Barnabas Aid Board Excoriates Christianity Today Story blaming it for Errors

Board Never appointed Mr. Bloom as the CEO of BA, say majority board members. For the record Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo had no hand in the writing of this rejoinder.

September 9, 2025

The following statement is from the majority UK Board members of Barnabas Aid in response to a “New CEO Trying to Save Barnabas Aid” by Tim Wyatt, 16 July 2025 https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/new-ceo-colin-bloom-save-barnabas-aid/

The metaphor of the crashing plane (p2) implies that Barnabas Aid was about to crash when Colin Bloom took over the leadership. It was actually going from strength to strength – growing income, stable staff, good reputation. It was after Colin intervened that the income plummeted, staff began leaving in droves, and the Charity Commission started their statutory inquiry.

“Bloom is at the head of Barnabas Aid because the board of trustees forced out founder Patrick Sookhdeo and three top officials in 2024.” (p2) Patrick and the other three people were forced out by the board of Nexcus International, not by the board of Barnabas Aid UK. This needs to be made clear.

“Cursory internal investigation” (p3). This is an unsubstantiated criticism of those who conducted the internal investigation and those who conducted the appeal which followed.

Patrick did not pressure any Barnabas Aid staff not to cooperate with the police (p4).  The witness intimidation charges arose from a talk he gave to a crowded staff meeting in a room crammed with people when he poured out his heart to his colleagues, in the mistaken belief that the two staff who were to be prosecution witnesses were not present.

Patrick was not sentenced to community service (p4). He was sentenced to 3 months of curfew and had to pay a small sum of money.

“Network of interconnected charities all controlled by Sookhdeo and close associates.”  (p4) This would need unpacking as regards “close” and “controlled”. Some of the trustees of some of the charities were people that Patrick and those close to him never knew before those people joined the boards. Trustees would doubtless reject the allegation that they were being controlled by Patrick and his close associates. 

The 2018 trial ended with a “not guilty” verdict arrived at very quickly and announced by the female foreman of the jury with a smile.  Tim Wyatt is unjustified in describing this as the jury concluding there was “not enough evidence to convict” (p4), Unless Tim Wyatt was a member of that jury, he cannot know what discussion went on in the jury room. Unlike the 2015 trial, the 2018 trial was a unanimous verdict.  Mr Wyatt should not refer to the allegation as a “crime”, especially after a not guilty verdict. This is disgracefully biased journalism.

Patrick Sookhdeo did not receive any communication from Tim Wyatt.  We have had an email from Rev. Michael Hewat, chair of the board of Nexcus International, telling us that he was informed by Tim Wyatt that Mr Wyatt had “emailed Patrick on 27 June using his personal hotmail address, giving him 5 days to respond to a list of specific questions and giving him the opportunity to respond to the allegations made against him in the CT article.”  We do not doubt that Mr Wyatt sent the email described, but it did not reach Patrick because Patrick can no longer access his hotmail address since his laptop and phones were seized by the police when he was arrested on 7 November 2025. The devices are still in the possession of the police. 

Nexcus International’s IT team control the necessary passwords thus making it impossible for Patrick to move his hotmail address to another device.  So, Mr Wyatt’s email may have been read by Wiltshire Police but it has not been read by Patrick. Mr Wyatt may wish to take this up with whoever gave him the useless email address for contacting Patrick.

“An authoritarian who brooked no dissent and made financial decisions on a whim. ‘There was no rigor,’ Bloom said, ‘It was like a Roman emperor – thumbs up or thumbs down.’ Staff claimed the ministry was pervaded by a culture of fear and anyone who spoke out was punished. Retribution was swift and brutal.” (p5) This seems to be a description of the anonymous whistleblower complaints, designed to force Patrick out.  It would have been good if Tim Wyatt had reminded readers of this.  Bloom himself has never seen Patrick leading the work so is probably relying also on these same whistleblower complaints, which, as Mr Wyatt himself says, were made with the deliberate intention of forcing Patrick out and, as Mr Wyatt omits to say, were anonymous.

Other staff have made written statements in praise and appreciation of Patrick’s leadership style. If you would like to quote some, we will be happy to provide them. Since the introduction of an International CEO position in about 2015, Patrick became increasingly isolated from most of the staff, with the ICEOs (first Hendrik Storm, then Noel Frost) telling him and those close to him not to interact directly with the staff but to communicate with staff through them, the ICEO. There were processes for financial decisions and making payments, and all financial movements were known to and controlled by the ICEO.  There was a committee to decide on project grants. See below.

The article contains quotes from the Crowell and Moring report (p5-6) but does not say that the report is one-sided in that Patrick and the others accused did not respond to Crowell and Moring because they did not have confidence that Crowell and Moring were able to investigate impartially. Instead, they asked the board of Nexcus International (BAI) and Colin Bloom at least four times to provide an alternative investigator, one who was in a position to be independent and impartial, for whom they would be happy to answer questions.

