The Christian community arises at grass roots to defend its freedom to preach the gospel, but the outcome still depends on you.

Andrea Williams

CHAPTER 1: Monday 11 July

CHAPTER 2: Tuesday 11 October (the outcome of which depends on YOU)

Never before had parliament seen such a demonstration and yet it did not impact the Government's chosen course of action. The Government remained determined to press on with the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill despite widespread concerns from every section of society. The Bill, as drafted, will mean an end to freedom of speech as we know it and for Christians is particularly concerning as it will threaten our freedom to preach the Gospel.

Never before had the Palace of Westminster seen anything like it. On Monday 11 July at 1.30pm between 2000 and 4000 Christians mainly from the Afro Caribbean Community held placards and sang praises to the Lord Jesus for four hours outside parliament. Buses tooted, tourists filmed and the police proclaimed they'd never been sung and danced at! Inside the House of Commons in central lobby crowds of African Christians were asking to see their MPs.

At 9am the same day a petition signed by over 1000 church ministers representing therefore hundreds of thousands of people organised by concerned Anglican clergy and the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship was delivered to Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street.

But it was not enough. Perhaps it all came too late. Labour Members of Parliament had been 'heavily whipped' meaning they had little choice but to vote with the Government. On speaking with MPs it was clear many of them were trusting their parliamentary colleagues on the Bill and had not grappled with the issues themselves. Despite the Petition and rally hardly any MPs entered the Parliamentary Chamber when the Bill was being debated and it is likely that most of them had not fully considered the issues when the vote was returned 301 in favour of the Bill and 229 against.

A grass roots movement representing 2 million Christians and a petition was mobilised in 5 days. Christians across Britain must now prepare for the next stage. The Government has rushed through this Bill at every stage and it is now provisionally scheduled for its first Lords debate as soon as the summer recess is over on Tuesday 11th October. The Christian Community must move fast and as never before. Christians across the land should make appointments to see their MPs in their MP's constituency. In every Constituency there must be thousands of Christians. If the MP has to meet with many Christians expressing concern he will realise there is a potential crisis for the Government and votes at stake.

It is clear the Lords are not happy with this Bill so we must pray for a miracle in the House of Lords and that the Peers will not be content with a flawed amendment.

A huge rally is being organised. Up to 4000 people were mobilised in 5 days. We want to see hundreds of thousands of Christians in the centre of London probably the Saturday before the Debate 8 October. The Christian Community must set its face hard to work on this in September lobbying MPs and Lords at the same time.

As the Debate closed in the Commons Dominic Grieve, Shadow Attorney General said this: 'It is a fettering of freedom of speech and expression, but he (Paul Goggins- Home Office) and the government say it is necessary and that they have sought to draft the measure sufficiently tightly that freedom of speech will not be unduly restricted. There is a language of hatred and it needs to be fought, but the best way to fight it is by the public expression of views that those who hate others on matters where they should not do so are wrong. The Government's attempt to introduce what is in effect a mechanistic system of what is and is not appropriate, far from helping the situation, I believe will make it worse ...the mischief that remains (in this Bill) is great.

If the Government really want to tackle this issue, they must get away from the promises made to various people of an equal playing field accept that race and religion are different, start to look at the real nature of the problem and try to come up with constructive solutions. We can all agree that it is undesirable that people should preach violence or words that lead to violence but what this Bill will achieve is the prevention of perfectly lawful expression of differences of view, which is the very foundation on which our democracy has been based'.