The Christian Bookshops Blog » SSG

Durham Cathedral Bookshop Staff Start Tribunal

unicorntreebooksboss — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:44:00 +0000

Less than two weeks after the post of SPCK/SSG Two Years On: Reflections and Responses and things are moving towards a conclusion of the SPCK/SSG Saga at Durham Cathedral Shop as the Staff there begin their Tribunal.

This action though seems not to just cover the past and prior management (if such word can be used with a straight face) and owners, but it does include the current owners too as Durham Cathedral Trading LTD, Durham Cathdrals own trading arm, have also been cited in the Tribunal action with one of the members of staff making a claim for damages against them too, or so The Journal Newspaper reported yesterday.

For a fuller report head over to SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info

“Former-SPCK” Creditors: Letters to Church Times, The Bookseller

mattwardman2000 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:50:22 +0000

Matt Wardman writes:

I mentioned in a previous posting that we had written to a number of outlets to publicise the call for Creditors of the former-SPCK bookshop chain, and to raise a number of concerns about the way the brevity of the deadline, and the narrowness of the subset of creditors likely to see a notice placed only in The Bookseller.

Edited versions of our letters have been published in both the Church Times and the Church of England Newspaper, and the full letter in The Bookseller. Christian Marketplace has also carried an article on their website about the Call for Creditors.

We hope, in particular, to start a wider debate in the Book Trade about the nefarious activities of the Messrs Brewer over the last several years, which is long overdue.

In our view, and based on published and unpublished information, a criminal investigation is more than merited.

The Church Times edited out the bits about the deceptive 2008 Bankruptcy attempt in Texas. We are grateful to all publications which carried the letter.

This is the full text of our letter to The Bookseller:

Call for Creditors of Saint Stephen the Great Trust to come forward

Dear Sir

We write as the editors of the SPCK-SSG News Blog (spckssg.wordpress.com). We have been working, with many others, to scrutinise the management of the former-SPCK bookshop chain for 2 years now.

The chain of bookshops was taken over in October/November 2006 by a charity controlled by J Mark Brewer and Philip Brewer, and has been gradually run down since that date.

At least 7 different corporate entities have been used to in managing the chain. These comprise 3 charities (1119839, 1119839-1 and 1109008), 3 private companies (FC028292, FC028290, FC028291), and a Company Limited by Guarantee (06110519); some have similar or identical names, and all were controlled at the outset by various permutations of Brewer family members.

After complaints in 2008, and after a Charity Commission “Section 8” investigation (case ref WTF 1119839/685451), in April this year an “Interim Manager” was appointed to oversee the Saint Stephen the Great charity (1119839), and the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust ( 1119839-1).

Last week The Bookseller included a notice from the Interim Manager, suggesting that “Creditors who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007, should write to the Interim Manager at Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT under ref S8703 before the close of business on 16 December 2009.” This notice causes us several concerns.

As far as we are aware the notice has only been published in The Bookseller, while the SPCK chain was a business with worldwide links. SPCK creditors may include English Cathedrals, communion wine suppliers, development charities, craft businesses, religious communities in the UK and overseas and others. How can such a range of creditors can be realistically expected to respond to a notice with a 3 week deadline in a booktrade magazine, posted up to 3 years after the relevant debts were incurred?

In summer 2008, J Mark Brewer attempted to take an organisation, which he called “St Stephen the Great, LLC”, into bankruptcy in the South Texas Bankruptcy Court (case 08-33689-H1). His court submission failed to identify the UK bookshops under his control, but did provide a substantially accurate listing of unpaid debts which had arisen over the previous 12 months. This included several hundred creditors, and more than £1m of debts. This case was subsequently dismissed “with prejudice”, and Mr Brewer – himself a lawyer and former Congressional Candidate – required to pay a penalty and take remedial education in the area of Legal Ethics. Under the quoted cutoff date of July 2007, many debts identified in these court submissions may be ruled out of a possible settlement.

We encourage all potential creditors to get in touch with the Interim Manager using the contact details in the notice, and/or those given on the Charity Commission site; these are stsgct@gothamerskine.co.uk via email, or by phone on 020 7490 1880.

