Evangelist? I’m just a Christian commentator

3rd September 2010, 1:00am

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Evangelist? I’m just a Christian commentator

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/evangelist-im-just-christian-commentator

There is a gross misrepresentation of my position in your story “TV evangelist and MP fall out with nuns who shunned academy rescue plan” (August 13). As the leader of an organisation that sponsors 12 academies across the UK, my involvement with St Ursula’s is as chief executive officer of Oasis Community Learning, the organisation invited to keep the school running, the staff employed and the pupils in the school of their choice. We have worked hard with all stakeholders and are pleased that, as a result, St Ursula’s will stay open for another year and, hopefully, go on to become an Oasis Academy in September 2011.

I’m also a Christian and a Baptist minister. Often, in that capacity or as an educationalist, or United Nations special adviser on human trafficking, I’m asked to comment in the media. However, none of this adds up to me being a “TV evangelist”.

One more point. I have not, to my knowledge, fallen out with the Sisters of Mercy, whom you referred to as “the nuns”. It is only with their co-operation that Oasis has been able to ensure its future.

However, apart from these minor details, your headline writer seems to have done a pretty accurate job!

Steve Chalke MBE, CEO, Oasis Community Learning.

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