Anglican schools 'will face resentment' whilst they select on the basis of faith
From Ekklesia -14/03/06
An associate of the religious thinktank Ekklesia has today said that whilst Anglican schools continue to use selection on the basis of religious faith or parental church attendance they will continue to be widely resented. The comments follow today's release by the Church of England of a poll conducted in early November, to gauge attitudes toward the church and specifically church schools.
The poll was conducted by researchers ORB and released today by the Church of England's Communication's Office to coincide with a major conference on Church schools at which the Archbishop of Canterbury is giving a keynote address. Ekklesia associate Theo Hobson said; "There is something desperate about the Church producing its own statistics to ‘prove’ the popularity of its schools”.
"Over the last five years there has been a rising tide of hostility to faith schools, partly due to their collusion in social selection, and partly due to fears of religious separatism. While Anglican schools continue to use selection on the basis of parental church attendance they will continue to be widely resented – by those who cannot attend a high-performing local school, by those who refuse to fake a church commitment, by those who fear religious separatism. The Church ought to be careful: an established Church cannot afford to seem a self-serving subculture that puts its own members before the common good”.
"The only solution is for the Church to decide to open its schools to all those who want to attend, irrespective of religious commitment. This would be a ‘kenotic’ action – a gift to the wider culture. It is an urgent issue for the Church, for in many places the education issue is changing the nature of churchgoing, associating it with educational ambition. Anglican leaders may defensively deny this, but a growing sector of society knows it to be true."
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5 comments:
even with an open door policy, I was not happy with Mstr A attending a church funded school. It's fundementally wrong and against all my ethics, morals and beliefs.
i would also not allow him to attend a school funded by any other religion, a single corporation, or an individual.
Schools should reflect the ethos of the country as a whole, and therefore funded by the country as a whole, and have the curiculum set (with flexibility) by the country as a whole.
Yes, I agree. Schools should be state schools teaching a national secular curiculum.
We certainly shouldn't be opening any more faith schools no matter how they are funded.
Are there any religious Universities in the UK? Do they discriminate based on faith or is that illegal? It would seem odd to have different standards for different levels of private education. Evolve or die out - that's the decision they face.
laura asked: Are there any religious Universities in the UK?
Good question. I'm not sure but I certainly can't think of any. It's not something that has ever crossed my mind actually.
As an aside I was rather amused that at least one of our Universities (in this case Cardiff) has the Theology department housed in the Humanities Building... It made me chuckle.
I think one or two of the Oxbridge colleges are eligious colleges, but to my knowedge there are no whole universities that select on a faith basis.
Imagine the uproar if one started!
We don't think they should be allowed in other countries, let alone our own! (well, we certainly kick off enough about religious colleges in the liddle East!)
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