We also hope that specific contact will be made with creditors identified in the Court Documents, who are potential creditors even within the restricted period, and that the deadline for responses will be extended to a more realistic date.

Yours etc

Phil Groom. Editor, UK Christian Bookshops Directory, christianbookshops.org.uk
Matt Wardman, SPCK-SSG News Blog, spckssg.wordpress.com

And our letter to the Church Times:

Call for Creditors of Saint Stephen the Great Trust to come forward

Dear Sir

First of all we must thank the Interim Manager appointed to oversee the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, and Saint Stephen the Great, charities for his work in “stopping the rot” in the former-SPCK bookshop chain, and recovering the shops (Durham Cathedral Bookshop excepted) from Philip and J Mark Brewer. At least we are now on the way *out* of the woods.

However, we note that last week The Bookseller trade magazine included a notice from the Interim Manager of the Saint Stephen the Great Trust, suggesting that “Creditors who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007, should write to the Interim Manager at Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT under ref S8703 before the close of business on 16 December 2009.” This causes us some concerns.

We have been working to scrutinise the mismanagement of the former-SPCK bookshop chain for more than 2 years now, and we are concerned by several aspects of the statement made by the Interim Manager.

The Interim Manager is completely right that this whole affair has been made fearsomely complex by the use by J Mark and Philip Brewer of at least 7 different corporate entities to obfuscate their actions over the last 3 years. These comprise 3 charities (1119839, 1119839-1 and 1109008), 3 private companies (FC028292, FC028290, FC028291), and a Company Limited by Guarantee (06110519), some of which have similar or identical names, and all controlled by various permutations of Brewer family members. There was also an 8th alleged corporate entity, SSG LLC, which appeared in J Mark Brewer’s sworn submissions to the South Texas Bankruptcy Court in summer 2008, but which turned out to exist only in his imagination.

The USDAW Employment Tribunal action, which was settled out of court earlier this year, was impeded by this complexity, and a lack of clarity as to which entity J Mark and Philip Brewer were acting on behalf of at different times, whether their actions at each point were legal or not, and their peculiar reluctance to keep written records. In the end USDAW had to name three separate bodies as respondents because it was not clear which entity employed and managed different members of staff at different points in time. If the Interim Manager had not commendably reached a negotiated settlement, this Tribunal would be going round in ever-decreasing circles even now.

The notice as published seeks creditors of “St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust”, without identifying a specific charity number, and restricts the call to debts incurred before the end of June 2007. Given the confused governance and business relationships, we suggest that the Interim Manager needs to cast a far wider net, at least initially.

We are also concerned that the deadline for responses to the notice has been set for December 16th. The SPCK bookshop chain was a business with worldwide links, and the range of creditors may well include Cathedrals owed rent, communion wine suppliers, development charities, craft businesses, religious communities in Eastern Europe, a consulting engineer used to design an improvement scheme, and others. All of these creditor groups appear in the 2008 Texas court documents referred to above, and – despite the 2008 bankruptcy attempt having been fraudulent – we have found the records of debtors declared to be largely accurate.

We are a little baffled as to how such a range of creditors can be realistically expected to respond to a notice with a 3 week deadline in a Booktrade Magazine, posted up to 3 years after the relevant debts were incurred. Also, would a single notice adequately meet legal requirements where such a wide range of creditors are affected?

So we urge all creditors, and potential creditors, to get in touch with the Interim Manager using the contact details in the notice, and/or those given on the Charity Commission site, which are stsgct@gothamerskine.co.uk via email, or by phone on 020 7490 1880.

We have done what we can to bring wider attention to the published notice, but we hope that specific contact will be made with the hundreds of suppliers identified in the Court Documents, who are potential creditors even within the period before June 2007. Any debts before this date would be in addition to the more than £1m of debts identified in the 2008 Court submissions.

We also hope that the deadline for responses will be extended to a more realistic period, perhaps to the end of January 2010.

