Nigel Farage, the Reform U.K. member of Parliament for Clacton, has expressed support for a British church fighting a local council’s bid to ban its street preaching ministry, meeting with the church’s pastor to discuss their case.

Bread of Life Community Church, based in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, shared a photograph of Farage meeting with Pastor Stephen Clayden and said the pair discussed “Jesus, evangelism and the Bible.”

“Bread of Life Community Church is grateful for his support,” the church said in a Facebook post. The church is challenging a Community Protection Notice, or CPN, a legally binding civil order under U.K. anti-social behavior laws, served on the congregation by the Safer Colchester Partnership.

The notice prohibits the church and all its members from using amplification during its weekly outreach in Colchester city center. Breaching a CPN is a criminal offense.

In compliance with the notice, preachers had stopped using microphones and were instead relying on unaided voice projection, The Telegraph reported, saying the council’s notice cited complaints from members of the public who said they were told they were “going to Hell” and exposed to language “likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.”

The church has rejected those claims and maintains that authorities are targeting the substance of its message rather than its method.

Reactions among residents and local businesses remain divided, according to the Telegraph.

Some passersby expressed support for the church’s right to preach, with one resident calling the message “good news.” A teenage atheist was quoted as saying that he did not mind being approached.

Others raised concerns about “obstruction” and “disruption.” An elderly resident was quoted as saying that the preachers made it difficult to move along the pavement, while staff at a long-running independent bookshop reported that amplified preaching, before restrictions were imposed, could be heard even in the shop’s basement and was affecting customers.

More than 11,000 people have signed a petition calling on Colchester City Council to withdraw the notice. The petition states that no evidence of harassment has been produced and calls the church’s outreach the peaceful exercise of free speech and religious practice.

The advocacy group Christian Concern said the CPN is unprecedented because it targets the entire church and its membership rather than individual preachers.

Bread of Life Community Church says it had preached in Colchester for six years without any formal complaints until local officials began applying pressure.

Wardens initially asked church members to stop or reduce their amplification, despite there being no ban on amplified sound in the Public Space Protection Order, or PSPO, covering the area. The council then reportedly raised concerns not only about volume but also about doctrinal content, including references to judgment and hell.

A non-legally binding Community Protection Warning followed in November 2025, along with threats of fines, before the legally binding CPN was issued.

Pastor Clayden was quoted as saying that the church records and livestreams all of its outreach activity and that no evidence of harassment exists. Preaching takes place outside a closed retail unit, not near active businesses.

“We have preached the Bible lawfully and peacefully in Colchester for six years,” Clayden said, according to Premier Christian News. “We will not be intimidated into abandoning the Great Commission. No council has the authority to silence the Church.”

The church formally appealed the CPN at Colchester Magistrates’ Court, with support from the religious freedom law firm Christian Legal Centre, asking the court to cancel the CPN in full or strike out any requirements it says unlawfully restrict protected religious expression under Articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act, which protect freedom of religion, expression and assembly.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said public-order powers designed to address genuine anti-social behavior are being used to clamp down on Christian preaching.

“Today it is amplification; tomorrow it is the content of the message itself,” she said. Williams also said freedom of religion and speech in the U.K. are in serious jeopardy if a church can be criminalized for proclaiming the gospel.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/nigel-farage-sides-with-street-preachers-in-row-over-evangelism.html