The "Deep Dive" RE classes will be delivered via 60 videos, each five to eight minutes long, each exploring theological topics.

The programme aims to help primary and secondary school teachers to deliver content included in the 2023 Religious Education Directory for Catholic schools, colleges and academies in England and Wales.

"Up to now, teachers have not had this kind of flexible and accessible resource directly available to them" said Rod Isaacs, director of Ethos for Ten Ten Resources which produced the series.

Formation lacking

Many RE teachers in primary school have had almost no formation in Catholic RE before starting to teach" Isaacs told The Tablet.

Nonetheless, they had to teach the content in the RE directory. That directory is potentially overwhelming, Isaacs said.

"This [Deep Dive] is to give them confidence.

"For new staff at a Catholic school, Deep Dive can be part of continuing professional development about Catholic life.

"Our hope is that Deep Dive will be one tool among many that will help teachers be led to a deeper understanding of the subject that is at ‘the core of the core' of every Catholic school curriculum."

Subject matter experts

Each subject covered in the Deep Dive videos is delivered by a well-known Catholic speaker.

They include theologians, the chief executive of the Caritas social action network, a Catholic academic who will present Catholic teaching on creation and the fall, and a Benedictine who will explain the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity.

Another video explores the dignity of the human person and Catholic Social Teaching, while yet another - led by the charity Aid to the Church in Need - will discuss Catholic teaching about the Virgin Mary.

The amount each school will pay for the series will vary according to their size, Isaacs said.

The price tags will range from approximately £150 (about NZ$320) for a small primary school, to £250 (about NZ$530) for a larger secondary school.

Source

• The Tablet

The forum provided an opportunity for 12 students from across the Asia-Pacific region to speak directly to Francis about their ideas and reflections about their shared social concerns.

The Loyola University Chicago-organised "Building Bridges Initiative" has seen similar online forums take place across the globe.

Anti-gay slurs hurt

The Pope heard from one forum member that reports of his disrespectful comments about gay people caused hurt.

Filipino Catholic university student Jack Lorenz Acebedo Rivero (pictured wearing rainbow scarf) confronted the issue straight-on, telling the pontiff to please "stop using offensive language" against LGBTQ people.

Slurs cause "immense pain" he said.

"I myself am outcast and bullied due to my bisexuality, my gayness, my identity and being the son of a single parent."

Rivero says his situation is made worse because the law in the Philippines does not allow divorce.

"Due to this, I developed bipolar disorder and I am stigmatised.

"My mother cannot divorce my father. Please allow divorce in the Philippines" he begged the Pope.

Isolation, mockery and no formation

Among the concerns students spoke of were land injustices, systemic poverty, gender discrimination against Muslim women, fears of terrorists.

Others offered ideas.

One student from Australia spoke of young Catholics' isolation in an increasingly secular culture.

"Many of us feel lonely in our schools and universities. Daily we are bombarded by secular ideologies, mocked for our faith and outnumbered in our mission to be beacons of hope" Elizabeth Fernandez told Francis.

We are committed to serving others and building a "culture of charity" she said.

Another big concern in Australia is faith formation for young people.

"Some religion teachers in Catholic schools use class time to preach their own agendas of abortion, contraception and gender theory."

This could change if all religion teachers were trained catechists and if young people could be incentivised to become catechists themselves.

"We want young people to have greater access to confession and to have Christ integrated into all school subjects, thereby fostering a culture of greater reverence for the Eucharist" she said.

Pope responds

After listening to everyone, Francis responded to their concerns.

Personal identity was a recurring theme many mentioned, he observed.

He urged those being mocked for their faith to love those who mock them in turn, without settling for a "lukewarm" Christianity.

Good faith-based education helps us be "authentic, real Christians" he stressed.

Barely touching on the LGBTQ issue, he said problems caused by discrimination can be resolved with closeness and proximity.

Focusing mostly on discrimination where women are treated as if they are in "a second category", he noted "we see that today in the world women are the best leaders … and are superior to men in their ability to create community.

"The capacity for motherhood gives women a much more effective position of action than men - and this is important" he said.

Source

• You Tube
• You Tube
• CNA
• Catholic Weekly
• BBC

Culturally, this reflects the significant changes in society globally and the impact of religious affiliation locally.

Gone is much of the tribalism, homogeneity and compliance that so identified the Catholic faithful pre-Vatican II and into the late 1970s.

Those days belong to a holy-picture past which no longer fits the times.

Christianity now

Today 39 per cent of Australians now identify themselves as No religion whilst there has been a discernible growth in the other major world religions.