Yours etc

Phil Groom. Editor, UK Christian Bookshops Directory, christianbookshops.org.uk
Matt Wardman, SPCK-SSG News Blog, spckssg.wordpress.com
Simon Barrow, Co-Director, Ekklesia, ekklesia.co.uk

(Updated) Former-SPCK/SSG Bookshops Interim Manager advertises for Creditor Claims

mattwardman2000 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:34:26 +0000

Matt Wardman writes:

This advert appeared in this week’s Bookseller.

Note that you only have about a fortnight to write in.

ST STEPHEN THE GREAT CHARITABLE TRUST

This charity has been in the press over recent years as a result of concerns expressed over its operations. In April 2009 the Charity Commission appointed Peter Gotham of Begbies Traynor as Interim Manager to take over its running - other than with respect to its religious mission in the churches it controls. This objective was made more complicated by virtue of the fact that since July 2007 the shops previously operated by the charity were managed instead by other companies appointed by the Trustees. The Interim Manager has now completed his initial work, has retaken possession of most shops, and is moving towards meeting valid claims on the charity’s assets. In order to do this he has instructed agents to put various of the Trust’s properties on sale. He is now advertising for creditors’ claims incurred before 1 July 2007 in order to ensure that no valid claims go unmet. (Any claims incurred after 1 July 2007 will be the responsibility of the various companies engaged by the Trustees.)

Creditors who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007, should write to the Interim Manager at Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT under ref S8703 before the close of business on 16 December 2009.

Presented by: Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP

Presenter’s Reference: S8703/PJG/NGA/BRS

———————————————————————————-

Editorial Note: At this point I am not at all convinced by the cut-off date, though, without seeing rock-solid evidence. For example, Mark Brewer was reported by the Bookseller as acting for SSG in November 2007 when the chain dropped the SPCK name.

And which external companies were responsible for running the shops after 1 July 2007? The company which seems to have been responsible for running most of them – ENC Shop Management Ltd – was not registered at Companies House until 11 March 2008

Groups such as the Church of England Pensions’ Board and various government agencies, and other creditors, need to take a close look at this.

And you only have 2 weeks to do so.

[Update: 27/9/1009.

We have been in touch with the interim Manager's team during the afternoon.

The reason why responsibility is accepted for debts incurred before 1 July 2007 is that the Interim Manager was appointed to manage the "St Stephen the Great Trust" (no 1119839) charity, while a separate charity - a Company Limited by Guarantee - had been created to manage the bookshops. The Interim Manager was not appointed to manage this Company Limited by Guarantee, and so they are not accepting reponsibility for debts incurred by this Company.

Editorial note: This is all horribly complicated, and we will try and submit a list of detailed questions to the Interim Manager and the Charity Commission over the weekend. The Company Limited by Guarantee was merged with the parent charity (no 1119839) by direction of the Charity Commission on 27 July 2007 - see the "subsidiary charities" page on the link above, so it is not clear to us how the Interim Manager is entirely not responsible for actions of this charity.

In the meantime, there is an email address for the Interim Manager on the Charity Commission website, where you can send your precise queries.]

A Very Happy Christmas to all this Blog’s Friends and Supporters

Phil Groom — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:16:55 +0000

Get the Goat this Christmas

Every year I’ve taken to buying a goat from World Vision instead of sending Christmas cards to my online friends and supporters. This year is no exception: you’ll find the official e-card here.

Thank you for your support and friendship through the past year.

A very Happy Christmas to you all, and my very best wishes for the year to come.

A Request

I’m sharing this year’s goat with the SPCK/SSG Bloggers. I hope most of you are familiar with the SPCK/SSG situation: it’s taken up a lot of my time this year, time that would most likely have otherwise been spent on developing UKCBD and this blog. I make no apology for that, but I do regret the need for it.

The only thing needed for evil to succeed is for those who know better to do nothing. Make no mistake about it: the Brewers are evil men. They took SPCK on trust and they have violated that trust: they have betrayed employees and suppliers. They have attempted to stifle free speech. They have reneged on a covenant, a covenant that they freely entered into and signed in the presence of a witness, to maintain shops as outlets for Christian literature. They have attempted a fraudulent bankruptcy filing on the USA courts. Their treatment of their employees has driven at least one man to a nervous breakdown; another committed suicide. All of these points are matters of public record and can be independently verified.

