Church of England Communications

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Moving to Facebook

Please note - All future blogs will be posted on our Facebook page. Blogs on this account will be kept here as an archive. 

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What sort of schools does the CofE want to promote?

Our vision for education published in the Autumn last year sets out the Church’s commitment to an education that is deeply Christian, serving the common good. How does it apply to the type of school we want to promote? As explained in the interview with TES this week, with all the different choices on offer, we realise others will have different priorities and their own preferences, but we are interested in opening schools in which every pupil should be enabled to flourish, whatever their background, or the circumstances into which they are born or the struggles they may face as learners. Education not just for a few, nor just for the faithful. High quality education should be available to all and we continue to work to ensure that excellent provision is available everywhere for everyone.

Our vision is for an education which refuses to make artificial choices between academic rigour and the wellbeing of pupils - their intellectual, spiritual and emotional development - because we are unequivocal in our message that there is no such distinction - a good education promotes life in all its fullness.

Grammar schools are often the talking point and we do have three. But in bidding for new free schools we are putting our emphasis on exploring what more we can do for those who need outstanding special education or alternative provision and those who so often get left behind by society, as well as those who should have access to education which develops their vocational or technical skills as an equal priority to the development of highly academic skills.

Our vision addresses the challenges our society faces and offers education for wisdom, hope, dignity and community that will lead to the flourishing of every child we serve.

Rev Nigel Genders, Church of England’s Chief Education Officer

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Easter story statement

Further to the story in today’s Daily Telegraph, here are the quotes provided to the paper by the Archbishop of York and the Church of England. 

The Archbishop of York has provided the following quote about the so-called “Trinity of Chocolate” (Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry): “These were Great Quaker industrialists. If people visited Birmingham today in the Cadbury World they will discover how Cadbury’s Christian faith influenced his industrial output. “He built houses for all his workers, he built a Church, he made provision for schools etc.  It is obvious that for him Jesus and justice were two sides of the one coin. “To drop Easter from Cadbury’s Easter Egg Hunt in my book is tantamount to spitting on the grave of Cadbury.   “Maybe everyone should now buy The Real Easter Egg”.  

A spokesperson for the CofE said: “Alongside the Rowntrees and Frys, the Cadburys were motivated by their Christian faith to be champions of social reform. “The connection between faith-based motivation and business was very clear for them. “They stood out in their commitment to those they employed  investing in the lives of their workers in building parks, leisure facilities and providing pensions. “Their faith and their work were inseparable. This marketing campaign not only does a disservice to the Cadburys but also highlights the folly in airbrushing faith from Easter.”

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Palm Sunday processions in rural and inner city parishes

Rev Barbara Smith, Associate Vicar of St Christopher’s Church in Norris Green, Liverpool, and Rev Nicholas Lowton, vicar of the Black Mountains Group of parishes in Herefordshire, with six parishes, write about how Palm Sunday processions are received in their local communities.

Rev Barbara Smith: “We start outside the local co-op in Norris Green, there is a foyer just inside and the manager lets us take shelter there if it is wet or windy. Last year it was glorious and the sun shone. The shop is usually just about opening at 10am and people are coming in for newspapers. People don’t generally tend to stay but when they are offered a palm cross, nobody says no, they always graciously take one. They are used to seeing us, they take their crosses and they smile. I think of it as sowing some seeds.  We usually sing a hymn on the way back and the Sacristan carries the cross. We always carry complete palm branches and I wear my robes so that it is clear that it is church event. We do another bigger procession on Good Friday that is ecumenical. We have coffee and hot cross buns after the morning service and we then walk about a mile with other Christian denominations to West Derby village for a big outdoor service with all the churches around – Methodists, evangelical churches and Catholic churches and the Church of England. It’s brilliant that we do outdoor processions because a lot of people do not know what goes on in church on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. If we take the church into the community we make ourselves visible and take God and Jesus outside the boundaries of the church walls. Being proactive and visible is really important.”

