A church in Essex just fought a council order that criminalises its own street preaching

A church in Essex is in court today. And it's fighting an order that could turn its weekly street preaching into a crime.

Bread of Life Community Church is challenging a Community Protection Notice from Colchester City Council. The hearing started at 10am today, at Southend Magistrates' Court. It runs two days. Day two is in a week, on 29 October, at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.

The council issued the notice seven months ago, in March 2026. Breaking it is a criminal offence.

So here's why this one is different. This is believed to be the first time a Community Protection Notice has been used against an entire church's public ministry, not against one person.

So what does the notice actually say?

It orders the church to stop using loudspeakers or amplified equipment. It also orders the church to stop what it calls engaging or intimidating behaviour. The church denies it has ever behaved that way.

Christian Concern, which is reporting the case, says the notice has no geographical limit, no volume threshold, and no expiry date. It says the notice never even defines what intimidating behaviour means.

That's a notice with no end date, and no clear line telling the church where it stands.

Now here's how this started. Since 2022, church members have gathered in Colchester city centre once a week, for around two hours. They preach, sing hymns, hand out Bibles and Christian literature, and offer conversation and prayer. The church also runs a food bank, and gives out warm clothing and hot meals to homeless people.

First it was the volume. Council wardens complained about the church's amplification. A Community Protection Warning followed in November 2025.

But the complaints didn't stop at noise.

Here's the twist. The council's concern shifted from how loud the church was to what it was actually saying. It started raising the theological content of the preaching, including references to judgment and hell.

And that's exactly what the Community Protection Notice names. Religious messaging mentioning hell, which it says caused harassment, alarm and distress.

At an earlier hearing in May, the council's barrister, Laura Austin, said a vulnerable man had been told he was going to hell, after he covered his ears because the amplification was too loud for him. The council also alleged homophobic comments and chants towards members of the public.

The church denies all of it. It says its outreach is livestreamed and recorded, and there's no evidence of harassment.

Laura Austin denied the council was trying to censor a religious group.

The church's barrister, Michael Phillips, instructed through the Christian Legal Centre, told that same hearing this was the first time a council had tried to control the speech of a group, rather than an individual.

That's a lawyer saying no council has ever tried this before, on anyone.

The church also says its preaching happens outside a closed retail unit, not directly outside a trading business.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, is backing the case. The Centre has won before. In Uxbridge, a council ban was overturned. In Aldershot, the council withdrew its own attempt at an injunction.

Pastor Stephen Clayden leads Bread of Life Community Church. He says quote "This case goes far beyond a disagreement about the volume of a loudspeaker."

That's the pastor saying this was never really about noise.

The case has drawn wider attention. A petition calling on the council to withdraw the notice passed 27,000 signatures by the middle of this month.

Colchester City Council has declined to comment further while the case continues.

The church brought this appeal using powers under a 2014 law covering community protection notices. A case management hearing was held in August. The first hearing on the substance of the appeal was in May.

So what don't we know? How the magistrates will rule. And whether either side appeals further once they do.

The second day of the hearing is in a week. Until then, the notice still stands. And so does the criminal offence for breaking it.