Evangelical Alliance, but also the Roman Catholic church's lead bishop on higher education, calls for the groups to be reinstated.
It says: "Christian students at many of our universities are facing considerable opposition and discrimination in violation of their rights of freedom of expression, freedom of belief and freedom of association". The letter adds that "we believe this to be intolerant and unlawful" and that the Christian unions currently suspended "should be reinstated with full society rights forthwith".
"Of course university student guilds/unions have a responsibility to ensure that official societies are run in a proper and lawful manner. However, this does not give them, or anyone else, the right to restrict or change the essential beliefs of those societies or impose as leaders people who do not share those core beliefs ... as a faith sharing organisation, CUs specifically invite people who do not share the Christian faith to attend their meetings, [but] it would be inappropriate for anyone who does not agree with the aims, objects and beliefs to be executive committee members."
The signatories include the Anglican diocesan bishops of Winchester, Chester, Rochester, Southwell and Nottingham and Lichfield and the Rt Rev Crispian Hollis, Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth.
The Christian unions at two universities have threatened legal action.
The 1986 Education Act imposes obligations on universities to safeguard the lawful exercise of freedom of speech and a universities' working party's guidelines for student unions, published in 1998, state that unions shall not harass, intimidate or threaten any member or group.
The Universities and Colleges' Christian Fellowship, umbrella body for 350 university Christian unions representing up to 20,000 students, said the organisations were under "unprecedented" attack.