Former SPCK shop roundup

I thought it would be useful to have a definitive list of the SSG (former SPCK) shops and their current status along with information about who owns the building (as that will be the most important factor influencing the likely future for each shop).

This is the situation as I understand it on 19th June 2008. Please note that there are likely to be some errors here for a few days as the situation is continually changing. The details I have put here are no doubt incomplete - it would take a long time to tell the whole story for each shop but I have tried to explain the situation concisely. If you can help by improving or correcting what I've written it would be much appreciated.

In north to south order (more or less):

Newcastle
Building owned by SPCK, but subject to 7 year covenant(1). The shop closed in early June 2008 when SSG LLC declared itself bankrupt and told staff they needed to reapply for their jobs with ENC Management Co. As of 19 June the shop was open, staffed by temporary agency staff.

Carlisle
The building was rented. The shop closed on 31st March 2008 was reopened with new staff. I understand that the shop is now closed and that the building has reverted to the landlord (the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle Cathedral).

Durham
Durham Cathedral bookshop. There was controversy in October / November 2007 when the manager was sacked following negotiations about the possible transfer of the shop. The cathedral authorities allowed this to occur without public comment. A new company has now been set up to run this shop. The shop is currently open.

York
Shop building owned by SSG (gifted by SPCK, October 2006)(2). The shop building was to be sold but it was later withdrawn from the sale. The shop closed in early June 2008 when SSG LLC declared itself bankrupt and told staff they needed to reapply for their jobs with ENC Management Co. It is possible that the shop is now open, staffed by temporary agency staff.

Bradford
Shop building owned by SSG (gifted by SPCK, October 2006)(2). The shop is currently open. The shop building was to be sold but it was later withdrawn from the sale.

Sheffield
Shop building rented. The staff were sacked on February 5th and the shop closed following an exchange of press releases between SSG and the Cathedral authorities, but it has now reopened with new staff. The shop is currently closed. It is not known whether this is temporary or permanent.

Lincoln
The building is rented. The staff were sacked on February 5th and the shop closed. The shop was reopened, but closed again on Friday March 14th. The property is being advertised as available to rent (property Reference: CP7383). The shop is closed.

Chester
Building owned by SPCK, but subject to 7 year covenant(1). The shop closed for a time in early June 2008 when SSG LLC declared itself bankrupt and told staff they needed to reapply for their jobs with ENC Management Co. There are reports that the shop is now open two days a week.

Norwich
The building is rented (?). The staff were sacked on February 5th and the shop closed. I am told that the cafe at the Norwich shop closed on 2 June and the shop itself closed on 14 June. The stock and fixtures and fittings have apparently been removed.

Leicester
This shop was said to be independent, but I don't know whether that is the case or the details of the arrangement. It has been renamed 'Christian Resources' and has a basic website here. The shop is currently open.

Birmingham
The status of this shop has changed several times in the last couple of months. I have heard reports that this shop closed in early June 2008. It is not known whether this closure is temporary or permanent.

Cambridge
The building is rented. The shop building was advertised to be let and closed in June 2008.

Worcester
Building owned by SPCK, but subject to 7 year covenant(1). The staff were sacked on 7th February and the shop was apparently being run by just the manager. The shop then closed in early June 2008 when SSG LLC declared itself bankrupt and told staff they needed to reapply for their jobs with ENC Management Co. It is not known whether this closure is temporary or permanent.

Hereford
Building owned by SPCK, but subject to 7 year covenant(1). It has been said in the comments on this site that this shop is closed, but I have no further information. Another report says that the shop is now semi-independent. Can anyone confirm this?

Cardiff
The shop was in the City Church United Reformed Church and SSG had the premises at a peppercorn rent. The shop closed permanently on 31st March 2008, but there are plans for something new - see this webpage. I am told that the Churches Together Bookshop in Cardiff looks set to open at the end of July 2008.

Bristol
The original building was sold by SPCK and was not part of the transfer to SSG. The building used by the shop for the last year had been rented. The shop was closed permanently towards the end of March 2008.

London
The building was rented. The shop was closed on Friday 11th April 2008.

