Saturday, April 25, 2026

Colchester Council - SHAME ON YOU!

 Council accused of 'unprecedented' use of powers to silence gospel preaching.

Stephen Clayden, Bread of Life Community Church, street preacherThe church's pastor, Stephen Clayden, street preaching. (Photo: Facebook)

Christian Concern has suggested that a local council has made an “unprecedented use of public-order powers” to silence the preaching of the gospel in Colchester city centre.

Local officials are alleged to have asked that church evangelists turn down the volume of their amplification but later made objections surrounding the content of the message being proclaimed by members of Bread of Life Community Church. 

The church, based in Clacton-on-Sea, has engaged in its evangelistic outreach ministry for some time without any formal complaints being registered.

Although the current Public Space Protection Order contains no ban on amplified sound, street wardens allegedly asked church members to stop or reduce their amplification. In November a non-legally binding Community Protection Warning was issued, followed by the threat of fines.

A legally binding Community Protection Notice (CPN) soon followed. Such a move is “unprecedented”, Christian Concern argues, because it covers the whole church and its membership, rather than individual preachers.

The CPN not only takes issue with the volume of the preaching, but with the content of the message being preached. References to hell are said to cause “harassment, alarm and distress".

The preaching is also described as “unreasonable” and as having a “detrimental effect on the community”.

Bread of Life Community Church is challenging the CPN and is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre. Colchester Magistrates’ Court will be hearing the case on 1 May.

Church pastor, Stephen Clayden, said, “We have preached the Bible lawfully and peacefully in Colchester for six years. We have harmed no one.

"We will not be intimidated into abandoning the Great Commission. We respect the law. But we cannot and will not stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. No council has the authority to silence the Church.”

Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, described the case as “deeply alarming”.

“Public‑order powers designed to address genuine anti‑social behaviour are now being used to clamp down on Christian preaching," she said.

"Today it is amplification; tomorrow it is the content of the message itself. We are seeing a slippery slope from managing noise to policing theology.”

She added, “Preaching and public witness are central to the Christian faith and protected by law. If a church can be criminalised simply for proclaiming the gospel, then freedom of religion and speech in the UK are in serious jeopardy."

A spokesperson for Colchester Council said, "As the matter is subject to ongoing legal proceedings, it would not be appropriate for the council to comment further at this stage."

CT.

Birdie.


 

Justice Prevails in Malta.

Christian man prosecuted over ex-gay testimony urges Europe's Christians to take a bold stand for truth.

Matthew Grech, 4th March 2026A jubilant Matthew Grech outside the court in Malta after he won his case. (Photo: Instagram/Matthew Grech)

A Christian man in Malta who was repeatedly dragged into court over three years for giving his testimony about leaving the homosexual lifestyle urged his fellow Christians to stand boldly for Jesus Christ amid rising cultural hostility.

Matthew Grech, 36, told The Christian Post in a recent interview that he believes the Lord was with him throughout his legal ordeal, which drew international attention and ultimately led to his acquittal last month.



Grech first fell afoul of Malta's ban on so-called "conversion therapy" in 2022, when he was slapped with criminal charges for allegedly discussing and promoting conversion practices in violation of Article 3 of Malta's Affirmation of Sexual Orientation, Gender and Gender Expression Act.


The charges stemmed from an interview he gave that April with PMnews Malta, an independent outlet that invited him on to discuss his views on conversion therapy bans.

In 2016, Malta became the first European nation to criminalize practices endeavoring to "change, repress or eliminate a person's sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression," and similar legislation has since proliferated throughout the Western world.

Shortly after offering his personal testimony to PMNews Malta, police showed up at Grech's home on a Sunday to serve him with a prosecution order summoning him to court. He appeared in court 17 times over the charges, which carried €5,000 (more than $5,700) in fines or up to five months in prison.

Grech told CP that while his journey of repentance has cost him and not been easy, it has brought spiritual freedom.

Grech said he never fell into a "hardcore" homosexual lifestyle and was more interested in "a loving and faithful relationship," but he became spiritually convicted when he became a Christian that even his desire for meaningful sexual partnership with another man was against God's design.