Rev Nicholas Lowton started a Palm Sunday procession five years ago. “The great thing about the Palm Sunday procession is that it is absolutely public – church doors can be intimidating and it is not something that happens behind church doors, everybody sees it and experiences it. We start in the village of Longtown and go down the road to the Clodock Church for the family service – around a mile and a quarter. We have children from the local primary school who take part and ride the donkeys, hired from a charity in Abergavenny.  We pass by the village shop which is open on Sunday morning and somebody goes in and distributes palms.  I think there is a huge difference between serving in a rural area and a town – here everyone in the 40 to 50 square miles knows who the Vicar is. I think there is a general revival in ‘public professions’ of faith – our brothers and sisters in the Methodists and Baptists join us too on the procession which is lovely. There has certainly been a growth in people coming along to church, a lot of them in the last two or three years. We have also started a tradition of holding a dawn Eucharistic service at the summit of the Black Hill, the highest mountain in southern England, on Easter morning.”

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Celebrating Palm Sunday on Jesus Green

St Peter’s Bethnal Green in east London has revived its Anglo Catholic tradition of processing on Palm Sunday and distributing palm crosses. Rev Adam Atkinson writes about the procession and how it is received in his parish.

“There had been a history in the church of processing but when I arrived there were not that many people and it was a little less confident than it had been. We would stand on the pavement outside the church, say a few Hosannas and then scamper back into the church. I knew we had to go one of two ways – we could either scrap it and go inside or if we could persuade more people to take part, go further afield. We decided to gather more people and go for a bigger procession. We agreed that actually this could be a lot of fun. We have some public space in a residential area of our parish called Jesus Green and it struck me as a brilliant opportunity to gather there as we begin with the blessing of the palms. One year it was raining hard but people still had smiles on their faces. The next year at the time of the World Cup we had Vuvuzelas in the procession. By the third year, we borrowed a donkey, from a nearby city farm to circulate around the Columbia Road flower market.

We robe, bring out the largest processional cross and incense and as we go round we make sure that we have something to give – we hand out fliers for our Easter services and we give out chocolate and palm crosses and we sing hosanna. There are so many people who come from around the world at the market – some of them cross themselves, others give us quizzical looks and we have to explain to them what we are doing. People with children in buggies sometimes join in and process with us and some people give us a wide berth. We go around a few times and then we go back into church, quite often with newcomers following us. One family who were pushing a child in a buggy and followed the procession are now part of the church congregation. My dream would be to have a Dixie style band lead us. We’d certainly get more people following and there’s no reason why we might not conduct the whole service outside. It is far less threatening for people to be in the open and come on their terms.

The feedback that we have had over the years from people and from the market traders is only ever positive. It makes me want to get outside more often. For us, this is about our close connection to the parish and acknowledging that Jesus is Lord in the public space of the parish. We’ve been out a lot at Christmas with an upright piano on a trolley, leading carols in the Christmas market – reaching almost 3,000 people last year - and we do have carols the Sunday before Christmas as an open air service out on Jesus Green. We always come back in, look at one another and say “that was so good, when’s the next one?””

- Rev Adam Atkinson

(Picture credit:Katie Garner) The Palm Sunday procession for St Peter’s Bethnal Green starts at 10:30am on Sunday April 9th meeting on Jesus Green E2.

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Helping young people to find their own voices

In the hall at St Paul’s, West Hackney, pews have been shifted, cakes and squash are ready in the kitchen, and an accompanist is playing the piano. School has finished and around 30 children are singing Faure, Maria, Mater Gratiae, reading music from sheets, with just a few parents looking on. 

Hackney Children’s Choir draws children from eight primary schools, in a borough with one of the highest child poverty rates in the country. The children sing mainly sacred music, tackling works from hymns to Mass settings and church anthems by a range of composers from Britten to Handel, Mendelssohn and John Rutter. Many of the young singers rarely leave the borough and the choir has opened up a new world for them – of visits to King’s College, Cambridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Albert Hall and even residential choral singing courses – after fundraising by the church - over the Easter and summer holidays held in public schools such as Wellington and Eton. 

One of the boys, nine-year-old Christian, the youngest of a family of five children, discovered a passion for playing the piano through attending choir rehearsals. The church now lends him the keys to the church hall where he can practise and he has recently taken a grade exam. His mother, Christine Kakai, 54, speaks of the additional gains of singing in the choir. “It is not only the music, it is the discipline, learning to work with others, and taking instructions, sometimes learning to share just through sharing music.”  