Canterbury
Shop building owned by SSG (gifted by SPCK, October 2006)(2). This shop was to close, but was then reprieved. The shop building was to be sold but it was later withdrawn from the sale. The shop might have closed in early June 2008 - confirmation required. It is not known whether this closure is temporary or permanent.

Salisbury
Building owned by SPCK, but subject to 7 year covenant(1). As far as I know this shop remains open two days a week.

Winchester
Building owned by SPCK, but subject to 7 year covenant(1). The current manager rents the building from SSG but the shop is now independent in terms of stock etc. The shop is open.

Chichester
The building is an historic church owned by the Diocese of Chichester. SSG uses it rent free but are responsible for the upkeep of the fabric of the building. At one point a plan to turn it back into a church was mentioned by Mark Brewer. A new company has been set up to run this shop. The shop is open.

Exeter
Shop building owned by SSG (gifted by SPCK, October 2006)(2). The shop made the news in October 2007 when the entire staff resigned. The shop building was to be sold but it was later withdrawn from the sale. On 11th June 2008 the shop was reported as being closed but a notice says that this is a temporary state of affairs.

Truro
Shop building possibly owned by SSG (gifted by SPCK, October 2006)(2) or owned by SPCK and subject to a seven year covenant. I am told that this shop is now semi-independent. The shop is
open.


Notes:
(1) If certain conditions are met the ownership of these buildings transfers from SPCK to SSG after 7 years - I make that October 2013. From the 2007 SPCK Annual Report: "SPCK also agreed to grant leases to SSGCT, at peppercorn rents, on certain other freehold properties for a period of seven years, after which time they will be transferred to SSGCT if the SPCK Bookshops Group remains in operation on an agreed basis."
(2) Again, from the Annual Report: "In the event, it was decided by a unanimous vote at the trustees' meeting that the bookshops should be transferred to St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust. This charity undertook not only to take on all the staff and to try to keep all the shops open, but also to ensure that the stockholding carried a breadth of materials from a variety of Christian denominations, including those of differing views on contentious current debates. This transfer seemed significantly better than any achievable alternative, leaving the staff in place and the Society with the opportunity to re-group and begin to move towards a more sustainable financial future"

In case anyone is confused:
SSG: Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust run by Mark and Phil Brewer. Took over the running of the bookshops in October 2006. Also known as Third Space Books on some occasions.
SPCK: Anglican Missionary society founded in 1698. Former owners of the bookshop chain. SSG was allowed to trade under the SPCK name until October 2007.

Summary of ownership of the buildings:
If my maths and information are correct:
• 4 or 5 shop buildings were given to SSG.
• 6 or 7 shop buildings are still owned by SPCK, but subject to a 7 year covenant.
• The rest of the buildings are rented or (in one or two cases?) subject to a rent-free arrangement of some sort.

Church Commissioners sell church to SSG for £100

According to this Gateshead Lib Dem blog the Church Commissioners sold a church to the St Stephen The Great Charitable Trust in November for £100:

The landmark St Cuthberts Church on Bensham Bank has been sold by the Church Commissioners to the American based St Stephen The Great Charitable Trust. The historic landmark has been sold for £100, reflecting the state of the building which is suffering from structural problems and vandalism. The building needs considerable investment to bring it back into use.

The nineteenth century church was designed by the famous Victorian North East architect John Dobson.

The Church Commissioners were keen to see the building continue to be used as a church. Work on restoring the building is expected to take a year.

The sale of the church has been welcomed by local Liberal Democrat campaigners Susan Craig and Peter Andras.

Does this sound familiar? An Anglican institution is desperate to hand over their asset(s) to someone. Things don't go smoothly with the first possible recipient, but then SSG are there in the right place at the right time and get given it for free.
The £100 price tag is not really the issue. Such an amount might be entirely appropriate given the hundreds of thousands that will need to be spent on the church. What really surprises me is that the Church Commissioners have decided SSG are suitable recipients at all given:

1. The ongoing legal cases between SPCK and SSG as well as between SSG and some former employees. SPCK gave away millions of pounds-worth of assets to SSG and got their fingers badly burnt and yet the Church Commissioners appear to be doing exactly the same thing. [If you are unfamiliar with the SSG / SPCK bookshops story see all the posts in the Save the SPCK category on this blog.]
2. The dubious aims of the Saint Stephen the Great Trust. SSG have said they are aiming to restore 47 redundant churches, one for each of the 47 battles St Stephen the great fought against the Muslims (statement now removed from their website, though I have the text recorded here). In their video SSG make it fairly clear that they see acquiring churches in Muslim areas as one of their aims. I just can't see how giving a church to such an organisation can fit within the requirements for new uses for redundant churches, namely that they should be 'sensitive to the setting and history of each building'.

