- The Rev Ruth Scott with Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain.
The Accord Coalition hosted its first fringe meeting at the Church of England’s meeting of its General Synod on Wednesday evening, which was described as ‘A historic event’ by General Synod member, The Rev Hugh Lee, who sponsored the meeting.
Mr Lee, from the Oxford diocese, addressed the audience and stated that he hoped the evening’s conversation about faith schools, their strengths and their weaknesses, encompassing a variety of views, would deepen and extend itself within the Church.
The event was chaired by Andrew Brown, editor of the Belief section of The Guardian’s Comment is Free, and the speakers were Jonathan Bartley – Co-Director of the Christian think tank Ekklesia, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE – Minister of the Maidenhead Synagogue and Chair of the Accord Coalition, and The Reverend Ruth Scott – writer, broadcaster, mediator and Chaplain of Christ’s School in Richmond, London.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain observed that “You can only love your neighbour if you know your neighbour in person”, and praised the suggestion in April 2011 by the Bishop of Oxford, The Rt Revd John Pritchard, that Church of England schools should consider admitting a limit of 10% of their pupils on religious grounds.
Rabbi Romain also urged that Religious Education (RE) should become part of the National Curriculum to ensure that all state schools provided RE that taught about the range of beliefs and convictions in a plural society. At present most faith schools and academies are not required to follow national guidelines about what they provide in their RE.
The Rev Ruth Scott stated that the role of religion in education can both inspire and divide, and that understanding religion and belief remained enormously important for comprehending and engaging with the modern world.
She observed that dogmatic belief that is consciously excluding, leads to division and feeds ignorance and prejudice, while ethical values could be sourced and shared from a range of places. She also argued that Church Schools would benefit from recovering their historic mission of providing education for all children.
Jonathan Bartley, the co-director of the think tank Ekklesia, said that the ‘Christian ethos to which Church Schools aspired, should be about making learning available to all and giving priority to vulnerable children and those most excluded in society, not about discriminating on the grounds of religion in admissions.
He issued challenges over responding positively to children with special needs (SEN), to the deprived, and on tackling prejudice and homophobia, and spoke of the huge barriers experienced by his own wheelchair using son, and by other people with disabilities, in tying to access some Church Schools.
Mr Bartley also highlighted how Church Schools damaged themselves by often limiting their choice of applicants for senior management posts to only Anglicans or Christians, when there were many experienced teachers who could effectively help maintain a school’s ethos, even if they were not of the school’s faith.
Accord also highlighted it campaigns work and policy objectives to Synod members by managing a display stand during the General Synod’s fourday meeting this week at Church House in Westminster.