The choir is just one project run by Tom Daggett, who leads music outreach work at St Paul’s Cathedral.  From Burnley in Lancashire, and a former organ scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, he learned to play the organ as a schoolboy at Blackburn Cathedral, where he developed his love of church music. As director of music at St George-in-the-East in Tower Hamlets, he has founded a second children’s choir at St Paul’s Church of England School in Whitechapel. Both the Hackney and Tower Hamlets choirs draw children from a range of backgrounds and teach the children to read music. The work of the choirs is part of the ministry of the Church of England, he says, and its traditional role in community building. “The church has always had a role in building communities and I think that is what choirs do very well.” 

- Martha Linden, Archbishops’ Council Senior Media Officer

Tom Daggett is the OBE Outreach Fellow at St Paul’s Cathedral. His work also includes wider music education in primary and secondary schools in London through partnering with school choirs who then sing in the Cathedral, and running  a ‘digital organ’ project allowing children to experience playing the organ in schools and learn music appreciation improvisation. The Hackney Children’s Choir is run in partnership with St Paul’s West Hackney, which is in the Diocese of London.

Listen to an interview with him.

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Westminster attack: Church of England leaders respond

The Archbishop of Canterbury and leaders of the Church of England have offered prayers for those affected by the attack in Westminster as they praised the bravery of police and emergency services.

With areas around the Houses of Parliament in lockdown as events unfolded, Westminster Abbey offered hospitality to MPs, their staff and others.

Meanwhile the Church of England issued a Collect for Peace, led by the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu in a video.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, tweeted: “Deeply shocked and saddened by events in Westminster.

“We are praying for all affected and those responding so bravely.”

He later added: “Praying tonight for those grieving loved ones - and those injured and traumatised - after the brutal and senseless attack in #Westminster.”

The Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Revd Christine Hardman, said: “We weep with those affected at Westminster and offer heartfelt prayers for the injured, emergency services and all who work there.”

Meanwhile the Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, who was in Parliament earlier in the day, posted: “Prayers for all affected by #Westminster attack, praise for dedicated emergency services and police and resolve to work for unity and peace.”

Among those inside the Abbey was the Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, who had been in the House of Lords.

He described the atmosphere in a tweet speaking of the: “Serious but good mood Inside despite the horrors outside.”

The Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev John Hall, tweeted: “I was glad to offer a prayer @wabbey when everyone had come across from the Palace of Westminster for all involved & those injured & killed.”

“We weep with those affected at Westminster and offer heartfelt prayers for the injured, emergency services and all who work there,” the Bishop of Newcastle.

Meanwhile the Ven Luke Miller, Archdeacon of London, who chairs the Faith Sector Panel of the London Resilience Forum, said: “Our prayers are with those affected by the shocking events in Westminster this afternoon.

“The London Resilience Partnership has shared information and I have been in contact with our clergy in Westminster Palace and the surrounding area, who are safe and helping to comfort those around them.

“While the facts of the situation are still emerging, it is clear that Londoners are already pulling together in support of each other. Together, we are all enormously grateful for the ongoing work of the police and emergency services.”

And the Rt Rev Graham Tomlin, the Bishop of Kensington, posted: “Wondering what you can do about the Westminster attacks? You can pray.

“As Jesus said ‘This kind of spirit can only come out through prayer’.”

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Welcoming families and children back to church after christenings

More than 120,000 Church of England baptisms and services of thanksgiving for the gift of a child take place every year. Curate Rev Sid Bridges writes about a ‘fresh expression’ style church made up largely of families who have brought their children to be baptised at a christening, using open mic sessions, story telling, 'action' prayers and time to get to know one another.

Around 60 families a year bring their children for christening at Holy Trinity, Orton Longueville and St Mary’s Orton Waterville in Peterborough but up until recently relatively few returned to the church. Rev Sid Bridges, assistant curate, set up ‘Refresh’ - meeting on Sunday afternoons in St Mary’s Church where the space has been recreated to welcome families with young children.

“The gathering follows a structure which includes Bible stories, prayers and reflective space all finished off with time to hang out whilst sharing food and drink. In recent months the session has started with a Bible story with an open mic for children and parents to discuss its meaning. We don’t just read a Bible passage, we tell the story and ask afterwards ‘what is the wisdom in this?’ and ask the children – and the parents – what they think about it. Where you might be discussing the story of Jonah and the whale, we will ask if there is a time in your life that you have felt trapped, or avoided a tough decision. What wisdom can we take from this story to apply in our own lives? We then have a chalk board where we encourage people to put their prayer requests up – people write their prayers up and we pray for them. They might just put a word down or the name of a family member – whatever they write, we pray it.