It could of course be the case that the Church Commissioners are unaware of the whole SPCK/SSG situation, but this seems unlikely. It is true that this sale took place before the release of the St Stephen the Great video and the Radio 4 Sunday programme, but a lot of information about SSG was available online before that time. Surely you'd do a quick Google search before giving a church building to someone.

Here's some background reading:
• This April 2007 video by the same Lib Dem councillor shows the church before it was sold (Warning - contains local ploughing and footbridge news and also some in-depth photocopying footage)
• Extremist Sect Sets Up Church - No, not SSG. This is a report relating to a previous controversy, when the The Society of St Pius X were due to take on the church.
• BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Historic church's future secured - A BBC report on St Cuthberts from 2005.
• Listed Church For Sale - The Gateshead Council site listing the church as being for sale again in February this year

The page about St Cuthberts (now deleted) on the Church of England site said:

This is a rare opportunity to acquire a landmark building, in a commanding position overlooking the River Tyne. The property is being sold with the benefit of a development brief produced by Gateshead Council supporting the conversion of this Grade II Listed Church to a range of commercial and residential uses. All parties are keen to see the property sold and sensitively converted to secure the future of this landmark building. Built in 1845 to the designs of John Dobson and extended by the addition of an aisle in 1874, the church stands in a large churchyard that has been used for burials. It comprises tower, nave, chancel, vestries, aisle and west gallery. The building has suffered from subsidence due to former mining works in the area and is in need of substantial stabilisation and other restoration costs. Guidance on these likely costs is available from the agents. Offers are invited by 28 July 2007, with detailed evidence of feasibility within three months of submission of offer.

SPCK/SSG bookshops on the Radio 4 Sunday programme

[Welcome to anyone who has found this blog from the Radio 4 programme. The posts on the SPCK / SSG story can be found in the 'Save the SPCK' category]

You can now listen to the programme again here: Radio 4: Sunday programme. The SPCK item is 25 minutes and 15 seconds in.

In summary, the programme contained the following:

• Introduction to the bookshops and the crisis
• Me talking about my surprise at statements found on the original SSG website
• Sections of text from the SSG video
• Gregory Hallam talking about Orthodoxy and Islam
• Mark Brewer
• Aude Pasquier, speaking form a publishers perspective
• Mike Ford vistits the Chester shop and comments on what is and isn't on display
• Richard Greatrex, former Bristol manager
• Christina, another former manager
• Jane Mcgarry (?) USDAW
• Interview with Phil Brewer

Some of text from the programme transcribed via hefty use of the pause button (see 'Editor's note' below):

Presenter: A little over a year ago a small charity called St Stephen the Great took over the running of Britain's most famous religious bookshop chain, SPCK. The chain was said to be on the verge of financial ruin and the staff were worried about their jobs. At the time of the takeover SPCK's 23 bookshops employed a staff of 200, but since then the staff have left in droves complaining about the style of the new management, as well as changes to their contracts and working conditions. Publishers say new books aren't appearing on the shelves. St Stephen the Great (SSG) now a limited company is run by the Brewer family in Texas who describe themselves as lay Orthodox Christians whose aim is to spread the Orthodox message by acquiring redundant Anglican churches. Mike Ford has this special report.

Mike Ford: Set in the normally genteel world of religious bookselling the saga might well have come straight from the pages of a novel by Barbara Pym. SPCK was traditionally one of the most respected chains in the business. Some of its shops had been trading since the early 1800s stocking a broad selection of theological books and supplying churches with communion wine wafers and candles. But in more recent times the chain had faced desperate financial problems and had difficulty securing a buyer. So when the Brewer brothers from Texas agreed to take over it seemed like manna from heaven.

