Letter to Provost of Worcester College About His Recent Apology For Hosting Christian Event

David Isaac, the former Chair of Stonewall and now Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, recently issued an apology on behalf of the College for hosting an event earlier this month for the Wilberforce Academy, which is part of Christian Concern. In a letter to students and staff, he said booking the event “was a serious failure that has caused significant distress” to students who discovered a leaflet from the event when they returned to the College. Christian Concern said the apology showed “cancel culture has once again demonstrated the power of its grip in one of our top universities” and accused David Isaac of “capitulating to an aggressive movement”. We have written to Mr Isaac pointing out that to exclude a group from holding an event on the College’s premises because of its Christian beliefs would be a breach of the Equality Act 2010, something he should be aware of given that he’s also a former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

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Letter to Provost of Worcester College About His Recent Apology For Hosting Christian Event

Summary

David Isaac, the former Chair of Stonewall and now Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, recently issued an apology on behalf of the College for hosting an event earlier this month for the Wilberforce Academy, which is part of Christian Concern. In a letter to students and staff, he said booking the event “was a serious failure that has caused significant distress” to students who discovered a leaflet from the event when they returned to the College. Christian Concern said the apology showed “cancel culture has once again demonstrated the power of its grip in one of our top universities” and accused David Isaac of “capitulating to an aggressive movement”. We have written to Mr Isaac pointing out that to exclude a group from holding an event on the College’s premises because of its Christian beliefs would be a breach of the Equality Act 2010, something he should be aware of given that he’s also a former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Below, you can see our original letter and the reply we received from David Isaac on 29th September 2021.

UPDATE: We received a reply from David Isaac on 29th September 2021. You can read the full text of his letter below.