“At the last session there were 52 people present, including 32 children. I worked out that there were nine baptismal families, these are not people who have been church goers, they are not in our other congregations, they are all people who have been outside our existing worshipping communities. It is really exciting seeing them enjoying the church space and worshipping together.”

- Rev Sid Bridges

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Statement from the Bishop of Durham on child poverty

Following the publication of the latest official statistics on poverty (Households Below Average Income), the Rt Rev Paul Butler, the Bishop of Durham, who speaks for the Church of England on welfare issues, said:

“I am glad that the government agreed to retain statutory poverty measures, which I argued for as part of the Welfare Reform and Work Act.

“The Government’s HBAI poverty statistics released today demonstrate a small rise in child poverty for the second year running.

“These statistics cause particular concern given that they come a matter of weeks before the introduction of the two-child limit on child tax credits and Universal Credit on 6th April.

“The statistics released today show that children are already more likely to be in poverty than the overall population; the two-child limit will only increase the risk of children growing up in poverty.

“The trend of rising child poverty demands concerted action of us all.”

ENDS

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Response to ECJ Ruling on Headscarves

 In response to the ruling of the European Court of Justice on the wearing of headscarves a Church of England spokesman said:

“This ruling raises significant questions about freedom of religion and its free expression. Whether it be Sikhism and the wearing of turbans and kara through to the wearing of a cross.

“In preferencing ‘freedom to conduct a business” above the free expression of faith the ruling potentially places corporate interest above those of the individual.

Equally troubling is the assumption of “neutrality” within the ruling. The imposition of blanket bans – whilst often seeking honourable outcomes - may represent a worldview based on dogmatic or ideological assumptions which may unjustly limit individual rights.”   

The Rt Revd Nicholas Baines, the Bishop of Leeds, said:

“It is important that we study this ruling in more detail and work out its implications in different scenarios and for different groups in society. Inevitably, this judgement once again raises vital questions about freedom of expression (not just freedom of religion), and shows that the denial of freedom of religion is not a neutral act, contrary to how it might be portrayed. There is no neutral space. Furthermore, it illustrates how far we have to go as a secular society in working out what freedom of expression actually means.

“Secondly, it once again illustrates the problem in a 'rights culture' of whose rights take priority in the hierarchy when rights collide - and according to which criteria they should be judged.

“There is clearly more work to be done in relation to religious literacy.”

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Creating a place of hospitality and community for the homeless

Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter, supported by Church Urban Fund, provides emergency accommodation, food and support to homeless guests over the coldest months of winter

The Facebook page tells some of the story. An entry records the joy of knowing that one of the guests has found accommodation – “Last night, one of the guests leaned over and whispered "I'm in" - He has a place in a hostel and won't have to go back to the streets.” Another post asks for prayers for a man, Tomas, who has been turned away as the shelter is full. In another, a guest who was a champion table tennis player in his own home country is pictured playing a table tennis coach who volunteers for work at the shelter.

Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter, hosted by 14 churches in the city, opened its doors in January and is due to close at the start of next month having provided 12 bed spaces over this period to a largely stable group of guests many of whom have ‘no recourse to public funds’. While the shelter is open to anyone who is considered ‘low risk’, many are European migrants who came to Britain for work, often seasonal, and found themselves destitute. Homelessness has dramatically worsened in Birmingham with the rough sleeper count rising from nine people in 2010 to 55 last autumn. Many campaigners have said they believed the official rough sleeper figures released annually are an underestimate.

The shelter works closely with professional organisations and takes referrals from a local charity that supports people experiencing homelessness. Some of the guests have been sleeping rough for several years. Guests and volunteers all sit down and eat together each night and there are activities such as pool, chess and table tennis. Guests are given help to meet longer term needs through support with finding housing and work and by linking them with other services. One guest for example, will be accompanied by volunteers this week in a journey to London to help him to start the process of replacing a lost passport. The shelter is supported by around 400 volunteers with six Anglican churches acting as hosts out of its 14 church venues. A further group of churches and charities provides transport for guests.