Whilst Christianity, and in particular Catholicism, remains the most common religion in Australia, Christianity has fallen.

Those identifying as Christian went from being 88 per cent of the Australian population in 1966 to just 44 per cent today.

According to the 2021 Census, Catholics now form only 20 per cent of the population.

Whilst the numbers of students attending Catholic schools has grown at a steady rate, the religious composition of school communities has changed significantly.

Just over half of Catholic primary students (58.2 per cent) and Catholic secondary students (56.3 per cent) are nominally Catholic, whilst just under half (48.1 per cent) of Catholic primary and similarly of Catholic secondary students (43.7 per cent) attend either a government secondary school or a private (not Catholic) school (ABS, 2016).

For a Catholic student to attend a school that was not Catholic would have been unheard of in the 1960s era in which we grew up.

With big families and discounts for successive children, the Catholic schools of the 1950s-70s were at their peak affiliation with a large proportion of religious sisters and brothers taking on the teaching load.

The contemporary classroom

Beyond the diversity in composition of the contemporary Catholic classroom are other broader challenges facing Catholic schools in a world context which is variously described as post-Christian and increasingly secular and individualist.

Communal attitudes of shock, anger and shame at a Church that covered up paedophilia in the past decades has stripped the institution of much of its moral authority.

Clericalism, hierarchical intransigence, and the lack of female voice within the Church have accelerated disillusion and disappointment amongst the laity.

What is becoming increasingly apparent in today's society is that the story of Jesus of Nazareth and the claims of Christianity are no longer common knowledge.

The Catholic school

The framework of faith that was so central to Catholic life when we were growing up has been marginalised.

Our student cohort may be confessed, neutral, resistant, or hostile; they may enjoy another faith tradition, or they may have no tradition or an indifferent inclination to any transcendent belief system.

However, the Catholic school has a place for them all.

At the same time, the Catholic school has become the ecclesial face of the Catholic Church in the 21st Century.

Catholic schools are schools for all. With that invitation comes the reality that students will have various faith experiences and backgrounds and that a one-size-fits-all pedagogy of the 1950s and 1960s is no longer appropriate for learning or spiritual growth.

As we grew up, we mixed with other Catholics, knew our prayers and feast days and shared common understandings that made connections with each other easy.

We did not dare miss Mass or Holy Days of Obligation and the rosary was recited with regularity.

We lived and breathed the Catholic cosmology and did not question it.

We learned the catechism by rote, undertook the sacraments with reverence and respected the liturgy, even when we did not quite understand it.

The inputs and experiences we had were relatively innocent.

We were not seduced by the smorgasbord of distractions that consume today's teenager.

Technology was the family phone in the hallway and the small black and white TV on the back porch.

Things were done en famille and any sort of privacy was a luxury, as most big families had two or three children sharing the same bedroom.

Children did not have rights or opinions and education was delivered without differentiation or much acknowledgement of learning needs, cultural background, or family situation.

It was factory floor functional with teacher as know-it-all and students as empty vessels into which facts and fictions were poured.

By contrast

Fortunately, today's students have an education system that recognises the individual in the learning equation much more readily and responsively.

We understand that the growth of personal agency is one of the positive outcomes of education, as is an increasing realisation of the soft skills of interpersonal transactions - especially in a world where technology can mitigate the face-to-face encounters needed for good socialisation and communal cohesion.

What we have today is a growing continuum of tolerance for various beliefs and practices.

Differentiation is now the key to many scenarios.

Personal agency and initiative from the individual are accepted and often expected.

Rather than being passive recipients of knowledge, the student is now in the centre of their own learning world.

However, the situation regarding religious education and the passing on of the faith tradition has changed unrecognisably.

Greg Sheridan has noted that Christianity is almost in existential crisis in the West, and Australia is about to become, if it has not already, a majority atheist nation.

Gerard Windsor has contended that the progress of the West from general belief to general unbelief has been inexorable.

As long ago as 1993, Marcellin Flynn in researching the culture of Catholic schools between 1972-1993 noted the influence of the secular materialist culture of Australian society as impacting on student interest in religious education.

Imagine then, thirty years on, the layers of complexity, disaffiliation and competing worldviews that are now apparent in the average Catholic school classroom.

We are reminded starkly of Pope Francis' observation that we live in not only an era of change, but a change of era.

The challenge for the RE teacher today is that many of the children do not have a familiarisation with Catholic beliefs emanating from their own homes.