"I had an encounter with Jesus when I was 19 years old, and He took center stage in my life, and the Word of God took center stage," he said. "I discovered Paul's verses about homosexuality, and I was convicted, and I prayed and I asked God, because it was very personal."


Grech said he came to understand God's love for him, and that it was out of love that God prohibits sexual immorality and demands repentance. Since leaving homosexuality behind, he said he has been able to develop a healthier understanding of his masculine identity.

"God helped me understand that He loves me but hates my sin, because it does bring a perversion to His sacred design for humanity. So I repented. I stopped the relationship that I was in. I was with a partner for just over a year-and-a-half.

"It was so amazing to feel free to discover my manhood, my masculinity; God's purpose for my life," he said. "It hasn't been an easy journey navigating same-sex feelings and understanding the depth of that, the roots of that I think mainstream culture hides from us."

"But it's been the best journey to be the man that I always wanted to be," he continued, adding that the Word of God has given him hope, joy and peace that he would not otherwise have.

Grech said the Maltese government has been working with gay rights activists in the country to silence the testimonies of Christians who repent of homosexuality, which he suggested is the end goal of conversion therapy ban legislation, even if its proponents claim otherwise.

After leaving the lifestyle, Grech became involved with the U.K.-based International Federation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice (IFTCC), a nonprofit organization that aims "to promote a caring, nonjudgmental environment where people who choose to move away from their unwanted feelings and behaviors can find the support they're seeking," according to its website.

Grech, who noted his previous public interviews about his personal choices never led to prosecution, speculated that his interview with PMNews Malta was targeted because he mentioned IFTCC.

"What I did differently this time was that I mentioned an organization that apparently was a threat to them and their false, unscientific ideology, and so they organized themselves," he said of the activists who reported him to the police.

PMNews Malta, whose journalists were also charged for their role in conducting the interview, discovered that the police complaint against Grech was filed by Silvan Agius, an LGBT activist from Malta who helped draft the conversion therapy ban legislation; Christian Attard, a founding member of the Malta LGTBIQ Rights Movement; and Cynthia Chircop, who co-chaired the organization.

Grech said the potential five months of prison time he faced for a conversation was "ridiculous" and indicates a worrying trend for the freedom of speech in the West. Despite his legal victory, he said the chilling effect of his case has been successful.

"I used to be invited on TV every month ... sometimes more than once a month in Malta," he said. "And ever since this court case came about, I've been completely silenced. Nobody interviews me anymore around the subject."

"I probably think that TV hosts have orders from the top to not mention the other side of the story, and so this law has been really used to monopolize the culture and conversation around sexuality and gender."

Grech said such a development is "very sad," and that his generation deserves to have robust and open debate about such important topics. He expressed optimism that the tide seems to be turning in the United States, where the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned a Colorado state law banning therapy for minors that does not endorse homosexuality and transgenderism.

"I admire Christians who are standing up in the U.S., and I want that to happen in Europe and in Malta, as well," he said.

Regarding what he would say to Christians who might feel crippled by fear amid growing cultural animosity toward Christian faith and morality in the Western world, Grech urged them to remember the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

"Jesus said, 'Rejoice when you are persecuted for the Kingdom of Heaven, because great is your reward.' You wouldn't be afraid of something that brings you joy. So when we have a revelation as Christians, we should dive straight into preaching the Gospel and sharing our testimonies and trust in the Lord in the process," he said.

While his three-year legal battle felt at times like a punishment, Grech said he remains thankful for it because God used it for His glory. He exhorted Christians to resist sin and the devil while taking courage in the Lord's faithfulness, even if they are called to suffer for His sake.

"I didn't endure this as a criminal," he said. "I endured this as a Bible-believing Christian. So, let us rejoice together and let us not submit to Jezebel. Jezebel is a loser. The devil is a loser. We love Jesus and we hate the devil. We're here to destroy the works of the devil."