Dave Walker: I think when SPCK wanted to get rid of the shops they wanted a solution that would involve as few redundancies as possible and I think they saw St Stephen the Great as being the best option in the circumstances.

Mike Ford: Dave Walker is a cartoonist for the Church Times who has been following the story on his blog.

Dave Walker: I was very surprised when I went onto the SSG website that some of the statements that were on the site at the time didn't strike me as being particularly compatable with the more open minded stance of the SPCK shops.

Audio from SSG video: I'm Mark Brewer, chairman of the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust. Who was St Stephen the Great? He was a man who lived in the fifteenth century who fought some 47 battles against the Muslim Turks who were invading Eastern Europe at that time.

Mike Ford: Mark Brewer and his brother Philip describe themselves as lay orthodox Christians. They named their charity after a Saint who built a church after each of his 47 battles against the Muslims. The brothers want to follow in that spirit by acquiring 47 redundant churches from the church of England and turning them over to Orthodox use. Posters in their shops use the slogan 'Buy a book - Save a church'.

Audio from SSG video: The second major project of the Trust is a lovely old Victorian church in the city of Bradford. Known as Saint Mary Magdalene, the abandoned building would most likely have become an Islamic centre as it is only two blocks from what is already the second largest mosque in Europe. Now, thanks to (fades)

Mike Ford: Many Orthodox Christians have been alarmed by this video. Father Gregory Hallam, an Orthodox priest in Manchester thinks it could suggest that the Orthodox church has a confrontational attitude towards Islam.

Father Gregory Hallam: I belong to a church in the Middle East that has lived alongside Islam for over 1400 years, and some of Mr Brewers statements about Islam strike us as being very un-Orthodox in the sense of not being consistent really with our whole approach to interfaith relations. We in the Orthodox church regard all religions as being an indication of God's graciousness to mankind.

Mike Ford: The staff at SPCK became increasingly unhappy about the changes the Brewers were making. They related to the range of stock, the way it was ordered and the working conditions. The new management style didn't go down well either. The staff voted with their feet. More than two thirds of managers have left along with scores of others. In Exeter the entire team walked out. But the chairman of SSG, Mark Brewer, said the new measures had to be taken.

Mark Brewer: We came into the bookshops a year and a month ago facing mounting losses on the trading operations and set about the very difficult and sometimes unpopular task of trying to make the shops profitable enough to at least pay their own way while continuing to spread the word of God through the printed material as well as of course church requisites and some religious articles of one kind and another.

Mike Ford: It was understood from the start that the shops would continue to sell a range of materials, but according to staff in some shops the stock is narrower and they aren't receiving supplies. Aude Pasquier, sales and marketing director for a London publishing house says the changes are posing serious challenges to religious publishers.

Aude Pasquier: Basically I think the range of books is not being carried any longer. Potential customers can't find the range of books that they used to be able to find in the SPCK bookshops. Writers have been coming to us asking why - how come I cannot find my books on the shelves of the SPCK bookshops. For publishers it means that we have lost 23 shops in 23 different locations where we had clearly a good customer base and we have to be able to reach those customers by some other means from now on.

In summary: I felt it gave a good summary of the situation. The nature of such programmes is that each person's contribution is reduced to one or two sentences, but I think a good number of points were made nevertheless. I'd have liked what was said on to have gone further - for example the various Anglican dioceses who have said nothing about the fate of their local SPCK shop escaped without mention - it wasn't for a lack of talking about it on my part. Phil Brewer's responses in the final interview will, I'm sure, be the topic of some debate. As Richard
has said in the comments below he misrepresented the reason that many of the staff left, avoided the Islamophobia issue and his comments about 'broadening the stock' are just not born out by reality.

Thanks to the BBC for running this story and for the producers for ensuring that such a wide variety of voices was heard. If you have comments on the programme then do of course post them below, but you can also comment on the Sunday programme website.