We speak often of the parents as first educators in faith, but the reality is that this is true in only a small percentage of cases.

The religious socialisation of the past has been greatly diminished by increasing secularisation and new patterns of socialisation are emerging in the digital age where new tribes and affiliations and niche groups are the current homes for identity and belonging.

Cultural shifts have now prioritised personal ascendancy over the communal contract.

A pluralising, detraditionalising and individualising cultural context is now taken as normal by the majority of people.

As such, the school is now the place for evangelisation of the next generation of Catholics.

We have a big job ahead of us as we fulfil our mission of educating those one in five children in Australia who attend our schools (NCEC, 2017).

This is the challenge for Catholic school leadership who need to prioritise and honour the nature and purpose of the RE classroom as the school maintains its raison d'etre.

If it is on the timetable with Maths and English and Science it needs a revitalised respect.

How do we 'do' our mission in schools?

The question for us is how do we maintain this unique and irreplaceable aspect of our schools, while we compete for numbers and results in a marketplace that commodifies almost everything?

How do we maintain the integrity of the subject at senior secondary levels when the students see it as an intrusion in the timetable, rather than an opportunity for reflection, increased religious and life knowledge, discussion, and some necessary soul-building?

How do we strengthen our distinctive Catholic identity in a world where schools can suffer from a diminution of vision and mission when this is not enacted routinely by those in the school community as a part of the daily fabric of school life?

How do we assist the RE teachers who have twenty-five or more students in these core classes, whilst their peers have smaller class sizes and more overt investment in their subject because students feel these relate more directly to academic achievement and their future pathway?

Our responsibility and privilege in the Catholic classroom is to nurture the human being in front of us, welcoming them, and fostering in them the knowledge and growth that gives their unique and precious life meaning.

Ideally, that is done within the Catholic context as host tradition, but we no longer indoctrinate or believe that other Christian denominations have a less guaranteed way to God. Thank God, those divisive partisan days are over and we Christians, of different stripes, are so much more collegial in our faith.

Ecumenism has opened many doors to understanding.

We know that much enrichment can come from learning about other faith traditions, recognising in them other paths to the transcendent and the common care for others.

Beyond the Christian belief system, we also know that we have much to learn and appreciate in the multicultural, multifaith world that is Australia today.

We also know that there is a great invitation for us to become conversant with Indigenous spirituality which honours country as mother as we immerse ourselves in stories of ancient Dreaming.

This openness to dialogue and understanding is practical and pragmatic in shaping the future egalitarianism and inclusion that will build a thriving sense of national identity and social cohesion.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart offers a way forward as we look to the First Nations people as original custodians who can share the secrets of stewardship and kinship across this wide brown land, we all call home.

As teachers, we are in a front-line position to see exactly what comes from the home via faith knowledge and practice.

We can see the confessed and the cultural Catholic who return to the gospel values as foundational to the growth of character and its implications for the common good.

We also invite enrolments from those who want the values and standards offered by a good education offered in a school which is faith-based.

There is a general acknowledgement that Catholic primary schools are good with discipline and standards and offer a warm sense of inclusion.

They get the building blocks right for later development in this sector or others.

At both primary and secondary levels, Catholic schools offer hospitality and the opportunity for evangelisation, as well as an openness to dialogue reflecting the context of the times.

The expectation is that students who enrol in the Catholic school understand and accept that religious education and their participation in this curriculum and the school's liturgical celebrations is a given, even if they have no religious inclination or adherence elsewhere.

There is an expectation that respectful reciprocity will be the attitude of those other students (and staff) who attend a Catholic school.

Most students today see themselves as spiritual beings who have their own ways of making meaning.

This spirituality is personalised and idiosyncratic and picks and mixes from a variety of sources, traditional, new age, emerging or other. Some have called this the supermarket approach, where the student takes what they want and rejects those ideas or practices that do not fit in with their lifestyle or aspirations.

It would seem that religion is seen as institutional and occasionally oppressive, whilst spirituality is very much a personal confection of ideas, attitudes and practices.

There is a movement away from all sorts of traditional structures as new configurations and blendings take root and the past is viewed with suspicion and/or irrelevance.

With so much activism, some well-intentioned, others less so, at work geo-politically and with mood swings orchestrated by 24/7 social media, we must be mindful of finding that equilibrium that can bring about the common good.

We must be truth-tellers in our own spheres, building up the Kingdom, whilst acknowledging that the institution has been severely damaged, and its former influence dissipated.

We have our challenges ahead and one of those is to ensure that our students have the capacity to think for themselves and to not be swayed by the loudest voice, the virality of social media, the issue de jour or the fear of having a dissenting opinion.

