Church, schools and government

A few different thoughts have been coming together to prompt this post. The first one was the reaction of the people present at a recent public meeting about faith schools. There were a lot of criticisms - including suggestions of indoctrination - and a show of hands revealed quite a few people against any faith involvement in schooling.

In one sense, that was surprising, as we have a good local primary schools with a church foundation, as well as popular church high schools. However, I have also seen the concern and negative feeling about churches having any involvement in running institutions when a secular college was merged with a church one to form the University of Cumbria. The perception of the church as homophobic, sexist and bigoted runs deep. Furthermore, people question whether the state should support faith at all. In 2005, a Guardian/ICM poll recorded 64% opposing any government funding of faith schools.

Historically, the church was the first agency to provide schooling in England and many of the schools we now have in the state-sector are the legacy from the parochial schools which pre-date universal state provision. I suppose one could argue that if the church started schools and Universities in this country, it's a bit churlish to evict them them now.

I think there are several issues with faith and education. Firstly, is it indoctrination? Well, a school might have a very clear agenda to propagate a faith; others might have a "Christian ethos" (often vaguely defined) with no particular agenda. I have to say that if they are indoctrinating children, the net result seems to be pretty unsuccessful. In fact they often have the opposite effect, with overdoses of religion immunising people from faith later in life. For instance, my secondary school gave us daily assemblies, 3 of them were for the whole school with reading, hymn and talk. Of about 800, only a tiny handful ever met at Christian Union, and assemblies and RE lessons did nothing to help it sustain its activities.

Secondly, do they generate sectarianism? That's a harder question to answer. I haven't come across any militant Anglicans produced by Church of England schools. [Wonder what they would do? Guerilla jumble sales? Aggressively enlist people for evensong?] However in Northern Ireland people may answer that question rather differently. I remember students at St Martin's College, Lancaster who came from Belfast saying College was the first place they had ever got to know people from the other side of the divide, as their previous education was in a purely Protestant or Catholic environment. In the English context, I understand that C of E and Catholic state schools may not discriminate against people of other faiths in staff recruitment, except for RE teachers, and there are often non-Catholic or non Anglican Christians as well as other faiths, agnostic and even atheist teachers in such schools. That makes indoctrination rather difficult to achieve.

The third question is whether it's possible to provide a 'neutral' education. Suppose schools had a policy of no exploration of the idea of spirituality at all, which is what I presume some would want. That's a belief standpoint. By taking the possibility of the spiritual out of the education system, you have already adopted a stance, just as much as you would in a faith school. It seems to me the real question is how open and free pupils are to question and to explore ideas which are not the 'given' in the school they attend.

The important question behind all of this is whether any state resources should, in any sense, be invested in what atheist critics would regard as the propagation of religion. I can see the case that in a genuinely secular state that they should not (although faith groups often sustain community and charitable activity that augments state provision, so charitable status for tax, etc could be argued for even in a secular state). The difference in the UK is that we are not a secular state. We have an established church, the monarch is the supreme governor of the Church of England, we have Bishops on the House of Lords. The other side of that coin is that Parliament has a say over church matters (it had to approve the ordination of women, approves parochial fees, and the Commons threw out a revised Church of England Prayer Book in 1927 & 1928)

Perhaps some of the current proposed reforms may start to change that. I would certainly favour an elected upper house, provided it was elected by a genuinely proportional system such as Single Transferable Vote. However, if Parliament no longer provides a voice for the Church of England, then it ought to be time for the Church to be able to govern itself without reference to Parliament.

There is a perfectly logical case for the state becoming secular, but to achieve that aim is far from simple. There's plenty more to debate.

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• Coalition pledge on faith schools (telegraph.co.uk)

Multitasking

The lack of blog posts indicates that I have been a little bit busy over the past week or so. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to focus on what needs to be done in the present, with a move of job and house pending. However, we've made good progress this week - the removals and various other contractors are booked, and we even got a bit of painting done.

Meanwhile I am trying to wrap up what remains at the University of Cumbria. I am trying to ensure no-one is left not knowing where things are or who to contact. You can't cover all the bases, but I'm trying to ensure transition is reasonably smooth. Today I went to Carlisle and talked things over with my colleague there, who will be acting 'Senior Chaplain' until a new one is appointed in Lancaster. Tomorrow I'm back in the office, sorting email, paper and computer files.

Sooner or later you just have to abandon the project I guess.

Neglect

Just noticed the date of my previous post. This week has flown by, full of travel, farewells, services and meals. Graduations next week and the final days at UoC beckon. Increasingly feels the right choice to have taken, but still strange to hear of plans for next term which I will have no part in. A good team in charge, so if you're coming to Cumbria next year, join in!!

What makes a meeting?