Sarah Turner, Development Worker for Thrive Together Birmingham, the Church Urban Fund joint venture with Birmingham Diocese, which supports the shelter, said: “I am always blown away by the response to the shelter – some of the churches end up with far more volunteers than they need. We have one venue that has a really lovely relationship with the local primary school where the school makes cakes and food for the guests. I think it is the most ecumenical project I work on. We hold a service at the end of the year which is a thanksgiving for everything that everybody has done and to pray for the guests and all those experiencing homelessness. We ask the different churches to look after different parts of the service. It is always a beautiful event.”

- Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter is a collaboration of individuals, churches and charities including Housing Justice

- Martha Linden, Archbishops’ Council senior media officer

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'God has really touched our hearts for these members of our community’

An extra £2 billion was announced by the Government this week to help tackle the social care crisis. We talked to three parishes in Salisbury and Bristol Dioceses where congregations are stepping in to meet the needs of the elderly, struggling families and people discharged from hospital with cleaning, gardening and decorating work.

At St Peter’s Church in Lawrence Weston, North West Bristol, ‘St Peter’s clean team’, cleans people’s homes and carries out tasks such as litter picking and decorating. The group was founded by Emma Murray and her husband Rev Dr Andy Murray, priest-in-charge of St Peter’s and St Andrew’s Avonmouth, as a response to the needs they had seen running the Bristol North West Food Bank, which carries out home deliveries to up to six households a month in the area.

Rev Murray said:  “We had been running the food bank for a number of years when we realised that we were not reaching a certain part of the community – Emma had done some work with the local GP surgery and health visitors who said ‘we are seeing people coming out of hospital who are permanently housebound’ – was there anything that we could do for them? Doing home deliveries for the food bank as a result of this request really opened our eyes to the sort of situations that some people are living in, in terms of not being able to care for themselves or keep on top of cleaning their homes. God has really touched our hearts for these members of our local community and He spoke clearly to Emma about starting the clean team.  The project is still in its infancy, and the amount we can do is limited by the number of people able to help.  However in spite of the small size of our team, we’ve had the opportunity to bless a wide range of people in our community, cleaning the homes of some elderly residents, and even a bit of painting and decorating.  We’ve also helped a couple of people recovering from serious injuries, cleaning their homes, and even doing their washing.  Some residents have needed several visits over a month or so, whereas for others, one visit is enough.  

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive, people know we are Christians and they want to know why we do this. This has given us an opportunity to talk about our faith, about God’s love for them and his desire to see us serve others and show Jesus’ love in practical ways.” 

At St Mary’s Church in Marlborough  a team of congregation members provide practical help for people in the town including painting and redecorating, gardening, birthday cakes for children and making meals for struggling families. The group also provided 25 Christmas stockings for children last Christmas. Families in need are identified by a parents’ support adviser working with a local primary and secondary school. The group, set up around three years ago, is now looking to extend the work to reaching more elderly people in the town. Rev Janneke Blokland, team curate at St Mary’s, said: “Marlborough looks like a prosperous area but there are pockets of deprivation which are well hidden – around a quarter of housing in Marlborough is social housing which you wouldn’t expect and the shops in the high street are just too expensive for some people. We don’t proselytise, we don’t expect people who receive these services to come to church afterwards. By doing this work we show that somebody cares, that God cares.   It takes huge courage to allow these groups of people into your house but people have been very appreciative. We had one single mother who had received a meal who accidentally sent us a text meant for her mother saying ‘there’s been some lovely church people who have dropped off a meal’. It has done so much good for the members of the congregation too who have taken part. Not everyone necessarily wants to lead home groups in the church but many people are very happy to garden or do painting. We have two people in the congregation who are very good at making curtains, and a few people who love baking. Three years now into the project we are really starting to build relationships with people in the community.”