Other comments on the programme:
• Neil: Radio 4 again
• The Need to Maintain Critical Dialogue Between Religions: SPCK / SSG Bookshops | The Wardman Wire
• Madame Arcati: St Stephen's bookshops fight the Muslim heathen!
• Posters on the Ship of Fools bulletin board give their reactions
• Room515 | SPCK: The fight club continues

Other links not directly about the programme:
• A pro-SSG Anglican priest - de cura animarum: St. Stephen's Trust: Restoring Britain's Christian Heritage
[Editor's note (Sunday pm): I need to get on with work, so the transcript of the programme is incomplete. If anyone else wanted to do any more transcribing (from 31 minutes) that really would be marvellous - I know that you can listen to the programme but it would be good to have a written record.]

Update: a comment by Richard Greatrex has been added to the Sunday programme site:
Re: The takeover of the SPCK Bookshops by St Stephen the Great.Many of the points made by Phil Brewer need challenging. Go into your local SPCK/SSG Bookshop and look for any of the new titles published since August by the major Christian publishing houses in the UK - SPCK, DLT, Church House, Kevin Mayhew, etc. I doubt whether you will find more than 5%. The range has radically diminished and not got broader, as Phil Brewer said. In some cases even the range of Orthodox material is less than before the takeover. Phil Brewer states that many of the staff left because they couldn't cope with attempts to modernise business practice. But most of us welcomed this with opened arms, we were willing to work hard to remodel the shops in a more businesslike way. We left because we and our colleagues were treated in most unbusiness-like and unchristian ways.

Leicester SPCK goes independent

Some good news at last. The Leicester SPCK Shop has gone independent. It will henceforth trade under the name 'Christian Resources' - the new website is here.

I found the following press release on the St Paul's Oadby blog:

SPCK Bookshop, 10 Bishop Street Leicester

We are pleased to announce that from the 1st November 2007 ownership of the SSGCT/SPCK bookshop in Leicester is transferred to Reverend Peter Hebden.
As a consequence we shall once again be able to emphasize the ethos of SPCK and will trade under the name of CHRISTIAN RESOURCES.

The address and telephone numbers remain unchanged but there will be an increase in the use of e-mails for facilitating credit accounts for parishes. Thus the preferred method of ordering, invoicing and statement production for parish accounts will progressively use e-mail thus dramatically reducing the amount of paper being used. There is no need to travel into Leicester just telephone or e-mail your needs.

We are determined to retain and improve this Christian resource centre by serving those whose mission is necessarily rooted in the parishes. For this to succeed and be a foundation for the future we would like all P.C.C.'s to consider if they can use our facility even more than they do at present.

Please contact us (by e-mail if possible) and allow us to open a credit account for your parish even if you may not use it for a while.

Tel; 01162854499 e-mail; peter at christianresourcesleicester.com

Best wishes from Peter, Janette, Harriet, Alison and Helen.

Also this letter from the Bishop of Leicester, Bishop Tim. Once again thanks to Revd Simon (who incidentally I met at the Christian Blog Awards) on the St Paul's Oadby blog:

I am delighted to add my support and encouragement to this courageous initiative that Peter Hebden is taking to keep the SPCK Bookshop ethos and resource available to us in this Diocese. It is vital that we all maintain our reading and awareness of Christian issues and the presence of a high quality Christian bookshop at the heart of the Diocese is a matter of real interest to all Christians. We owe it to Peter to do our best to support this initiative and to ensure that it does not fail.

+Tim

Well done to these people and to the Diocese for making this happen. If you are local please do publicise and support it.

Let us hope that similar arrangements might be possible in other Dioceses.

SPCK staff must work Sundays

More odd goings-on have been going on at the SPCK bookshops. Ruth Gledhill has the text of some memos sent out by the management to the shops - see her two posts today: 'If you go down to an SPCK bookshop today' and 'Why
Christians must work on the Sabbath'. The staff are apparently being asked to work on Sundays, greet all customers within 3 seconds, and all sorts of other crazy things.

I've been aware, from various contacts, of some absurd goings-on at SPCK recently, but I hadn't written here for the sake of my highly secret sources, who understandably want to remain nameless and employed. But if true these latest missives really do take, as they say, the biscuit. I suspect the Sunday-working one is illegal too, depending on the fine print.

