WEMBLEY VIDEO POSTED!

We have posted a new no-holds-barred video on YouTube explaining why we were giving out leaflets to football fans about how halal meat is being secretly sold at Wembley Stadium.

It marks the end of a sustained spring campaign at the Stadium against Wembley's (and the FA's) arrogance in not labelling halal food on site as ritually-slaughtered.  The Stadium's lack of honesty means that fans would be eating food dedicated to Allah by a Muslim Slaughterman intoning 'Allahu Akbar' (Arabic for 'Allah is the greatest'), the same expression yelled out by suicide bombers moments before they press the button.

The campaign at Wembley started with England v Ghana on Tuesday 29th March 2011 and culminated with England v Switzerland on Saturday 4th June.  In between, we did not miss a match, witnessing on:

Sunday 3rd  April 2011:  Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final - Brentford vs Carlisle United
Saturday 16th April 2011: FA Cup Semi-Final - Manchester City vs Manchester United
Sunday 17th April 2011: FA Cup Semi-Final - Bolton vs Stoke CitySaturday 7th May 2011: Carlsberg Trophy - Darlington vs Mansfield Town
Sunday 8th May 2011: Carlsberg Vase - Whitley Bay vs Coalville

Saturday 14th May 2011: FA Cup Final - Stoke City vs Manchester City

Saturday 28th May: Champions League - Manchester United vs Barcelona

Monday 30th May: Championship Play-Off - Reading vs Swansea

As the nation's underpaid and over-worked footballers take a well-earned rest, we shall be gearing up for another campaign when Wembley's season opens in the autumn.  There are two matches scheduled for early August, but we may give those a break and start with the Rugby League Carnegie Challenge Cup Final on Saturday 27th Aug 2011 and then back to Association Football with the England vs Wales Euro qualifier on 6th September.

Football fans have been mostly appreciative of the campaign, with many taking leaflets and some coming back for the information after initially walking past.  Our use of a small good-quality portable public address system helped people know what the issue was before they took a leaflet, and minimised those dropped on the ground.

There were a few encounters with the police, after a couple of Muslims complained, but after seeing the leaflets, a quick radio call to HQ established that there is a right to freedom of speech in the United Kingdom.

The message was simple:

* Boycott the Stadium's halal food,

* Say no to creeping Sharia Law,

* Eat outside the stadium.

(all of the food outlets in Olympic Way and Stadium Way are non-halal.)

After all, 'Why is the national stadium of a Christian country selling Islamic food in the first place?  The answer is that is more convenient for their on-site caterers Delaware North to buy from wherever they can.

READ: Exod 23:24; Psalm 29:2; Isa 42:8; Matt 24:30; Rev 11:15

PRAY: That Wembley Stadium will insist on non-halal meat for its on-site takeaways or at the very least, that halal food will be labelled as 'ritually-slaughtered.'  Thank God for bringing this issue to the light and for the peace and safety we have enjoyed in the Wembley precincts.  Pray that Stephen will have a lot of support for leafleting in the autumn.

VIEW: The new Christian Voice Video at www.youtube.com/christianvoiceuk

COMPLAIN TO: Wembley Stadium, Managing Director, Mr Roger Maslin, Wembley Stadium, Empire Way, WEMBLEY, Middlesex HA9 0WS. Phone: 020 8795 9000. Email: roger.maslin@wembleystadium.com

You can still sign our petition against the secret sale of halal meat at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/labelhalal/

EKKLESIA SUPPORTS SILLY WALK

The pseudo-Christian group Ekklesia is among the organizations supporting Symon Hill's silly walk.  Ekklesia, which masquerades as a Christian think-tank, was founded in 2002 and incorporated in 2006.

According to their website, the organization "aims to advance ideas in a range of policy areas from a forward-thinking ... " and drones on in this way for pages.
It should come as no surprise that Ekklesia has endorsed Mr. Hill's stunt, seeing that Symon Hill is himself has been what they describe as 'associate director' of the fringe group since June 2009.
Though Ekklesia claims on its website to be "deeply rooted in the Christian tradition", their policy positions reveal them to be merely a pawn of the militant secularist agenda. Ekklesia does not even try to hide the fact that they are against Christendom.  As they write on their website:
"Ekklesia's approach to issues of religion in the public sphere is primarily shaped by a strong theological and political critique of 'Christendom' ...  We think it is absolutely vital to understand the impact of the emerging 'post-Christendom' situation in Britain and elsewhere ... . Post-Christendom can be a positive opportunity to build a new set of relationships. We see our role as helping to reinterpret it in a positive light, both for those who have faith and for those who do not."
This is not the first time that Ekklesia has jumped on the bandwagon of an anti-Christian  campaign. The group's work in the past has including everything from scathing attacks on the theory of intelligent design to unsuccessful attempts to change St. George's day into a "day of dissent."  Naturally, 'Israel bad, Palestinians good' on planet Ekklesia.
Ekklesia has a total capital of £4.00 and its Memorandum of Association is that of a general commercial company albeit one which does not actually appear to trade much if at all.  It appears to have no assets except £4,000 in cash. Its abbreviated accounts for the year ending 31st May 2008 showed a turnover of £31,228, or which £27,938 was 'transactions with directors'.
It's directors are:
Simon Michael Andrew
Jonathan Charles Bartley - Co-Director
Benjamin William Harvey - Web Director
Nicholas Mark Turner - Marketing Director
Symon Hill, although stated to be the company's 'Associate Director' is not actually a director of the company.  All of the people who write or blog for Ekklesia have other jobs.