Jenny Jones, a member of St James’ Church in Devizes, helped set up ‘the Noise’ in the town, modelled on a similar scheme in Bristol where volunteers work in the community. A group of 105 volunteers from the church cleared eight gardens last year in the town working in partnership with a housing association. They also ‘deep clean’ the local Alzheimer’s Support Day Centre twice a year and have worked on projects such as creating a wildlife area in a local primary school.  ‘Our help is freely offered and non judgmental, we simply lift what has become an unbearable burden completely away from people who may have had difficulties maintaining their garden – either because a family member has fallen ill or had an accident or has simply left.  We all wear blue T shirts which say on the back simply ‘The Noise: showing God’s love in practical ways’. Going out in a group helps people to feel more confident. Some of our congregation volunteer regularly in charity shops and they don’t necessarily get the chance to say that their motivation is loving your neighbour. This has been a way of meeting people that we definitely wouldn’t normally have met. Some have been invited as a result of the work to come to the Christmas lunch at the church. We see this as sowing small seeds – we don’t know where it will go, but it is changing attitudes to the church in the community.”

- Martha Linden, Senior Media Officer, Archbishops’ Council

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From flash mobs to pig races - taking the gospel to all in our communities

Rev Canon Sophie Jelley writes about how more than 450 events are to take place between Thursday and Sunday in Durham Diocese as part of the Talking Jesus programme

Picture by Keith Blundy

Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, a new season begins – a time to reflect on the way life has been, and to look ahead to a new and different future.

On the second day of Lent we begin Talking Jesus Durham, a very special weekend of mission with Archbishop John Sentamu and 25 bishops from the Northern Province joining us with their teams.

After a launch service in Durham Cathedral taking in the history of Christianity in our region with inspiration from St Cuthbert and St Bede and all the northern saints we will go out to ‘Talk Jesus’ in every Deanery across Durham. From the Tyne to the Tees and the Dales to the Sea, more than 450 events will be happening in every community led by people from churches right across the region, helping us to ‘Bless our communities in Jesus’ name for the transformation of us all’.

There will be ceilidhs and comedy evenings, flash mobs in shopping centres, pub nights and pig races – there is no end to the creativity and fun. There is a sporty event at the County Cricket ground in Chester-le Street on Thursday evening, lots of visits to schools and colleges on Friday, youth and children’s’ events and family fun days in lots of places on Saturday. Park runs will be blessed by Bishops and there are music events to suit people of every taste.

The bible tells stories of Jesus at parties, Jesus at picnics and Jesus with every type of person in all kinds of places. The same is true today – as we put on events large and small, as we meet with people of all ages in all kinds of places across the Diocese of Durham, Jesus is with us. We want to tell people about him. Who He is and what He has done and the different He can make in our lives. Jesus is the Son of God who loves us, so we have a message of hope and new life; offering a new and different future for all people.

97% of people never go near a church. Talking Jesus is about taking church to them. To go with Jesus, to those He leads us to, to Talk Jesus and help the people that we know and care about to meet the One who cares so much for us. For those who want to know more after any of the events there are over thirty ‘Start! Courses’ being run all over the Diocese following on from Talking Jesus.

The final celebration takes place at Durham Cathedral at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. Archbishop Sentamu will be speaking. Music will be led by the oldest and newest churches in our Diocese:  Durham Cathedral Choir & the worship band from St George’s, Gateshead. Why not come and see for yourself.

Talking Jesus starts today and runs until Sunday. Follow us on Twitter: @DDTalkingJesus Facebook: TalkingJesusDurham

- Revd Canon Sophie Jelley is Diocese of Durham Director of Mission, Discipleship & Ministry and Canon Missioner at Durham Cathedral

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Equipping children for the world in which they live

The Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, the Church of England's Lead Bishop on Education, sets out why he supports incorporating age-appropriate sex and relationship education into the national curriculum

Every parent wants the best for their children and every teacher wants their pupils to be safe as they negotiate life in an ever-changing world.  Even before the birth of the internet; the explosion of social media through mobile phones and the ever more pervasive reach of advertising, concerns about what some call the sexualisation of childhood were widespread.

It is only natural, given much that we see in the world around us, to want to shield children as long as we possibly can.

That is why many, including many Christians, are concerned about what children might be taught in schools. There are those who fear that proposals to incorporate a form of age-appropriate sex and relationship education into the national curriculum could expose children to too much too young.

“We cannot simply advocate an approach like the three monkeys coverings their eyes, ears and mouths, vowing to see, hear or speak no evil.”

But it is becoming increasingly clear that what might have held in previous eras is no longer the most effective way of keeping our children safe and preparing them for life in the world in which they live.