We need to renegotiate a way to open up the Good News for them so that its universal story of love and redemption becomes meaningful for the reality of their lives.

The God question

As we look to the future of the Catholic school, we are reminded that its duty is to constantly raise the God question.

This can be done through respectful dialogue as the teacher speaks to the assorted class members about meaning, belief and values, some of which may well be counter cultural.

This teacher will be in tune with the times and have entry points that will enrich and enliven class discussion and action.

There will be room for robust debate, but no room for indoctrination.

Columnist for National Catholic Reporter and Franciscan priest Daniel P. Horan gave a thoughtful consideration to the world inhabited by the young people we teach. He poses the question:

What if our starting point in thinking about what it means to be a person in communion with God, oneself and the world was not reduced to external expressions of institutional belonging, but instead began with attention to humans' inherent capacity for God?

He refers to Ronald Rolheiser's description of spirituality from The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality: ‘Long before we do anything religious at all, we have to do something about the fire that burns within us.

What we do with that fire, how we channel it, is our spirituality'.

We are in a privileged and responsible position in the RE classroom and at the Catholic school to help with that channelling, with that formative and purposeful finding for the student that they have a spiritual dimension, individually sparked and motivated, sometimes with a religious language and framework, sometimes without it, sometimes borrowing and reshaping it for today's lived reality.

We recognise how vastly the world has changed in the last six decades and that we need new tellings and appropriations of our long-held narratives.

We cannot continue as we were and must adapt, spiritually and strategically, to continue to tell the salvation story of Jesus of Nazareth; to make it known and meaningful for a contemporary audience.

We know that the Christ story is front and centre and that we are contemporary disciples sent forth on a distinctive mission.

Teachers

We need the next generation of committed Catholic teachers who can dialogue gently and respectfully with a changing world, holding onto the deep anchor of faith in sometimes turbulent waters.

We know that these teachers will often be the most influential religious educators for the child, as parents have been outsourcing this aspect of their upbringing for almost as long as we have been teaching!

We may be in the last few years of our RE teaching mission in schools, but we care that our work goes forward; better, brighter, realisable, and influential for a new generation.

So, it is important that we plan for the project of Catholic education, imagining possibilities, charting new territory, being provoked, and challenged by the world around us and finding our place, perhaps as that bold minority to which Greg Sheridan referred.

We must be motivated to do what we can, where we can.

We also know that serious conversations need to be had within the local and national leadership, both clerical and educational, to recognise the gravity of the situation and the urgent need to invite, train, professionalise and support the next generation of RE teachers.

Our next generation of RE teachers can be thought-leaders and influencers, way beyond the ephemerality of the TikTok meme or being Insta-famous.

They can influence, form, and transform the child in front of them by holding onto our foundational convictions and responding with hope and discernment in the light of the secular pluralist world we now live in.

We hope that the joys and mystery of the Catholic imagination and what it stands for is rekindled for the next generation of the faithful.

We learned in our long-ago Catholic education the primacy of loving God and loving neighbour.

That lesson remains absolute and inviolate.

However, it may well be delivered very differently today in response to a world that has changed irrevocably.

Contested space

Our young people today have different inputs and outputs, and we must respond to those authentically.

We need new ways to assist in their best becoming if we are to balance change and tradition in a world whose certainties are less sure than they once were.

Our hope and prayer is that this mediated lesson of an integrated living between faith and culture takes seed and blossoms in the hearts and minds, actions and behaviours of the generations who come after us.

We finish writing this just as Pope Francis celebrates the 60th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II on 11 October 1962.

As we have noted, the world is in a different place and the role of institutional religion in the public square is contested.

There is increasing pressure for groups and corporations to adopt mission and vision statements prioritising secular or citizen values.

For some, this may well create a tension between their private faith stance and their public role. Christopher Middleton SJ notes that there is a widespread perception that Christian viewpoints are being excluded from the public square.

In The Weekend Australian, Frank Brennan SJ argues that we need to ‘advocate without accusation, disagree without disrespect and see differences as places of encounter, rather than exclusion'.

Catholic identity

So, as we forge ahead, it may well be that secularisation has impacted to such an extent that to publicly avow faith is seen as oppositional to a more secular worldview.

This may yet have implications for Catholic schools, their selection of employees in the light of equality and/or discrimination and how to energise the faith creatively and committedly for the betterment of all in a time when faith is disparaged or seen as irrelevant and anachronistic.