Meanwhile, I noticed at the Christian Resources Exhibition that the main Anglican publishers have banded together to form AnglicanShop.com. This will be an online shop for Anglican things.


I spoke to one of the new managers of this site at the CRE who just happens to be moving from a certain chain of Christian bookshops, but I can't tell you which one.

Apparently the shop will feature 'interactive' elements. I'm not sure what this means, but perhaps we will be able to talk to each other whilst we are shopping. I suppose it will be a bit like talking to fellow shoppers in Tescos and asking them which particular ready meals they have enjoyed recently.

Update: Ruth has taken down the two posts for some reason. I'll try to find out why.

St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust

My SPCK cartoon appears in this month's Christian Marketplace magazine, which is nice.

I've been keeping an eye on the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust / SPCK story as it intrigues me and I am interested to see what happens. It did not
surprise me to read that the Trust have instructed their shops not to stock the Koran, as they are not overly enthusiastic about the Muslim faith. It remains to be seen whether Christian denominations they also are not terribly enthusiastic about will be less represented or removed from the SPCK shelves.

The controversial 'St Stephen Foundation' website which talks about these dubious denominations in quite strong terms has now been deleted from the internet, although you can still see it via archive.org.

One of the aims of the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust which I hadn't quite noticed until now is to take over at least 47 redundant Church of England Churches, one for each of the 47 churches and monasteries St Stephen the Great built to celebrate his battle victories against the Muslims:

Perhaps of equal or greater significance to this great saint's life is that he built many churches and monasteries, one after each of his 47 successful battles against the Moslems, including many of the most beautiful monuments to Orthodoxy in the entire world.

This struggle for the Faith is being waged primarily by the acquisition of the "redundant" church buildings of the Church of England. In this, its second year, the trust has succeeded in acquiring fee title to its second magnificent church building (both are listed buildings). In the years to come, it aspires to acquire at least 45 more. I find this a fairly unsavoury symbolic gesture I have to say.

I find it all a bit sad as I remain a great fan of the SPCK bookshops themselves.

Update: Joe asked in the comments whether we should stop supporting the SPCK bookshops. My answer is no. I think we should continue to support SPCK shops for the following reasons:

• I think the good the shops and the books sold through them do outweighs the strange and dubious objectives of the owners.
• I want to support the staff, some of whom I know.
• I suspect that once this chain is gone it really is gone and I can't see anything similar replacing it. At least if we continue to support SPCK there remains the chance that it will be taken over by someone we are able to support more wholeheartedly.

Save the SPCK!

The SPCK bookshops are on the brink of closure. So says a report in the Church Times.

"So what?" I hear you ask. Well, I think it is a shame. SPCK shops are, in many parts of the UK the only place where Christian books of a non-evangelical nature are stocked. This has got to be bad news for anyone like myself who is producing literature of interest to the broader Christian community rather than just the evangelical sector. It is true that at the moment I don't have a book and I'm not selling my cards though SPCK, but both of those could change (or could have changed) in the future.

I might add that it is not only SPCK who are having problems. Wesley Owen have announced they are to close their flagship store in central London. To quote their spokesman:

"Every time someone buys from Amazon, rather than from a bookshop, that is another nail in the coffin of a Christian retailer."

So, what can we do about this?
• Somebody could record a song.
• If you know a benevolent benefactor see whether you can persuade them to buy the SPCK.
• Support your local SPCK (though it may be too late for that)
• Join my one man campaign by adding this cartoon to your blog using this code:



Update:
Let's list the bloggers supporting the campaign.
Serena
Sam of Redwelly fame
Jack the Lass
Ian of the Youthblog
Neil "I will personally miss a friendly shop that actually changed my life."
Rosamundi
Never conforming
Urban Army
Musings, by Miffy
Dolphy
Tractorgirl
Connexions
Mad Teacher
the last burnt sienna crayon
Soprano Helen
The Days are Just Packed
Good in Parts
onmebus
Deep Thought
The librarians tangents
robert marshall
think bubbles
Three Chord Wonder
Christian Bookshops - News
Of course, I could be wrong
The Complex Christ
A Curious Girl
Thoughtful Christian


Update: You can find all posts relating to the SPCK campaign by clicking the Save the SPCK category.