Other churches and organisations supporting Symon's Silly Walk.
Accepting Evangelicals
All Hallows Church, Leeds
Bisexual Index
Bury St Edmunds Friends' Meeting
Changing Attitude
City URC, Cardiff
Community Church, Surbiton
Courage Scotland
Courage UK
First Sunday
Greenbelt Festival
Inclusive Church
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
New Road Parents
St Columba's URC, Oxford
Student Christian Movement
Westminster Friends' Meeting
Workshop/ Anvil Trust
Young Friends' General Meeting

MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS

A man claiming to be a Christian has embarked on a walk from Birmingham to London to 'repent' of what he describes as his 'homophobia.'

Symon Hill, who is said to be the director of a fringe group called Ekklesia, will take 17 days to saunter the 160 miles to Hyde Park, where he will join the London 'Gay Pride' march on Saturday 2nd July. The 30-something writer says he has been 'training' with his friend Chris for his arduous under-10-miles-a-day stunt which will occupy some three hours a day.

Hill's "pilgrimage of repentance", as he describes it, began last night at Carr's Lane Methodist Church in central Birmingham. Two other churches have agreed to give him a platform along the way as he goes about 'challenging the Church as a whole to repent of homophobia and to think differently about sexuality.'

EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE

Hill claims to have imbibed homophobic attitudes following his conversion to Christianity in his 'late teens.' In a blog post 'Why I'm Walking' he says how ashamed he is at voting against the ordination of practising homosexuals as ministers in his early twenties.

He writes: 'I also harmed my own integrity by suppressing feelings that seemed to go against the human construction that I imagined to be God's rules for my sexuality.' It does not take much reading between the lines to conclude that the poor man is carting some emotional baggage down the byways.

It is difficult not to liken Hill's stroll to the Ministry of Silly Walks of Monty Python fame, (don't forget to right-click and open in a new tab or window) in which John Cleese strutted about trying to look important in a bowler hat.

SUB-CHRISTIAN SUPPORTERS

Indeed, it is hard to take any of Hill's stunt seriously at all.  He is supported by 'eleven national organisations' but when you look at them, they are the usual pro-gay sub-Christian suspects, including the dodgy Ekklesia (of course), the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, Accepting Evangelicals, Bisexual Index, Changing Attitude, the Student Christian Movement, 'Inclusive Church' and Greenbelt Festival.  Ultra-liberal churches and Quakers complete the mix.

Even the two prominent individuals supporting him have a chequered past. Bishop Richard Harries, now Lord Harries, has opposed every Christian initiative and supported every move of sexual license in the House of Lords, voting for easier divorce, and relentlessly for homosexual men to have legal access to teenagers. The other is Peter Tatchell, so avid a supporter of paedophilia that he contributed to a book called 'Betrayal of Youth' ('BOY' - get it?) published by the Paedophile Information Exchange in the 1980s.

REPENT OR BACKSLIDE?

The very foundation of Hill's enterprise is shaky. After all, even though repent means to 'turn away from', can you really repent of righteousness or do you backslide from it?

What next will Symon be urging us all to 'repent' of? Will it be of trying to be holy as God is holy? Or of loving one's neighbour as oneself? Or urging those of us in faithful marriages to repent of our lack of adultery? Should we repent of 'all goodness and righteousness and truth' (Eph 5:9) or of 'love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,' (Gal 5:22)?

Of course, in the intervening thirteen years, Symon Hill has not exactly been idle in promoting left-wing causes. He has written for the Guardian, the communist Morning Star, the Quaker publication 'The Friend' and Third Way.  He is a signatory to the Common Wealth statement of Christians committed to what they see as economic justice and opposing the government's cuts. He organised a "Church Crawl" in 1998 to raise Christian awareness of depression. He later oversaw media relations for the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and was part of the team that took the UK government to court in 2007-08 over BAE's Saudi arms deals. We might agree with some of that, but, to be frank, Hill really has had to scape the bottom of the barrel for anything not screamingly right-on in his politically-correct past.

SYMON SAYS; OR JESUS SAYS?

In defending the stunt Symon Hill wrote: "As Paul repeatedly tells us, Christ fulfils the Law and makes it possible to live by God's Spirit. It is this Spirit, not the values, priorities and prejudices around us, that we are called to follow." And this is said without a trace of irony as he slavishly trots along after the pro-gay spirit of the age.

And furthermore: "I believe that Christians should speak up for sexual ethics rooted in the values of Jesus." Now, what is it that Jesus specifically said about sexual ethics? In Mark 10:6-8 we read:

"But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh."

And being 'one flesh' in the God-ordained complementarity of union between the two sexes and in its expression in sexual intercourse is something that a pair of homosexuals can never do.  Churches should be reaching out ministering the salvation and healing power of Jesus Christ to the poor individuals trapped in homosexuality, not encouraging them on their walk to hell.  Whatever happened to 'pulling people out of the fire' these days?

WRITE OR EMAIL the churches hosting Symon Hill to protest against their support of what Almighty God sees as an abomination. The participating churches are as follows:

Carrs Lane Church Centre,
Carrs Lane,
Birmingham,
B4 7SX
Email: information@carrslane.co.uk

The Reverend Carla A. Grosch-Miller
Saint Columba's United Reformed Church
Alfred Street
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 4EH
Email: minister@saintcolumbas.org

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
235 Shaftesbury Avenue
London WC2H 8EP
Email: church@bloomsbury.org.uk