These elements go to the heart of Catholic identity.

We need to find places of reconciliation when irreconcilable differences threaten to divide us.

We need to find those mutual meeting places as we mould and form the next generation of Catholics and those young people of goodwill, of no faith or other faith traditions, who companion us in different ways.

We have challenging times ahead in our Catholic education sector.

However, we live in hope that a new generation of teachers, and most especially the Religious Education teacher, will be able to exercise their own authentic witness, specialist, moderator experience for the flourishing of all in the contemporary Catholic classroom.

We have great faith in this educational enterprise.

It is vital to the mission of the Church and to the holistic, humanising and spiritual growth of all the young people we are privileged to teach in this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit.

• Dr Bernadette Mercieca is currently teaching at Our Lady of Mercy College, Heidelberg. She has previously worked as a sessional at ACU and is a research assistant at Victoria University.
• Ann Rennie teaches at Genazzano FCJ College, Kew. She has a regular column in Australian Catholics and contributes to a variety of media outlets.
• First published in Eureka Street. Republished with permission

Her comments followed an article published on the weekend suggesting religious education was being replaced by religious studies.

The article went on to suggest religious studies would primarily focus on the likes of religious diversity, cultural differences and bullying, and there would also be a place for non-religious people in the curriculum.

The article said that religious education would be part of "Social Studies".

The DRS confirmed that Religious Education will be absorbed into the Social Studies department. However, it is not the end of Religious Education as Catholic schools know it.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is currently trying to standardise Level 1, 2, and 3 achievement standards in New Zealand. These achievement standards are generally taught in secondary schools.

"Catholic schools are by far the largest group using religious education standards and will be able to comply with the new standards," the DRS assured CathNews.

"I've trialled the new standards for two years, and while no system is perfect, there's no worry; we will still be able to teach the Catholic faith in Catholic schools."

She said the biggest challenge in working with NZQA is the involvement of people of little or no system of belief or faith framework to hinge the curriculum on.

Hesitant at the progress the school was making in the first year of the trial, she said something in NZQA has changed this year, and it's much better.

Asked about the role of the religious education programme in countering the likes of bullying and understanding other faith perspectives and cultures, she said it's built into Catholic faith teaching.

"Catholic students are taught about difference, respect and dialogue."

"That said, we can only propose not impose."

She took ‘as a positive' that visiting and relieving teachers frequently commented on the ‘tolerant' school environment.

To overcome these social concerns, it is very important the school walk the talk, not only teach but reinforce them in the overall environment in the school.

"A functioning Catholic school will reinforce both belief and its application in other elements of Faith in the school's programme and environment such as retreats, school camps, leadership training, prayer, sacramental programmes and a restorative justice discipline system."

"A significant problem we have is unsupportive parents who enrol their child in a Catholic school and want to excuse them from these 'values reinforcing' co-curricular events," she said.

New curriculum

The weekend article gave a brief outline of the new primary and intermediate school curriculum.

From next year, it will include a focus on diverse religious studies. The new content will be rolled into the refreshed social science curriculum.

The Ministry of Education says it is still reviewing NCEA religious studies standards in the secondary curriculum.

It notes, however, that "One of the principles of the NCEA Change Programme is inclusion and equity whereby every student deserves the same high-quality learning opportunities to succeed".

Source

• Stuff
• CathNews
• The person interviewed is not named, nor is the school identified. She did not want to draw attention to herself or school. The interview was conducted over the phone.

But for those sitting a level one NCEA external religious education (RE) assessment, this wasn't the case. For them, the last day of last term turned into a worry.

It was on that day that they were preparing to go into the external assessment exam. It then emerged that students had been given different instructions about preparing for the exam.

At least one class had been told they could take photographed copies of a resource booklet into the exam and had those copies with them. Others weren't given this advice and were preparing to use only their memories.

CathNews spoke to a Director of Religious Studies in another school involved in the same RE assessment. She expressed surprise the teacher allowed the students to take photocopies of the resource booklet into the exam.

She said her reading of the instructions was the resource was not allowed.

A New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) spokesperson says the school approached NZQA's breaches team about the problem and is working with them.

Students at the Christchurch Catholic school for girls say they've heard nothing since being told of the investigation.

They say they're now worried they'll miss out on the six credits the external assessment represented.

Source

• NZCity

The assignment was signed off by "the Religious Education Year 9 Team" at St Patrick's Marist College in New South Wales.

"Your mission is to present to your Local Member of Federal Parliament a letter expressing deep concern for the future of protection of religious freedom and freedom of speech", the assignment task told the students.