Yet they continue to operate so-called ‘Christian’ bookshops around the UK whilst people who should know better continue to trade with them, supplying them with books and other products that enable them to continue their devious business practices.

So to my request: please show your support for and solidarity with the former SPCK/SSG employees and suppliers who have not been paid — whose Christmas celebrations are blighted because of the Brewers — by reading and signing the two petitions to rescue the Durham and Chichester shops from the Brewers:

If you have already signed those petitions, thank you. Please spread the word and ask your colleagues and friends to read and sign them too.

Luke’s account of the nativity includes these words from Mary:

The Lord has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.

Let’s make 2009 the year in which workers and suppliers are paid and in which the Brewers are brought down, brought to book for their crimes and sent away empty.

Thank you.

The Dave Walker Reposts

Phil Groom — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:32:58 +0000

UKCBD > Christian Book Reviews > Arts & Media > The Dave Walker Reposts

The Dave Walker Reposts
May 2006 – July 2008

Dave Walker and Matt Wardman (Ed)
ISBN: (N/A)
The Wardman Wire, 2008 (130pp)
Free Download

Category: Arts & Media
Reviewed by: Phil Groom

Sometimes things don’t work out as planned, even for highly placed business men and lawyers. Taken largely from the “Save the SPCK” pages on Dave Walker’s The Cartoon Blog, this publication reveals the sad and sorry story of the demise of the SPCK Bookshops following their handover to SSG, the Society of St Stephen the Great, in 2006 — and ends abruptly with a note from Dave dated July 8th 2008 on his silence following the tragic suicide of Steve Jeynes, former manager of the SPCK/SSG bookshop in Worcester.

Or rather, I should say that silence from Dave seems to be where Mr J Mark Brewer (co-owner of the bookshops with his brother, Philip) wanted it to end. Unfortunately, Dave’s not the silent type: he kept on blogging, in his own quirky way, telling the story, reporting evenhandedly and watching with astonishment as the Brewers’ business strategy fell apart.

Trouble is, Dave’s not an especially noisy guy either: he’s a cartoonist who expresses himself in pictures. He doesn’t shout or scream. So when Mr J Mark Brewer sent Dave a “Demand to Cease and Desist” — which if it was anything like the one he sent me was full of self-righteous indignation, allegations and threats of legal action — Dave backed down.

This proved, in retrospect, to be the best move that Dave could have made: the blogosphere exploded with indignation as “Of Course I Could Be Wrong” blogger, MadPriest, declared war by launching a campaign to send Dave Walker solidarity messages to Mr Brewer whilst fellow Anglican priest Sam Norton retrieved some of Dave’s missing posts from Google’s cache and reposted them on his own site.

Alongside this, political blogger Matt Wardman — who compiled and published this report — launched an ongoing and growing campaign in defence of Dave’s right to free speech, whilst Unity, a self-proclaimed “big bad atheist blogger with a penchant for digging into the detail” has been systematically taking Mr Brewer, his business dealings and his correspondence to pieces on his blog, Ministry of Truth. For a more comprehensive round-up of blogs and others picking up on this situation see the Wardman Wire My Name is Dave Walker post index.

Enough by way of introduction, however. Perhaps the best snapshot summary of Dave’s posts has been given by blogger Exigency In Specie:

When you read the posts, Dave spent a good deal of time trying to moderate those reactions in order to thoughtfully report events that he believed should be of concern to a wider audience. As a relatively high profile site he primarily acted as a central resource for collecting together information from the geographically diverse chain. Care in what was written was uppermost, even when emotions grew – you can easily find points where he calls for cool heads, and where he removed comments that he himself deemed were close to the line.

From: Learning the Lessons, 30/07/2008

My own reading concurs: Dave is no irresponsible or reckless blogger. Which begs the question, why the heavy handed intervention?

Dave’s last SPCK related post appears on p.113. Then follow several pages of

Correspondence between Mr Brewer and the Revd Sam Norton
Correspondence between Mr Brewer and myself
An overview of Current Libel and Legal Harrassment cases across blogs in th UK
A final article by Unity entitled Defending the Fifth Estate

These appended articles can be read online, of course, but I’d recommend downloading the entire document (pdf, 2.3MB), either here or from The Wardman Wire and reading it at your leisure.

