SPCK bookshop staff fear final chapter

From The Times
March 14, 2008

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
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A love of church and books often walks hand-in-hand within the soul of an individual, and for such bibliophiles, the place to hang out has often been in one of the country's SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) bookshops.

They are among the most picturesque in the country, with many set in crooked little buildings in the shadow of the great cathedrals they serve. Staff and customers lived in a cosy world of quietly spoken bookishness and Christian charity. These bookshops seemed inured to the brutal realities of commerce.

But behind the scenes, the balance sheets were not looking good. Profits were insufficient, and assets were being sold off to make ends meet. Enter the Brewer brothers, Mark and Phil; two devout Texans with a mission to restore Orthodox Christianity to a Britain they regard as floundering amid a loss of faith, with Churches that have diverged from the “true faith of the Bible” being subject to “destruction or defilement” as they are turned into restaurants, flats or even mosques and temples.

The launch of their crusade to restore true orthodoxy to the 60 million lost souls of Britain came with a little-noticed story in the Church Times back in October 2006, which opened with the paragraph: “SPCK Bookshops have announced a partnership with St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust (SSG), an Eastern Orthodox charity based in the United States which was formed in 2004. SPCK is currently the second-largest Christian bookseller in the UK, and has 23 shops in England and Wales.”

In its entry in the Church of England Yearbook 2008, SPCK, which retained its publishing arm, still boasts of being the oldest Anglican mission agency, founded in 1698, with bookshops throughout England.

Alongside Christian books, many of the shops also stocked items relating to other faiths, such as the Koran, thought to be essential reading for the clergy.

Among the virtues of St Stephen extolled on a video about the work of the trust named after him, however, are St Stephen's victories in 47 battles against “Muslim Turks”. To mark these victories, he is said to have founded 47 churches. And on the video, the trust's chairman, Mark Brewer, says he intends to follow in the footsteps of St Stephen. The Koran was one of the first things to go from the shops, now renamed after the society that has taken them over.

The Koran was fast followed by many of the staff, who refused to sign new contracts that increased their hours and required them to work on Sundays. Of the 23 shops, all are now open but several, including Norwich, Sheffield, Lincoln and Cambridge, closed briefly when staff declined to sign new contracts. In a letter last month to the Church Times, John Hannett, general secretary of the shopworkers' union Usdaw, gave warning that staff employment rights were at risk. Some even formed a group on Facebook, “for all those people who mourn the tragic demise of SPCK bookshops”. It was not effective. Last November, the shops stopped trading under the SPCK name and are now SSG bookshops.

The Brewers point out, however, that the trading situation was so dire that had they not taken over the shops for a nominal sum from SPCK when they did, then all would have closed in any case at the end of 2006. According to a piece in the Bookseller, they would be “happy to listen to offers” for franchising of the 23 shops.

In a rare interview, Mark Brewer spoke to The Times about the shops and the brothers' plans for Britain. He said that when they took over the chain, there were about 160 employees. By the time they issued new contracts, that had fallen to 120. Now there are about 80. Staff costs were 30 per cent of gross sales across the board. The goal was to get this down to 15 per cent to ensure the survival of the business.

Mr Brewer was baffled by the refusal of some staff to work on Sundays. “I feel that being open on Sundays is a vital part of Christian ministry,” he said. He described how he and his brother attended Exeter Cathedral last Easter Day, and after the service, as the congregation milled around the local shops, how saddened they were to see that the Christian bookshop was one of the few shops closed that day. He said the shops had been losing money for seven years, into seven-figure sums by the time of the takeover. Their future is still uncertain.

Mr Brewer's goal is to fulfil the objects of the charity he set up, which is to advance the Eastern Orthodox mission in Britain. “If they are not willing to work with me, I will just try to find somebody else,” he says.

“My heart just breaks every time I see news of a church that is going to be closed and turned over to some profane use,” he continues. “To me it is a tragedy. If there is anything that can be done to stop that, I want to be part of it.”

He has indeed made himself part of it. And while it remains more controversial in Britain to close a Christian bookshop than a church, the mission of the Brewers will continue. It remains only for their staff to decide whether they are for them or against.

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