The assignment task informs the students that religious freedom is "being attacked in the workplace, schools, universities and on the streets".

It goes on to say Folau (a former Wallaby sacked over a homophobic social media post) has become "the most discussed and divisive figure in Australia.

"In reality, the matter is not about what Folau posted but about religious freedom of speech.

"Should we lose our job for making public our own private views? Do we as Australians have the right to voice our own opinion about matters that concern our individuality, our beliefs, our faith?"

Sue Walsh, from the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, says Catholic schools within the district are places where complex issues can be discussed, in an environment "where each voice can be heard, and every view expressed".

The assignment in question didn't represent the diocese's views however. Not did it represent the views of the diocesan schools or that of Marist Schools Australia.

"A number of the sentiments in the covering letter for the assignment do not represent the views of the Diocese of Parramatta, its schools or Marist Schools Australia," Ms Walsh said.

"The ... students will be given the opportunity to complete a new assessment that is consistent with contemporary approaches to learning and teaching."

Source

• News.com.au
• QN
• Daily Mail
• Image: News.com.au

The Secondary RE Bridging Document (SREBD) Poipoia te kakano kia puawai - Nurture the seed and it will blossom - is intended to provide some common ground while a formal longer process of preparing a new year 1 - 13 RE curriculum is undertaken.

The SREBD is designed to encourage a new look at RE in Catholic Secondary Schools from within the framework of the current "Understanding Faith" (UF) curriculum.

It is the result of significant consultation and reflection and is designed to be a practical, living document.

NCRS Director Colin MacLeod said SREBD is revisiting what is currently a 20-year-old curriculum.

He said this document links with the primary REBD to support deep consideration of religious education in all Catholic schools.

"It is important to be clarifying what RE is all about and developing a shared vision of what we ‘hope' for the young people in our care," McLeod said.

"The SREBD revisits our teaching of RE, placing the person of Jesus at the centre of what we do.

"It provides a foundation and encouragement for RE teachers and reminds us of the ‘why' and the ‘who' (Jesus) which give meaning to RE in our schools and is the reason for ‘what' we teach."

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference President, Bishop Patrick Dunn, said "The Catholic Bishops of Aotearoa New Zealand give thanks for all who teach Religious Education in our parishes and schools, we encourage you in your work, and assure you of our prayers as you participate in nurturing the seed of faith in our young people."

The SREBD is produced only in electronic format in response to Laudato Si' and the digital climate, and is available on FaithCentral.nz.

Source

• Supplied: Amanda Gregan NZCBC Communications Advisor,
• faithcentral.co.nz

The Catholic Education Service (CES) and the Bishop with special responsibility for RE say they are "not happy" with a report calling for urgent reform of religion in schools in England and Wales.

The say it is "a direct attack on the Catholic Church" and "a fundamental attack on religious liberty."

The report was launched at the House of Commons on Tuesday.

It recommends updating the laws governing religion in schools and suggests bringing them into line with Britain's current religious and cultural environment. Most people in the UK say they have no religion.

The report suggests a national syllabus should be developed to "raise the academic standard of religious education" and stop schools regarding the good teaching of RE as "an irksome appendage to the rest of school life."

It also recommends renaming RE to "Religion, Beliefs and Values."

The CES says this will result in RE being taught as "an exclusively sociological subject" and will mean "the Anglican state dictating their version of Catholicism."

"It will also strip the Bishops of their right to set the curriculum - it's incredibly misguided," a CES spokesperson says.

Bishop Marcus Stock, who is on the committee for education and formation with special responsibility for RE, says the recommendations are "unacceptable for two reasons.

"Firstly, that the State can impose a national RE curriculum, which would dictate what the Church is required to teach in Catholic schools.

"Secondly, the curriculum they suggest contains no theological content, which is at the core of Catholic RE.

"We accept there is a need to improve RE in all schools and Catholic teachers and academics have been actively contributing to this discussion," he says.

The discussion has resulted in several suggestions that would work in the UK.

"The suggestions would allow all schools to choose between RE as a theological discipline and Religious Studies as a sociological discipline," Stock says.

"Catholic schools are the most successful providers of religious education in the country. This is because we take it seriously as a rigorous, theological academic subject."

One of the report's authors, Professor Linda Woodhead, says more research is planned regarding the state of religion in schools.

She says the research will seek "the widest possible support for the needed changes amongst government and across the faith communities and other key constituencies."

Another of the report's authors, former home secretary Charles Clarke, says the understanding of other faiths builds more "tolerant" views.