"And so, we can't allow fear to take hold, because the Lord will be with us. Just as God told Paul, 'I have many people in this city, so do not be afraid.' And I want to tell you, wherever you are in the world watching right now, there are many people in your city that are meant to come to the Kingdom."

"So therefore, be bold, because if we are ashamed of the words of Jesus, if we are ashamed of His testimony, Jesus will be ashamed of us at His appearing. So we can do this, let's come together," he added.

© The Christian Post

How Do You Live? - Well ...


 

For Those Who Oppose Iran War But Know Nowt About The Whys and The Wherefores.

 The dawn of a new world order

An increasingly hostile American public has little idea of the necessity and importance of the war against Iran.

US forces patrol Arabian Sea after Iranian-flagged vessel tried to violate the US naval blockade, April 20, 2026

Most people in America are against the war with Iran, as they are in Britain, too.

Very few, however, actually understand why this war is as necessary as it is unavoidably complex.

Few seem aware that Iran has been actively at war against America for the past 47 years. Few seem to grasp that Iran’s fanatical Islamic regime has killed hundreds of US servicemen, perpetrated numerous attacks on US bases, committed countless terrorist atrocities and taken Americans hostage.

Few grasp that US and Israeli intelligence had discovered that Iran was poised to create both a nuclear bomb and a missile arsenal so enormous and so buried underground that no one would ever be able to tackle the mortal threat posed by the regime.

Instead, the American and British public have been fed a remorseless mainstream media narrative framed entirely by obsessive hatred of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This presents the war as a reckless choice into which Trump was bounced by Netanyahu, that it was always going to be a disaster, and that it’s already been lost.

Israel, however, which is desperate for the Iranian regime to be prevented from ever harming it again, fears that Washington is once again leaving it hanging out to dry. The Israeli public thinks that Trump’s ceasefire — and then its extension — shows he hasn’t got the commitment to see this thing through. They fear that he seeks to make a deal he can call victory, but which will leave the Tehran regime in a position where it can rearm and come back even more deadly than before.

Others, though, think that Trump is displaying strategic brilliance. They point out that he’s flipped the script over the Strait of Hormuz by turning Iran’s supposed chokepoint for the world into a deadly weapon against the regime itself.

America’s blockade of the Strait is causing Tehran to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a day in vital revenue, while the buildup of oil will potentially cripple the oil wells themselves and put them out of further use.

The fact is that this war is neither won nor lost. Both sides say they have the upper hand. Everything depends on Trump. His repeated outbursts on Truth Social, which often seem to contradict each other, are giving many people severe emotional whiplash.

No one knows how this is going to end. But it’s very alarming that opposition to the war in America is feeding into a growing general public animus against Israel.

Public opinion shows that the majority of Americans are now more sympathetic to the Palestinian Arabs than to the Israelis. In a Pew Research Centre survey conducted in March, 60 per cent of US adults held an unfavourable view of Israel, including 80 per cent of Democrats and 41 per cent of Republicans.




This animus, reversing decades of general public support for Israel, is due to three things: the education system, social media and increasing political hostility on both sides of the aisle.

Some of this is due to the funding of anti-Israel materials in the education system by Qatar. But mostly, it’s due to the Marxist, “anti-colonialist” and anti-Western orthodoxy that’s been standard in the universities for years, which has now infused the K-12 syllabus in schools and frames Israel falsely as a colonialist oppressor.

With the education system having widely replaced teaching how to think by what to think, young people have become vulnerable to the enormous pressure of the fashionable consensus. This is disseminated, in turn, by social media, which presents cranks and oddballs as having credibility and who are accordingly believed by the credulous and ignorant.

At the same time, the political world is increasingly abandoning the rational centre ground for extremism. The left has entered into an unholy alliance with Islamists in the common aim of overturning the West — even though their intended replacement societies are the polar opposite of each other —and hatred of Israel, the Jewish people and Judaism.

Last week, 40 of 47 Democrats voted for a resolution blocking the sale to Israel of bulldozers, while 36 opposed the sale of thousand-pound bombs — in the middle of a war in which America and Israel are fighting side by side.