Earlier on, I was thinking about some exchanges between students relating to the content of Christian meetings. The issue in question was about the relative value of gatherings which focus on prayer and worship, rather than on preaching and teaching. The obvious answer is that a healthy 'diet' should include both, but it revealed the difference between 'conservative' and 'charismatic' evangelical approaches. For one, the decisive encounter with God is with the preached word, whereas for the other, it may be in the preached word, but also in prayer or in a specific prompt from the Holy Spirit. [This all ignores the fact that if everyone is involved in a local church as well, then student meetings are 'extras' anyway]

It echoed for me the different attitudes people have when they have been to a meeting of a committee or working group. For some people a good meeting = a good chat round the table; for others it can only be good if decision are made, tasks allocated and a schedule set. The truth is that different temperament types thrive on different kinds of interaction, and we all need both to keep us human.

I can't help wondering whether the apparent theological preferences relating to christian meetings are more about personality type than about theology. All too often we tend to dress one thing up as the other.

Moving Office

Packing up today. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

Back

Having taken the days between the last two Sundays off, it's time to get back to things in the office. Slightly stale air is currently leaving via some open windows, as the sun is shining for a record fourth day in a row. The pile of paper to process will grow in a minute when I go to the post room (they should finish sorting by 1030), but the email inbox in surprisingly quiet.

Should give me a bit of time to do some of the sorting out which will be a necessary precursor to moving to our new offices in the next few weeks.

Tuition Fees

As I was listening to the news today on tuition fee proposals, I thought it was ironic that my first appointments of the day were to meet about Access to Learning Fund and other student hardship fund awards. The current arrangements of fees necessitate students facing significant financial challenges to complete courses. The recession has accentuated things further by removing many temporary and casual jobs from the labour market, which students use to offset some of the financial pressures (and hardship fund assessments make certain assumptions about a possible part-time income) Furthermore, parents are under pressure themselves to provide any contribution to the finances of their student offspring.

If the fee cap is raised, then I hope that the provision for hardship funds, students support and other resources are also increased to ensure that the worst effects are mitigated.

Teaching

Interesting discussion on TV about plans for 6 month teacher training. Lots of talk about the job and employability of bankers. No use of the term 'vocational' which is commonly used at our Uni for such courses. You don't have to credit the call to a deity in order to see teaching as a career which merits people with a strong sense of purpose. Not sure unemployed bankers come into that category.

-- Post From My iPod touch

Infallibility

Biblical, not papal/ecclesiastical, by the way.

It's an issue which circulated in University Christian circles from time to time, and it's around at UoC at the moment. My recollection from my time at Uni was that it tended to excite former public schoolboys, usually in brown cords and brogues, resulting in them talking intensely about infallibility, whether so-and-so was 'sound', and debating whether certain doctrines or church practises were truly biblical (usually pronounced something like 'bublical'). Although my home church was evangelical, it wasn't terminology I had ever come across before.

One reason it comes up is that a variety of Christian organisations require people to sign up to this, along with a number of other doctrines in order to hold office, or to play an active part. One of these is UCCF, to which many university christian unions are affiliated. I remember signing up in about 1982 in order to be one of our College CU reps for the University CU without really thinking it through. Since then I've become uneasy about signing up to anything, but what does the infallibility word actually mean?

For many Christians around the world, it implies literal historical accuracy. In other words it would require people to be creationists, etc. That's certainly not the standpoint of UCCF or some other organisations that use the term, but it might be assumed. So the concept itself is prone to interpretation. Some use inerrancy to draw a distinction, speaking of the text as originally given.

That throws up all kinds of questions in itself:

• we don't have the 'original' text, only copies of copies of copies.
• some Biblical books were written through a process in stages. At what stage did this infallibility appear? Is Mark more authoritative than Matthew when they give slightly varying accounts of the same events in the life of Jesus?
  
• most people read translations, which inevitably introduce the possibility of error or the influence of the interpretive views of the translator. (Hence in Islam the Qur'an has to be read in Arabic and textual accuracy is vital. Any translation is described as an interpretation.)
  

I think the key question for all Christians who want to afford the Bible authority (and I'd count myself in that group) is what sort of authority does it have? It seems to me that many Christians get engaged in futile debates about side issues, such as authorship or the precise historical value, because they fear sliding down a slippery slope into a liberal, relativist, 'anything goes' nightmare. The problem with that mentality is that if you lose the argument, you lose it all.

It's worth noting that the Bible doesn't explicitly claim infallibility for itself. In fact, it can't because none of the authors would have known the full collection of books which would become the Bible. The 'Canon' or authoritative list wasn't finalised until later. It does frequently talk about God's word, it refers to Scripture as inspired, and appreciated God's law. Extending those statements to infallibility or inerrancy is a deduction, based on a prior assumption.