Source

• The Tablet
• Schools Week
• BBC
• Image: Church Times

At the start of the year, Roy Warren, whose 5-year-old son attends St Heliers School, originally complained to principal Craig McCarthny about the 30-minute sessions running during school time, but the school refused to stop them.

Warren and another parent made submissions to the Human Rights Commission, which oversaw a mediation session between the two parties in January. It was agreed the school would not run the half-hour lessons during school time.

Continue reading

For

Why should New Zealand primary schools continue to offer a Christian religious education programme to students?

Because we live in a global village and therefore primary school students should have the opportunity to learn about the various religions in our world. The Churches Education Commission provides a Christian-based religious education programme. Other religious organisations have equal rights to provide religious-based education programmes in schools.

Because the curriculum we use teaches students the fundamental values upon which our civil society is built, for example: treat others as we would like to be treated, be honest, forgive others, look after people who are less fortunate than you.

Because the Bible is a great work of literature; this ancient book has influenced great works of art, inspired Broadway shows, and has been influential in shaping cultures around the world. Its stories and ideas are embodied in history and literature. This is not to say that other religions don't also have holy books that they read from and hold in high regard; it's important students in an education environment have the opportunity of learning about the religions that have shaped the world in which we live.

Against

The Human Rights Commission in 2009 published guidelines about religion in schools, and it made a sharp distinction between "religious instruction" and "religious education". Religious instruction means programmes that promote a single religion and invite children to make a decision about it. Religious education means programmes that are multi-cultural, and don't invite a decision. Continue reading

Sources

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Urban Christian News

John Main says, "Language may not be able to lead us into the ultimate communion but it is the atmosphere in which we first draw breath of consciousness."

I have spent more than fifty years acquiring language - a spiritual language, that is, not my native tongue - and suddenly it all seems a facade. It is empty, superfluous, 'white noise'. Don't get me wrong. I find the etymology, the lexicon of religion and spirituality fascinating.

For most of my life, I have listened to those more theologically literate, more erudite, with higher levels of education. I have hungrily devoured their definitions; their explanations; their theology. I have read voraciously. I am deeply indebted, and very grateful, to all who shared with me.

But I was short-changed.

What was offered, while encapsulating the Truth, presented as literal that which can only be revealed through metaphor, allegory, experience, art and silence. Ideas and practices presented as permanent, unchanging, infallible, embedded, I now see are transient, fluid, organic, responsive, reactive.

Consider the latest English translation of the Mass. I always considered the words and actions at the epiclesis and consecration as intrinsic to the transformation from bread and wine to Body and Blood. Those who love the Latin translation of the Mass probably thought the same. But the words keep changing. So the language becomes almost inconsequential, irrelevant. Whatever words we recite; whatever actions we make - it is that which is revealed that is important.

For me, now, that revelation is that God took human form. God is revealed in the actions and attitudes of human beings. God is creative and creator and is revealed in creation. God loves unconditionally and abundantly. I am known. I am loved. I am not alone. And this empowers and inspires me.

Scripture is rich in metaphor, myth, allegory, poetry. We learn about metaphor in English classes at school - but not a whiff is discussed in Religious Education. None of the names we give the divine are literal. God is not an eagle or a nursing mother or our father. These are metaphors to describe the indescribable - a divine presence so 'other' and so 'in-dwelling' that language can only hint at it.

I do not know if I was deliberately shaped, formed or taught in a certain way that kept me obedient, unquestioning, faithful. I do believe, however, that there is now a paradigm shift to acknowledge and name and embrace what has always been true: God is encountered and experienced in an infinite number of ways to ALL people - baptised or not; practising in an institutional church or not; religious or not. Artists, poets, storytellers, dancers, and musicians have always known this. Ecologists, feminists, and peace activists have always known this.

God can be experienced, but not entrapped in ideologies and dogmas. The language for God, and of God, has evolved. 
God can be encountered, but not explained. The language to describe God is now holistic and experiential. 
God exists outside of time and culture and language and is not constrained by these human constructs. The language reflecting God to us is the language of belonging and of relationship.

No-one has a stranglehold on God. Thank God.

And so I begin again …

Liz Pearce, mother of 3 adult children, loves story, dollmaking, writing and silence.

"I think 'religion' is probably a word that is confusing the whole situation. What we really should be talking about is culture. Religion is simply the spiritual dimension of culture - every culture has a spiritual dimension."

He said that in most countries, there is some form of educating people in what are the important things of culture, which includes its spiritual dimension.