The frontrunner in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, Graham Platner, who has a Nazi-associated tattoo on his chest, wrote in 2014 of Hamas military tactics: “From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent. I dig it.”

The Republican Party is fracturing along similar lines, with a significant faction claiming that Israel drags the United States into foreign wars — a charge now given rocket fuel by the war against Iran — such as the 2003 war in Iraq.

This claim is idiotic and untrue. Israel’s prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, advised Washington against the Iraq war, while successive US presidents have repeatedly restrained Israel from doing what it has needed to do to keep itself safe.

Now the left is joining the right in this particular canard. Last weekend, the former Democratic presidential candidate and US vice president, Kamala Harris, spoke about the war to a Democratic convention, saying that Trump “got pulled into it by Bibi Netanyahu, let’s be clear about that”.

And Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff under former president Barack Obama, said on Bill Maher’s TV talk show that there should be no more US taxpayer support for Israel, which should “get the same deal that any one of our allies does,” and that the United States “should never spill any blood for the State of Israel’s security”.

This was an odious and twisted remark. American military assistance to Israel requires much of that funding to be spent on American-made defence systems. This means that the United States profits hugely from the aid flowing back into the American economy through supporting domestic manufacturing, defence jobs and technological development.

Other allies, such as Japan and Germany, have thousands of US troops stationed on their soil at huge expense. And Israel is a unique ally in that it provides America with priceless intelligence, military expertise and technological developments.

These Democrats are singing from the same Jewish-conspiracy song sheet as the vicious Republican faction led by podcast host Tucker Carlson.

Disturbingly, US Vice President JD Vance has refused to repudiate this faction. So if he becomes the Republican presidential candidate in 2028 against an anti-Israel Democrat, Israel’s supporters may feel presented with a choice between the devil and the deep-blue sea.

Israel’s governing class is all too aware of this deeply troubling American trajectory. Concern about Trump’s successor has meant that Israel has begun to develop its own arms industry to reduce its dependency on the United States. The Jewish state is also acutely aware that many American Jews are turning against it, since some three-quarters of them are signed up to the Democratic Party and to progressive ideologies that are anti-Israel and anti-West.

Israel is accordingly developing new partnerships, notably with India and Africa. Whatever the eventual outcome of the Iran war, it’s clear that Israel has become the main regional power in the Middle East.

If the Tehran regime finally bites the dust, Israel will be at the heart of trade and infrastructure links that will hugely reduce the blackmail power of Russia, China and North Korea, the evil empire that has revolved around the Iranian regime.

Growing anti-Israel animus in the United States isn’t just a warning sign for American Jews. It suggests that America is going the same way as Europe, if more slowly. Britain and Europe are in the process of succumbing to Islamisation and destroying their own historic culture and identity. If Republicans can’t hold the line for the defence of civilised values, then America will be lost.

This is an inflection point for civilisation, and Israel is poised to become the fulcrum of a new world order.

Israel is very concerned that it may be losing America. America should be no less concerned that it’s losing Israel.

Jewish News Syndicate

Prayer, Please.

 

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Please pray!

Sri Lanka


Release International’s partner in Sri Lanka exists to mobilise and empower churches in discipleship; to reach the unreached with the gospel; and to ensure religious freedom in Sri Lanka, in the face of persecution.


Pray for wisdom and clarity for Release International’s partner in all the work they undertake, including: mental health programmes for pastors and ministry workers; youth education; children’s scholarships; and for livelihood support - especially in areas worst impacted by persecution.


Pray for God’s supernatural protection over Christians, and places of worship. Ask for Christ’s peace to guard the hearts and minds of his people, and to strengthen them amid fear and uncertainty.


Pray for greater resilience in churches in the face of ongoing threats and opposition. Pray for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit in the churches, that will bring revival, boldness and a deep hunger for God’s presence.

 

Sri Lanka


To find out more about the challenges of being a Christian in Sri Lanka, and the work Release International supports through our partner there, click on the button below.

Colchester Council - SHAME ON YOU!

  Council accused of 'unprecedented' use of powers to silence gospel preaching. The church's pastor, Stephen Clayden, street pre...