Even if it were infallible/inerrant (as understood by those who advocate the word) there remains the question of interpretation. All of thesehave circulated in the evangelical circles I have inhabited for years:

• Should women lead/preach?
• Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit available now, or did they expire in the apostolic age?
• Should we baptise infants?
• Are we predestined, or do we have free choice?
• What is the correct account of the origins of the universe?*

People on both sides of each of these questions could sign up to infallibility, so where does it get us, other than define the parameters of the debate? Personally I prefer thinking of the Bible, Scripture in a more narrative way. As 'Canon' the Church recognised the authority of those texts the ones which shape who we are, and reading, struggling and engaging is central to the Christian life - individual and communal.

Not everything the Bible does or gives can be reduced into logical and propositional terms. As Debbie (the reverend missus) said the other day, in what sense is a poem infallible? Poetry isn't just about the words on the page, but the experience of reading it. How else could we give space, let alone status to texts as offensive as Psalm 137:8-9? As a piece of poetry about despair, I can understand it, and defend it against Richard Dawkins. Not sure what it's doing there otherwise...

No doubt this will run and run, but there's what's at the top of my brain (I know it's been much debated for the last 27 years of my life) so comments and contributions most welcome!

* my own views are 1) yes, 2) available now, 3) yes, 4) free choice, 5) a chronology according to science, but a divine cause.

Survived

The first class yesterday seemed to go OK. Consequentialism and emotivism are underway. A nice sized class with some good discussion.

Mike becomes a lecturer!

Today is a slightly scary day, when I start teaching a module for Religious Studies here at the Uni of Cumbria [no comments about dropping standards, please]. I'm to do a second year module on "The Scope of Christian Ethics" which I wasn't sure about to start with, but I'm getting quite excited about now.

Just hope a) I have understood everything correctly and b) I manage to convey all the relevant material coherently.

I'll post again when it's over.

Blue Monday

Can't get New Order out of your head now? Thought not.

Today is that Blue Monday, according to Dr Cliff Arnall. Although a psychologist, he has analysed a whole series of factors mathematically - time after Christmas, bills, New Year resolutions broken, lack of sunshine, etc. On top of that we have a recession, so we can't even comfort-shop.

There's even a website for people who are finding it a down day http://www.beatbluemonday.org.uk/ and ten tips to beat the blues.

Lectures and classes resume for our students today. May get busy later!

Labyrinths, Sweden and moving

The picture at the top of my blog shows part of our campus a few years ago. Chapel is in the middle, and to the left is a labyrinth. Below that is the front of the Princess Margaretha (Swedish princess) Hall. The hall was the largest room on campus, but any gathering in there had the ambience of 1970s school assemblies. It was getting very tired.

The hall is now demolished, although the stage area still survives, yet to be remodelled, as does the tower block the photo was taken from. The labyrinth has also gone, and the site is now occupied by our new Lancaster Gatway building, which (mainly) opened today. Lots of glass, Lakeland stone and wood. I'll get some photos up before too long.

One curious feature of the building are two large panels - one blue and one yellow. Some people have joked about IKEA, so we missed a sponsorship deal there. They may not be far from the truth - I wonder whether it is a reference to the Swedish connections of the building that occupied the site previously.

Haven't found anyone who knows yet.

GodSpace Mon 20th Oct

Just wanted to log this about GodSpace (pace Stephen Jones). Had my first crack at leading GodSpace this week, using the healing of the blind man in Mark 8:22-26 as my biblical text. Went into issues of seeing and being seen, so I integrated them into the meditation session. Used mirrors, light and colour, thanks to Debs and Sue for helping with the arty bits. I think it worked

InSpire Sunday 19 Oct

Just catching up on the blog and decided to journal a few bits. Steve K led us at Inspire on Sunday, making Chapel into an airport lounge and using Nooma "luggage". It was a very different genre to previous gatherings, but people really engaged and conversation went on into the night.

Brillian use of office shredder to dispose of "baggage" written on a paper suitcase. The shocking sound in the quiet actually connected with the fact that letting go of the baggage of our lives can be deeply traumatic. Never has a nasty machanical noise been more appropriate.

Tidy

A regular feature of parish life has crept into my Chaplaincy work: storage. You know the problem - the puzzling fact that flower arrangers need 200 cubic metres of oasis when the Church has one flower stand and a couple of vases. Disposal of any of that teeth-on-edge-crunchy substance inevitably results in serious pastoral breakdown in Churches of all theological hue.

Anyway, our issue is not flowers, but PA, kettles, toasters and drum kits. Had to sacrifice the "back chapel" in order to generate a secure storage place that wasn't potentially lethal to access, but I can't really see any way round it without a substantial alteration to the building.

Well, for now it looks reasonably tidy. Just waiting for the green sponge to arrive...

