British schools opt-out from Christian assemblies
A growing number of British schools are dropping traditional Christian assemblies in favour of multi-faith meetings and “moments of reflection”, where children are told to focus on physical objects or discuss current events.
It is reported that more than 140 primary and secondary schools across Britain have won the right to opt out of the legal requirement to provide a daily act of worship which is “broadly Christian” in character. Some schools have adopted Islamic assemblies where pupils are reading the Koran whilst others promote the multi-faith approach.
The revelation that so many schools have abandoned the Christian service has disappointed many parents and those preferring traditional school assemblies.
Current rules allow schools to seek authorisation to opt out from their local authority Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), which is made up of council representatives and local faith representatives. In case of the opt-out, schools have to provide an alternative kind of worship.
The highest number of opt-outs from traditional assemblies are in Bradford, West Yorkshire where 47 schools have decided to introduce “new-style” assemblies and 40 of them have adopted the Islamic approach. In the other seven schools there are five multi-faith sessions.
An increasing number of schools in London are also planning to alter the character of their assemblies. 37 schools in the London borough of Brent have succeeded in their application to change the approach to assemblies. 12 schools in the London Borough of Ealing have shifted to a multi-faith approach, with one of them proposing to introduce a “thought spot” with children reflecting on a single object on a table such as a candle, a rock or an artefact.
In October 2010, the Rt Revd Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, a former Bishop of Rochester, said school children should learn more about Britain’s Judeo-Christian heritage if the country wants to avoid losing its national values. Speaking to Standpoint Magazine, he said:
“The Judaeo-Christian tradition provides the connecting link to ‘our island story’. Without that tradition, it is impossible to understand the language, the literature, the art or even the science of our civilisation. It provides the grand themes in art and literature: of virtue and vice, atonement and repentance, resurrection and immortality.
“It has inspired the best and most accessible architecture. It undergirds and safeguards our constitutional and legal tradition,” he added.
In September 2008, the Reverend Tim Hastie-Smith, a head teachers’ leader, warned that school teachers are “being turned into social workers” and that too many schools were embarrassed to discuss Christianity.
Sources
Daily Mail
Blackburn Citizen
Standpoint Magazine
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