As you read it, please be sure to send us your comments and feedback. If you run your own blog, please remember that it could be you being chased by angry lawyers next time. Please don’t sit back and hope it doesn’t happen to you: blog the story, join the fight and spread the word. And pray. Pray for the ex-SPCK booksellers whose lives have been wrecked by this fiasco. Pray for those of us standing with them. Please pray for Mr Brewer: despite all he’s said and done, nobody wants to vilify him, I hope: that’s emphatically not what this is about; but I would like to see some justice for these booksellers, and I would like him to respond in a more civil way than we’ve seen thus far.

Finally, when you come across some of the funnier stuff, do have a laugh. Remember, Dave Walker is a humourist.

You’ll find continuous updates in the SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info blog. Thanks for reading…

Phil Groom, August 2008

Phil Groom is this site’s Webmaster and Reviews Editor. He’s a regular contributor to Christian Marketplace magazine and is the manager of London School of Theology Books & Resources. Any opinions expressed here are personal and should not be taken as representing the views of London School of Theology or of any other group or organisation.

The Wardman Wire: Dave Walker Archives

The Wardman Wire

Authors | Categories | Publishers | Reviewers | Titles

Plans Coming Together for New Christian Bookshop in Cardiff

Phil Groom — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:19:27 +0000

Following the dismal failure of SSG to revitalise the Cardiff branch of SPCK, City United Reformed Church have risen to the challenge themselves, joining forces with The Church in Wales to secure funding and draw up business plans for a new shop, scheduled for opening on Tuesday 22nd July 2008.

The Revd Dr Tom Arthur, pastor at City Church since 1988, describes what happened and subsequent developments in a letter published in early June by Mission Connections:

We’d had a book store here at City Church for several years, but it recently closed. SPCK (that’s Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge) had been the resource for the mainline churches. About 15 years ago we took them in when they were no longer able to pay rising city center rents. We saw doing this as an important mission of the church.

The shop here managed to just tick over comfortably, but the SPCK chain as a whole struggled in recent years. About 20 months ago, they basically gave the chain away to a couple of American brothers who formed “St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust” and used the chain to promote the Orthodox communion. Having grown up Presbyterian, they were adult converts to Orthodoxy, and were enthusiastic, as adult converts to anything will be.

Despite their enthusiasm, their idea just didn’t work. Customers weren’t buying the icons which now filled the gift cabinets and the books on Orthodox saints that now filled the shelves just weren’t moving. Sales plummeted, and since suppliers weren’t being paid, they couldn’t get new stock. Last December, when our shop would have expected to take in £18k – £20k, they only took in £3,500. In January, they started closing shops.

Because of customer comments and the concern of denominational leaders, we had already been considering strategies for taking over the shop, as this shop here in Cardiff was the only resource like it for all of Wales. The elders proposed that I and our church secretary, Patrick (that’s “clerk of session” in Presby-speak) should explore our options. So Patrick and I convened a meeting of concerned people from across Cardiff’s ecumenical spectrum, and with the backing of that group we took the project on.

A press release dated 26/06/2008 from the Church in Wales explains further:

The key to success for this enterprise will be our ability to respond to the requirements of the broad, ecumenical church scene in Wales. We’ve sent out over 800 letters to churches from Powys to St David’s, and have received good input in response. We will be carrying everything from rosaries to zipped leather Bible covers, along with books and church supplies. We’re building a website at www.ctbooks.org.uk to publish reviews of what’s new and advertise special promotional offers. A scheme of partner churches will return 5% of purchases by church members to the churches who sign up for the scheme, and we plan special monthly evening opening hours for partner churches.

So a new mainstream ecumenical bookshop for Wales is finally here, thanks to the support of many encouraging voices and the expert advice of so many experienced colleagues. The shop will be open 10am to 5pm Monday – Friday, and 10am to 4pm Saturdays. We hope this shop will make a real difference in strengthening the churches, not just here in Cardiff, but across Wales.

A New Christian Bookshop for Cardiff

Other Christian Bookshops in Cardiff

Dedicated SPCK/SSG Blog

Phil Groom — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:14:43 +0000

A dedicated SPCK/SSG Blog (as previously mentioned here) is now live at spckssg.wordpress.com, set up by exporting all related posts and comments from this blog. Future news and info will be posted there rather than here, with pointers here as appropriate.

The invitation for volunteers to get involved remains open: all you need to do is sign up for a WordPress ID then leave a comment using your sign up email address (this will not be made public) so that you can be set up as an author/contributor. Your WordPress ID doesn’t have to be your real name: pseudonyms are quite acceptable, but I will need to verify your real identity before allowing you to contribute actual posts.

Any SSG/ENC moles who may be reading: I’ll be checking identities quite carefully, so don’t even think about it. Thank you.

Comments are open to all (except spammers, of course, who will be ruthlessly intercepted by Akismet, the WordPress antispam system).

Update 27/6/2008: Originally I said ‘let me know your WordPress ID’. What I actually need is your WordPress sign up email address: just use it as normal when leaving a comment. Apologies for any confusion/misunderstanding!

SPCK/SSG News Archives

Phil Groom — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:20:08 +0000

Dave Walker has compiled an index of news reports and correspondence about the SPCK/SSG saga in the Church Times blog, which helpfully supplements his own Save the SPCK section. To that I’d like to add the UKCBD SPCK/SSG News Section, this site’s reports and reflections and the various reports in the Bookseller:
SPCK | SSG | St Stephen the Great. Should probably also add this rather long and meandering thread at Ship of Fools, “SPCK” bookshops.

Taken all together that’s a huge amount of information with considerable overlap, but it leaves no one with any excuse to say they didn’t know what was going on.

One of the things we (that is, Dave, Phelim and myself: not sure whether anyone else was in on the conversation) discussed briefly at the SPCK Booksellers Get-together back in May was the idea of setting up a dedicated SPCK/SSG blog. This would take some of the pressure off Dave, especially in July when he’s going to be busy blogging and cartooning Lambeth (brilliant cartoon in today’s Church Times, btw: had me in stitches. thanks, Dave!), and will help keep a continuous spotlight on the situation, which neither Dave nor I can necessarily do with our respective blogs.

I’m quite happy to set the blog up at WordPress, although anyone reading is equally capable of doing that: WordPress really does make blogging incredibly simple. But what I can’t do is run it single-handed: I think it needs a team of three or four people, possibly more.

So, do we have any volunteers from amongst our readership? You’ll need a WordPress ID: signing up for that will take you less time than it’s taken me to type this sentence. Then you’ll need to leave a comment using your WordPress sign up email address (this will not be made public) so that you can be set up as an author/contributor. SSG/ENC moles need not apply!!

Over to you, people…

Update 5/8/2008: SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info was launched on 26/6/2008. On 22/7/2008 Dave Walker was harassed into taking down his ‘Save the SPCK’ pages by J Mark Brewer: more info here.

30a Sincil Street, RIP

Phil Groom — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:41:40 +0000

Don’t quite know why, since as far as I remember I’ve never been there, but somehow today it struck me as unbearably sad to see the stripped-out windows of the former Sincil Street SPCK Lincoln shop in this estate agent’s flyer (zoomed in shot of the shop front further down).

I guess what struck me was the hardened finality of it as the culmination of the Brewers’ betrayal — I can think of no other word for it — of SPCK’s trust in handing the shops over to them, of the utter failure of SSG to live up to even their own expectations.

It prompted me to look back at the October 2006 Press Release, still available on the SSG website as I write, but also available as a pdf here (200kb)…

Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust and SPCK share a strong commitment to communicate the richness of the Christian Faith. Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust intend to employ a vigorous marketing strategy for the SPCK Bookshops. “People in our stressful, modern age, care deeply about spirituality and long for a deeper faith. SPCK Bookshops will offer a primary solution to these questions of faith” said Mark Brewer, Chairman of Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, in a press release accompanying the transaction. “SPCK will continue into its fourth century with its shops as places where all people, Christian or otherwise, are welcome and given the chance to widen their spiritual horizons.”