Church chairs dilemmas

One of the big positives of our campus chapel is that it doesn't have pews. We can have all kinds of flexible seating arrangements, from formal rows to the café style seating we use on a Sunday night for our new venture, Inspire. The down side is that the chairs are rarely left how you want them for the next activity. What's more we usually get blamed if User A leaves the chairs wrong for User B and we haven't been in to rearrange them first. It was the same for the Church Hall when I was in Coventry.

Today (Saturday) I called in to the chapel to leave some music for tomorrow's practise to find all the chairs, tables and other bits and pieces around the walls. Not exactly ideal for breakfast in the morning, or for Inspire in the evening. However, I didn't feel it should be my job to do all the lugging.

I fear Chaplaincy may yet have to produce a detailed diagram of "How Chapel Should Be Left", but that would be tedious and probably irritating to users. It all depends whether the irritation of stuff in the wrong place outweighs the irritation of us becoming sticklers for detail.

Hmmm

Back to Church Sunday

This coming Sunday, 28 September, is officially Back to Church Sunday.It's a Sunday, supported by the Baptist, Elim, Methodist and Church of England to encourage people to try returning to church. It's primarily intended for people who used to go to church, but for whatever reason have stopped.

It's good that it coincides with our "Search for a Church" breakfast on Sunday from 9am, when we will be enabling people to find a church community to go to and belong to. 20,000 people responded to invitations last year, so it's very effective.

Freshers Week 3

Thursday was relatively straightforward - a soup-giving session, again proving popular with students, staff and the guys on the building site. "Why are you doing this?" is a popular question. We avoid saying "because Jesus loves you" because it wouldn't do any good. Instead we rely on the fact that if we can be hospitable, they will draw their own conclusions. "because we want people to feel welcome in their first week on campus" or words to that effect is the best reply.

In the evening, went to Christian Union. Felt old, as I usually do. Quite a few students there, plus some workers from a local church. Sound system didn't do the worship leader any favours, and we finished at 10pm, but people seemed to have a good time. Got home at 10-45 exhausted from a long day.

Friday - morning prayer (teaspoon prayer, thanks to Rachel and Gemma) and soup again. Didn't manage the CU lunch bar, as preparations for the afternoon & evening took over. Concert rehearsals in chapel, followed by a concert on Saturday. Wasn't involved, but had to make sure Chapel was OK. Spent Saturday trying to retrieve the garden from chaos.

After Saturday's relief. Sunday started on campus at 8-30am. Chap Centre lock broke, but a friendly on-site estates guy climbed through the prayer room window to release the Yale lock. A good crowd came for breakfast, where we signposted some local churches, and people went their various ways. Sunday lunch in Wetherspoons afterwards with many of them, then setting up for the second Inspire. Well over 40 turned up, so there was a good buzz to the place, and Steve Charman led us in an excellent evening on 'What is worship'. Especially liked the Dave Walker cartoons.

Freshers Week 2

A final point about Sunday (14 Sep) - it was the first Registration Day when I haven't worn a clergy shirt - we got a set of Chaplaincy T-shirts printed, so we all wore those. Small UoC Chaplaincy lettering on the front, and this year's logo on the back. Seemed to work and got us noticed (they matched the beer mat/drinks coaster)

Monday was a busy day - prayers at 9-15, late brekkies in campus coffee shop, then getting ready to give out home made soup at the chapel steps. Lots of appreciative take-up. Then Debbie & Sue arrived to set up for GodSpace - our new meditative prayer time for Mondays. Chapel looked fantastic with colour, candles and a new wooden cross made especially for the purpose. Will take a picture next time round.

In the afternoon we have a few contacts, and about 30 turn up for the evening - quite a few from a variety of local churches. A couple of people drop by who hadn't received our stuff on Sunday because they never got to our stall.

By the end of Monday, it felt well worth the preparation and effort.

Tuesday am again joined by other for prayer and breakfast. I could get used to this. Giving out soup again went well. We're popular with staff and workmen as well as new students. A regular clientele may be about to be formed. Not sure how choir will go in the evening, and only two new people come, but John isn't discouraged. We give them a drink and snack, do introductions and let them get on with the music. Actually get home to see some telly.

Wednesday - this is a trickier day. Prayer, etc plus soup and Wednesday Worship at 1pm (new time) In fact the best part of 30 people turn up for worship. I get the timing a bit wrong, but it seems to go OK with people. We then get ready for the movie night (Forrest Gump). Residence Life Team are great and support our event. We have over 40 in chapel watching the movie. The original plan was to get Domino's pizzas with student discount. They say it will be £109. Despite haggling by a student who used to work for them, the best discount they'll give is £7. We hang up and get the same order from another local place (Starvin' Marvins) for £65, complete with free pop. Result. Sorry Domino's - you need to try harder.