Church leaders in Northern Ireland are continuing to express concern that the charitable status of churches in the region could be under threat with the imminent release of new public benefit guidance.

In a letter to the Belfast Telegraph last week, Rev William Park warned on behalf of the Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches that the guidance should not jeopardise them on the basis of their “long-established” terms of membership.

He said: “Under the draft guidance, churches are told that their membership rules must be sufficiently open.

“This subjective terminology threatens the status of churches whose terms of membership are deemed to be insufficiently open by the new commissioners.

“Surely churches must be free to admit into membership only those whose beliefs and behaviour are consistent with the Bible's teaching?”

In another letter, Professor W D J McKay, a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland’s Committee on Public Morals, expressed concern that the test will lead to public opinion playing a part in deciding whether an organisation should be a charity.

“Public opinion is a shifting thing. The status of churches should not be called into question because their foundational doctrines have fallen out of favour with a numerical majority.

“We have asked the Charity Commission to remove this 'popularity test' from its revised and final guidance.”

Guidance delayed

Having consulted on the draft guidance, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) had planned to release the final guidance this month, but this has now been put on hold.

CCNI chief executive Frances McCandless told Civil Society: “We are working on a legal technicality so the guidance is going to be slightly delayed.

“We don’t know at the minute how long that will be but we are now discussing it with the Department for Social Development.”

McCandless would not reveal the nature of the legal issue.