“We are delighted to have found partners with a similarly strong vision and a determination to invest in the mission of presenting the Christian message imaginatively and effectively in an attractive environment”, commented SPCK’s new Chairman, Bishop Michael Perham in the same press release.

Under the new arrangements, SPCK Bookshops will continue to serve the broad and diverse SPCK customer base, and expanding the products that it offers those customers. Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust will also place a major emphasis in online marketing at www.spckonline.com, utilising the internet and harnessing the market power and presence of the venerable SPCK and its 308 year-long history in the U.K.

In this way we believe the Bookshops will be both maintained and strengthened, remaining broad and looking ambitiously to a growing future.

We believe that this is good news for the whole Christian community.

If the Brewers had followed through on that initial commitment to remain broad in their outlook — “to communicate the richness of the Christian Faith”, developing the shops “as places where all people, Christian or otherwise, are welcome and given the chance to widen their spiritual horizons” — then it would, indeed, have been “good news for the whole Christian community”, then perhaps we might not have come to this present pass.

As things have emerged, however, it seems that we can only wonder, watch and weep for what has been lost.

Or is that really all we can do? Even as I write 30a Sincil Street, RIP, I am reminded that the letters RIP have more than one meaning: Resurrection in Progress! If you visit Lincoln, be sure to go a little further along Sincil Street to the Central Market where you’ll find that miracle in progress as Lincoln is Saved by a Unicorn!

SPCK/SSG may be over and done in Lincoln, but Christian bookselling is alive and kicking: long may it continue.

Full details of Unicorn Tree Books below.

Unicorn Tree Books
35-40 Central Market
Sincil Street
Lincoln LN5 7ET

Phone: 01522 525557
Fax: 01522 830896

Websites
unicorntreebooks.blogspot.com/
www.lincolncentralmarket.co.uk/page_1158437533734.html
www.browseawhilebooks.co.uk

Hodgson Elkington Flyer originally downloaded from
http://www.hodelk.co.uk/commercial/brochures/CP7383.pdf
Thanks to UTB for posting the link that led me to this on Dave Walker’s shop round up page.

SSG Uncertainty Continues (2)

Phil Groom — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:54:01 +0000

Update, Friday 13th June 2008
New reports posted by the Bookseller and the Church Times today:
St Stephen the Great files for bankruptcy | Ex-SPCK shops ‘bankruptcy’

Below, my updated notice now posted alongside all SSG entries in the UK Christian Bookshops Directory. Previous version here: SSG Uncertainty Continues (1)

Any new info, please do let me and/or Dave know. The best guide to which shops are currently trading may be found on Dave’s Former SPCK shop roundup page.

In October 2006 the former SPCK Bookshops and their associated websites were entrusted by SPCK to the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust (SSG), under the control of Messrs Philip and Mark Brewer. Unfortunately shops and staff alike suffered in the transition to new ownership, leading to staff departures, branch closures and uncertainty over opening times for those that remain.

Reports emerging during June 2008 indicate a deepening crisis: SSG has apparently filed for bankruptcy in the USA whilst ownership and control of the shops has been transferred to a new company — also registered to the Brewers — called ‘ENC Management Company’. The Durham and Chichester shops appear to have been reconstituted as independent trading companies but remain under the Brewers’ personal control.

The SPCK name is still in use over shops and online despite an online statement from SPCK (dated 12/11/2007 but since removed from the SPCK website) emphasising that they “do not own, manage or otherwise run the Bookshops”.

In view of these uncertainties, anyone considering trading with SSG, ENC Management Company or the so-called independent shops may be wise to seek legal advice first.

Latest news and comments on the situation may be found in either this site’s blog or Dave Walker’s Save the SPCK pages.

Anyone concerned by SSG’s treatment of the former SPCK booksellers and wishing to help is invited to make a donation to the UKCBD Save the SPCK Booksellers Fund.

Disclaimer
Information posted here is based upon the best available information at the time. In particular there is no clear information available about which SSG/ENC shops are currently trading: prospective customers are strongly advised to check before visiting.

(This notice updated 12/06/2008 )