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February 2002, Page 1.
Index of articles.
Vicar's Letters:
index,
Harvest,
Remember,
Christmas,
New Year,
Church & School,
Autism.
Schools:
index,
Church & School,
Creationism.
In this issue:
(February 2002)
Vicar's Letter,
Foot & Mouth,
Bible versions,
Question,
History.
The Church's place in School
Celebration Serviceand opening of new classrooms10.30am Sunday 17th February
We begin in church with praise, bible and talk,
All welcome: pupils, staff, parents,
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This month the new classrooms at St Luke’s CE(C) Primary School will finally be finished and handed over to the school. We mark the occasion by celebrating with a special service, to which we hope lots of people, from both church and school, will come.
Why do we want to do this? Isn’t it just an event in the School’s life? What has it got to do with the Church?
Not many people remember the reason the church was originally involved in schools: we started most of them! First, Sunday Schools which provided basic education for children who worked in factories or fields from an early age; and then elementary schools which were only later taken on by the state. The aim was not to “evangelise” the children, but to give them a good-quality general education which would help them through life.
That’s still the aim today, and St Luke’s Church’s involvement in our school is not firstly to do with “converting” the children - not even in RE lessons. It is about teaching them how to think for themselves, so that when they come across lots of new ideas they will know how to cope with them and see the good from the bad.
In RE lessons, the “spiritual development” part of the curriculum requires the school to put pupils in the position where they can make an informed decision about what faith to believe. We get invited in to explain what Christians think and do, and we hope the good sense of our opinions will help the children to see reasons for thinking the same. Likewise, in “School Services” we try to give young people a genuine taster of worship, so they’ll know what it is they are accepting or rejecting as they grow up.
We clergy can’t do this on our own. The whole church needs to take an interest in young people - otherwise how can we expect them to grow up knowing about our faith? And that’s why we hope you will join us on 17th February, as well as taking a big interest at other times.
John Hartley