Geering believes "This is an aspect of culture that has been sadly lacking in our curriculum," and as a consequence many New Zealanders do not know much about religion.

David Hines, of the Secular Education Network, said some members of his group believed religion should be taken out of the curriculum altogether.

Others believed schools should teach children about a range of beliefs, not just Christianity, provided they were taught in a fair and objective way.

The Secular Education Network and religious experts plan to meet within the next few weeks to discuss the issue.

Sir Lloyd Geering is a well-known New Zealand theologian and emeritus professor of religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Grant Brae's School

The survey conducted in Britain also shows more than half of the adults questioned believe Religious Education lessons in schools are worthwhile with many favour making Religious Education (RE) compulsory.

The poll comes as increasing numbers of teenagers are being forced to drop Religious Education because of the introduction of new-style league tables that prioritise other subjects.

The YouGov poll commissioned by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales found 53% of 1,800 adults questioned in England and Wales thought RE should be compulsory in all state schools, while 58% of adults said they thought RE was beneficial.

Only 9% said they thought it was harmful.

In releasing the poll results, the Religious Education Council of England and Wales said they feared that an expansion of independent academies, state schools run free of local authority, is leading to rising numbers of schools dropping locally-agreed syllabuses in the subject, reports the Telegraph.

The survey results come at a time when British MP's and peers prepare to attend the first meeting of the newly-formed all-party parliamentary group for RE, established to raise awareness of the importance of RE in schools.

John Keast, chairman of the RE Council, said the group was necessary to counter concerns that the subject was becoming increasingly marginalised by Coalition reforms to education, reports the Telegraph.

This includes a Government decision to exclude RE from the English Baccalaureate - a new school leaving certificate that rewards pupils gaining good GCSE grades in the five core academic disciplines of maths, English, science, foreign languages and either history or geography.

It is feared that this is leading to a decline in the number of schools offering the subject at GCSE level.

Mr Keast said: "There have been a number of unintended consequences for RE as a result of changes made by the Government."

According to last summer's GCSE results, a total of 221,974 youngsters entered for the subject compared to 188,704 the year before.

At the same time, history and geography saw a decline in entries.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Telegraph
• Huffington Post
• Image: The Telegraph

It was years ago and we were walking through Cashel Mall during an afternoon shopping jaunt and she asked if, when she had children, I would be their godmother. Now, what I think I was supposed to do was grab her excitedly and yelp "yes!" and gush a bit about what an honour it was and how I was definitely suited to this role because of my advanced french plaiting skills and babies really like me and ohmigosh, I can't WAIT!

But because I am the sort of person who loves to rain on someone else's parade* I said rather flatly, "But how would that work? Because I'm totally an atheist." My friend looked incredibly deflated. If I had the opportunity to do it over again I would do the excited and flattered thing first and bring up the glaring flaw LATER.

The problem from my point of view was that even though my friend was that religious, I did know that she believed in God...and that I equally did not. I've been to a few christenings, and as I understand it, a godparent is supposed to have some input into the child's religious upbringing, which for obvious reasons is a role that I am not at all suited to.

I think religion is silly. But then most people in the world think Star Wars is silly, even though clearly it is a Very Serious Matter (as evidenced by this very long but entirely awesome blogpost that outlines the most artistically satisfying order in which to watch the films - it's not nearly as simple as you would imagine). Read more

Sources

• Blog Idle with Moata on Stuff
• Image: Tyler

There is a recognition that every young person in Europe has a right to hold a particular view, whether religious or secular, within the limits of the law, and that societies need to develop a culture of living together in peace. There is a view that all young Europeans should have a knowledge and understanding of religious diversity in Europe and beyond, but there is no naiveté that this understanding will automatically increase tolerance. In addition, there need to be opportunities for critical and reflective engagement, through moderated dialogue and exchange, for example, and the appropriate sensitivities, attitudes and skills need to be cultivated. This is part of the Council of Europe's message in its White Paper on intercultural dialogue.

But we shouldn't study religions and other worldviews in state schools simply for instrumental reasons. We must not lose sight of the importance of an education which covers all areas of human experience - such as mathematical, scientific, aesthetic, philosophical (including ethical), linguistic, historical, and religious/spiritual. A combination of intrinsic and instrumental justifications gives attention to all aspects of human experience, as well as addressing pressing issues.

My research team's work in various projects in the UK and in Europe, including the Religion and Society programme, provides some observations relevant to the development of policy. Read more

Sources

• Tony Blair Faith Foundation
• Image: The Telegraph