By Peter Wooding
Kenneth Dibble
Britain’s Charity Commission put the charitable status of the nation’s churches in question after it ruled that a congregation in the South West of England did not exist for public benefit, according to a report by Christian Concern.
Under charity law, churches and other organisations must show that their existence has some form of “public benefit.”
But in a letter to the Plymouth Brethren, the Charity Commission explained its refusal to grant charitable status to one of the denomination’s churches in Devon.
Head of legal services for the commission, Kenneth Dibble, stated: “This decision makes it clear that there was no presumption that religion generally, or at any more specific level, is for the public benefit, even in the case of Christianity or the Church of England.”
