Anglican schools ‘will face resentment’ whilst they select on the basis of faith
-14/03/
Anglican schools ‘will face resentment’ whilst they select on the basis of faith
-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 ëproveí the popularity of its schools.
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“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 ñ 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 ëkenoticí action ñ 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.”
Anglican schools ‘will face resentment’ whilst they select on the basis of faith
-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 ëproveí the popularity of its schools.
Related Articles
“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 ñ 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 ëkenoticí action ñ 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.”