THE venue for Oxford’s biggest annual gathering of Christians has been switched to South Park — after complaints that noise from last year’s event disturbed students revising for their exams.

More than 5,000 people will say a prayer for Oxford at the city’s biggest Christian gathering of the year on Sunday, May 17.

For the past three years, churches in the city have united to stage Love Oxford in Broad Street.

But this year the free event is being switched to South Park at the bottom of Headington Hill, to accommodate a larger number of worshippers.

There were 4,000 people crammed into Broad Street last year and the previous year a similar number greeted the new Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard.

Joanna Braithwaite, Love Oxford co-ordinator, who is based at St Aldate’s Church, said: “Following last year’s event, a number of colleges expressed concern that the gathering could disturb students revising for exams and asked us to arrange it out of term-time.

“But students are an important part of congregations, so we decided to use a different venue.

“One of the important things we do at Love Oxford is pray for the city, and South Park is a great location for that because you get stunning views of the centre.

“The change in venue means we can also extend the length of the event so that people who come along can stay for a picnic.

“This should be the best Love Oxford yet.

“We hope people from churches across Oxfordshire, not just Oxford, make the effort to come because bringing different churches together is at the heart of what we are trying to achieve.”

Ms Braithwaite added that a highlight of Love Oxford would be a talk by Heidi Baker, who works with orphaned and abandoned children in Mozambique, south-east Africa.

She added: “On the Friday and Saturday before Love Oxford we will be handing out free burgers and hot-dogs in Bonn Square.

“We have hired the park from the city council and it should be an awesome day — South Park is such an amazing place when the sun comes out.

“Once we have covered the cost of staging the event we will see if there is money left over to donate to a local charity or community project.”

For more details about the event, visit loveoxford.org.uk affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk