OCRPL, including its undergraduate wing The Shepherd’s Academy, is in grave danger.
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?
In February this year came news that some of OCRPL’s UK-based staff were plotting to seize control and hand the leadership to Mr Noel Frost, CEO of the American entity Nexcus. One of the plotters said that the senior leaders were to be removed, the doctoral and masters courses closed down and the undergraduate courses (The Shepherd’s Academy) taught only in English: the translations into Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Russian would be abandoned.
At the same time, geopolitical events and shifting persecution patterns were giving the OCRPL board another cause for concern. The ministry’s main funder, Barnabas Aid, has a history of boldly publicising the causes of persecution. And Barnabas Aid has often written about OCRPL as its academic wing. The OCRPL board feared that, in the current international context, this publicity could endanger OCRPL’s students, faculty and partner institutions in certain countries.
In April the OCRPL board wrote to the boards of Barnabas Aid and of Nexcus (through which Barnabas Aid grants are channelled) expressing gratitude for past links and past support but requesting separation and an end to all publicity – past, present and future – connecting OCRPL with Barnabas Aid.
Barnabas Aid agreed. Nexcus did not.
Instead Nexcus moved into a pattern of obstructing the work of OCRPL, explaining that this was because OCRPL had requested separation. Nexcus ceased forwarding the funds already promised by Barnabas Aid to OCRPL for its running costs. Nexcus withheld the financial information required by the OCRPL auditor. The new Nexcus CEO, Colin Bloom, who has no position or authority in OCRPL, summoned Nexcus staff worldwide to a Zoom meeting, describing himself as the CEO of OCRPL.
In September pressure seemed to ease slightly, but on 1 October came the biggest shock of all. Nexcus staff seized control of a specialist library in Pewsey, UK owned by a charity called SFI and used primarily by OCRPL.
Three days later Colin Bloom and his family took up residence in another SFI-owned property, the Old Rectory building on the same site as the library. The Blooms, their children and their pets have now made it their home. Several vans delivered the family’s furniture there.
Disdaining the guest accommodation on the second floor, the Blooms have occupied the ground floor and first floor, which house meeting rooms, kitchen and dining-room facilities used by OCRPL students when they come to Pewsey for classes or conferences.
This double grab is devastating for OCRPL.
The library is used by over 800 students and staff of OCRPL, by the associated GILD network and by The Shepherd’s Academy course writers, as well as Barnabas Aid staff. Despite it being such a well utilised resource for Christians in the Global South, Nexcus claimed the library was not being used and would be closed down.
It is an irreplaceable world class collection, which rivals similar libraries in eminent universities. Many books were generously donated by their previous owners.
The librarian, who built up the collection of books and artefacts over 22 years, is being made redundant. He has been blocked from accessing the library IT system. It is believed that the locks on the library doors have been changed.
The shock to the librarian was so great that he has been signed off sick with stress for two weeks by his doctor.
Colin Bloom is thought to have plans to sell the books and artefacts, then repurpose the building, which was designed by a famous architect specifically to house this library.
It appears that Colin Bloom, the current CEO, has gone even further than Frost planned in his persecution of OCRPL. Frost (who was exposed as a fraudster and forger in May and was dismissed in June) wanted to reduce OCRPL to a white-run, English-speaking endeavour. But Bloom seems set on the complete destruction of OCRPL.
Action:
- Please pray that Colin Bloom and the other members of the Nexcus board will repent of their evil actions in trying to destroy a work of God. Their names are Colin Bloom, Ian Clarkson, Michael Hewat, John Marsh and the Marquess of Reading. Pray also for Jeremy Frith of the SFI board and Andrew Carey of the Barnabas Aid board who are supportive of Nexcus. Pray that the Lord will guide them all into paths of righteousness and teach them to love poor and persecuted Christians of many races and nations around the world.
- Please circulate this message to as many as possible.
- Please write to Colin Bloom and the rest of 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 Colin Bloom to vacate the Old Rectory 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