It is not the UK government but the Charity Commission of England and Wales who must currently authorise payments over £4,000 (p6).

“The board replaced Sookhdeo with Bloom.” (p6). It should be made clear that this is not the board of Barnabas Aid UK but the board of Nexcus International (called in this article Barnabas Aid International) who brought in Colin Bloom, ostensibly to replace Noel Frost as International CEO. Colin Bloom has not assumed the title of “International Director” which was Patrick’s role.

Patrick has never said he is still in charge of the real Barnabas Aid (p6). TBF Trust, of which he is chair, is a charity that was formed before the charity Barnabas Aid and was for some years called “The Barnabas Fund”. For a few years, before the formation of Barnabas Aid, it was the public face and channel for giving to Barnabas Fund. However, the initials TBF now mean “The Believers’ Fellowship”.

Neither the Barnabas Aid board nor Patrick is aware of any “Sookhdeo’s supporters” turning up at Colin Bloom’s home and photographing his family (p7). But we wonder if Tim Wyatt has been made aware of the scandal surrounding Colin Bloom and his family and pets moving into a large house, owned by the charity Servants Fellowship International (SFI) without the knowledge or agreement of SFI’s board. The family’s presence and furniture prevent the building being used any more for Christian work.  

“Today, every penny is accounted for.” (p8) “What has changed is our resolute commitment to acting with integrity.” (p9). These are two quotes from Colin Bloom in the article.  Under Colin Bloom, however, donations are not being used for the purposes for which they were given. At one end of the scale Mr Mark Ellse has asked for the return of a large gift which could not be used for the purpose for which he gave it but Colin Bloom has not responded. 

At the other end of the scale, Waverton Evangelical Church has been giving small monthly donations to support a particular Kenyan couple which are no longer being forwarded to Kenya, but the donor church has not been told.  This kind of thing would not have happened before Colin Bloom took charge.

Colin Bloom is said to be holding regular town-hall-style meetings with donors to show them where all the money is going (p8). Even the board of Barnabas Aid UK are told virtually nothing about where the charity’s money is going despite asking for this information. So, it is hard to believe that the donors are told more.  Colin Bloom also holds “town-hall” meetings for the staff at which he indicates he will answer any questions they have, but some staff have commented that there are many questions asked at such meetings which he does not answer either on the day or in the future.  When asked about his own salary at one such meeting, he refused to give a figure. He also refused to give a figure when asked by a member of the Barnabas Aid UK board what his salary was.

Staff are said to now “make spending decisions based on evidence and data, not the whims of the founder” (p8). If this is a reference to project grants, then we have been told that the grant decisions are now made by a committee comprising representatives from each of the national boards. The identity of most of these individuals has been concealed from us, the majority of the board of Barnabas Aid UK, but from what we do know and from what we know about the other members of the national boards, it does not appear that they are people who have relevant experience to guide them in the decision-making on project grants.  Before Colin Bloom’s leadership, project decisions were made by a Projects and Disbursements Committee comprising people chosen for having relevant experience and expertise. No project decisions were made by Patrick alone and sometimes his suggestions were overridden by others in the Projects and Disbursements Committee meetings.

We have no evidence that Barnabas Aid is sending more funds [presumably meaning as project grants] than ever before, as claimed on p8.  In fact, what evidence is available to this board suggests the opposite. The management accounts of 31 March 2025 compare grants for the first quarter of 2025 (by the end of which period Colin Bloom had been in place for almost a year) with the first quarter of 2024 (ending a few weeks before the ousting of Patrick Sookhdeo).  It shows that project grants for this period in 2024 were $2,793,000 whereas project grants for the same period in 2025 were $2,304,000.

Staff members are reported to have told Christianity Today that the changes from Sookhdeo’s leadership to Bloom’s are “night and day” (p8).  We wonder if Mr Wyatt was made aware that over 20 UK-based staff in Barnabas Aid and Nexcus have left since Bloom took over.  Some were made redundant (it is noticeable that these were people loyal to Patrick Sookhdeo) and others left because they were unhappy working in Colin Bloom’s Barnabas Fund. We are aware of at least one more who is only waiting to get another job before they too leave.  Some staff have described Colin Bloom as a dictator who makes all the decisions himself.

Mark Woods describes Colin Bloom as a very experienced Christian leader (p9). But the only previous experience of Christian ministry which Bloom is known to have had is in connection with the Conservative Party and running a network of Christian care homes. Tim Wyatt himself says this in the article. Neither of these seem relevant to Barnabas Aid.

Additionally, the Chair, Mr Philip Richards, wishes to remind Tim Wyatt, the journalist, that he has been the Chairman, as indicated on both the Charity Commission of England and Wales and Companies House UK websites, for over a year. Why didn’t he contact the chair for comment?

On behalf of Philp Richards, Chairman of Barnabas Aid UK and the Majority BA UK Board. – Dr. Chris Sugden