It’s rapidly becoming the ‘Fawlty Towers’ of the Christian retail trade in the UK. The way events at the SSG (formerly SPCK) Bookshops are evolving would probably stretch the imagination of even the most creative ‘sit-com’ writers. If it wasn’t so serious (especially for the staff involved) it could be funny – well laughable anyway. Now even The Bookseller has taken an interest with a two-page article by Graeme Neill in the 16th November issue and The Guardian mentioned the story in Joel Rickett’s column (17th November)

The last month has seen the resignation of the Bishop of Gloucester, Rt. Revd. Michael Perham, and Simon Kingston Chief Executive of SPCK Publishing, from the Board of Trustees of the SSG Trust due to “an increasing conflict of interest in representing what we felt to be best for SPCK.”

This was swiftly followed by the ending of the licence agreement allowing the SSG Trust to use the SPCK Bookshops name on its premises. The trust was also using www.spckonline.com as its website but this has now ceased. Mark Brewer, Chairman of the SSG Trust, said that the decision to change the name was due to “more andmore SPCK books carrying a decidedly “liberal” agenda rather than traditional Christian values…”

The SPCK Trustees also have some questions to answer regarding their decision to ‘gift’ the bookshops business to the SSGCT given the way events have unfolded at this troubled business.

A meeting between Mark Brewer and publishers ended with many of those who attended feeling “less than positive about the on-going relationship with the trust.”

A press release from Mark Brewer (2nd November) announced that Carole Burrows had ‘resigned’ from her position as manager of the flagship Durham shop. This came just hours after negotiations between Mrs Burrows and the Brewers, regarding the transfer of the business to Mrs Burrows, broke down. Friends of Mrs Burrows have reported that, far from resigning, she was given one hour to ‘clear her desk’. She thus became the second staff representative who attended the meeting between USDAW, ACAS and SSG, to leave the company. So far she has declined to comment.

Employee relations in the company are somewhat strained despite Brewer’s insistence in the Church Times article (14th September) that ‘morale at SPCK Bookshops is high’. A number of staff have felt the need to join USDAW, the Retail Trade Union, in recent months.

Three of the senior management team members left the company suddenly in August. A significant number of staff have left the company because of issues over new employment contracts, the imposed central buying policy, the cessation of the highly valued (by customers) second-hand book trade, and the almost total lack of awareness of the needs of the local market where the shops are located.

Despite contacting a number of stores I was unable to find anyone who had yet signed one of the new employment contracts which, among other unique clauses, includes the instruction about which type of music can be played in the shops at events.

Mark Brewer gave a radio interview to the Orthodox Christian Network in the USA, speaking about the acquisition of the SPCK Bookshops, in which he stated that, “We have been gradually, as quickly as we can - but it is a gradual process – been working to transform these into Orthodox bookshops.” This seems at odds with the undertaking that SSG Trust gave to the SPCK Trustees stating that the trust would ‘ensure that the stockholding carried a breadth of materials from a variety of Christian denominations including those of different views on contentious current debates’ (SPCK Annual Report 2006/7).

In the same interview Brewer also said, with regard to the Chichester shop, “The SPCK started that over 50 years ago, and we’re now in the process of making a transition - it’s a very small building but it’s right in the middle of the heaviest pedestrian shopping area of the town of Chichester in southern England. And we’re going to make this into a usable worship space for Orthodox worship, so that we can continue to sell books towards the back, sort of like you might do in a parish church, but turn this building back into a church…”

However this is still a consecrated Anglican building with a covenant requiring at least one Anglican Communion to be celebrated there annually. The first the staff in Chichester knew about this was when the news broke on the Cartoon Church weblog (www.cartoonchurch.co.uk/blog). Equally the diocesan officials only found out about the plans via the same route. No doubt the ecclesiastical lawyers are now working on this one.

The last month has also seen the closure of the York shop, the replacement staff at Exeter have also left and a number of shops are running with skeleton staff. Meanwhile Phil Groom, Webmaster of UKCBD and a Christian Marketplace columnist, has felt it necessary to start a ‘Save the SPCK Booksellers Fund’!

Mark Brewer has also criticised SCM-Canterbury Press, in a letter to customers, following the publication of an article in the Church Times (1st November), regarding developments at SSG/SPCK. He suggests that the article in that issue, “is motivated by a similar ‘envy and jealousy’ at what St Luke reported in Acts 13:45.” This is apparently because SCM-Canterbury, the owners and publishers of Church Times “seeks to compete with the Saint Stephen the Great bookshops through its own bookshops.” He further asserts, “SCM-Canterbury cannot be said to be motivated by a desire to support our work of Christian bookselling.”

Mark Brewer still declines to respond to requests for information or clarification from Christian Marketplace and, as staff are expressly forbidden from talking to the media, it is difficult to establish the complete picture. But this story is set to run and we will pursue it.

Footnote:
It should be pointed out the SSG Trust is part of the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust (SSGCT) and not linked in any way to the Society of St Gregory (www.ssg.org.uk) a charity which was founded in 1926 and is the national society for liturgy and music in the Roman Catholic Church in the British Isles.

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