In an age when even primary school children are becoming exposed to online pornography – often by accident – and when practices such as “sexting” are becoming commonplace at a younger and younger age, we cannot simply advocate an approach like the three monkeys coverings their eyes, ears and mouths, vowing to see, hear or speak no evil.

The NSPCC’s ChildLine service has reported a sharp rise in contacts from children about online bullying over the last few years. In a seemingly ever more image-conscious and body obsessed society, even children now feel compelled to doctor photographs of themselves. At the same time, concerns have been raised that young children are growing up unable to spot the difference between airbrushed photographs of celebrities and the real thing.

That is why I believe there is a need for carefully targeted and age-appropriate relationship education for children from primary school.

This is not, as some might claim, about teaching young children the mechanics of sex – or indeed anything at all about sex at that age. But if we want children to build resilience it is important to start young, teaching them about strong and healthy relationships.   

“If we want children to build resilience it is important to start young, teaching them about strong and healthy relationships.”

Some, including some Christians, will argue that school is not the right place to teach such matters. We are clear that any such legislative change should come with suitable safeguards to ensure that parents are consulted and retain the right to withdraw their children and that the education is be framed in a way which is appropriate to the ethos and character of the school. 

But the Church of England is, collectively, the biggest single source of education in the country, with around a million children learning in its schools. We know from everyday experience of the pressing need to equip children for the world in which they are growing up.

The Rt Revd Stephen Conway Bishop of Ely

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Taking Ash Wednesday to the streets

1 March is Ash Wednesday when churchgoers up and down the country will have their foreheads marked with ash in the shape of a cross. But Church of England members will also be taking to the streets to reach out to the public, with shops, stations and markets as the backdrop to this centuries-old tradition.

Commuters heading to work around Croydon tram station will be offered a moment of calm from members of Croydon Minster, which they’ve tagged ‘Ash n’ Dash’. Those commuting in Bristol will have the opportunity throughout Lent to tap into ‘Bristol Time’ each morning, which is a 10-minute reflection repeated every 15 minutes for an hour in Bristol Cathedral.

Meanwhile shoppers and office workers on their lunch break will be offered ashes and prayer cards in Derby, Guildford and Cambridge city centres, with church members promoting their activity on Twitter using #AshesToGo. This hashtag has inspired High Wycombe C of E school to provide ashing to parents and pupils at the end of the school day. Members of St Mary Abbots Kensington are offering ashing on the street corner at the three busiest times of day, while St James Piccadilly are manning a 7 hour drop-in session.

For the Revd Tiffany-Alice Ewins, offering ashing outside the local library in Battersea is the perfect start to her ministry, having been licensed two days earlier. She said “the opportunity to take to the streets in a public act of witness and worship seems too good a gift to pass up! The idea is to offer a moment of connection to the many parents, carers and children on foot in the parish.”

Building on past success, a group of clergy from varying traditions in the deanery of Hadleigh are working together to offer ashing outside Benfleet Station and Tesco Southend, using #AshMob. The Revd Edward Stock said it’s a great opportunity to reach out to those who might not be able to get to church and also offer them prayer. Similarly, in Halesowen the Bishop of Dudley, alongside the Archdeacon and Diocesan Secretary, will be asking if there’s anything people would like the clergy to pray about for them.

Thomas Thorpe, Media Officer, Archbishops’ Council

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Statement on collective worship in schools

Following media inquiries about a policy in place in one London borough on the daily act of collective worship, the Revd Nigel Genders, the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer, said: 

“It has long been a legal requirement for schools to provide a daily act of collective worship.

“But schools tell us that, quite apart from any legal obligation, daily collective worship has proved a powerful tool in bringing pupils together, giving them a rare opportunity to pause and reflect in the midst of a busy day.

“The policy in Brent, which is not new, is not the formal removal of that requirement, as has been claimed – far from it.

“It is already open to schools to apply for a determination to lift the requirement that collective worship be ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character’.

“In this case the council simply encourages schools to do that, to ensure that collective worship reflects children’s different backgrounds.

“Efforts to encourage schools to take collective worship seriously and make it meaningful to pupils are welcome.

“Indeed, even without applying for a determination, the law already allows schools wide scope for different acts of worship.

“Around one million children in England – a quarter of primary pupils and one in 16 secondary students – attend Church of England schools where worship is and will remain Christian.”

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5 Guiding Principles On Women And The Episcopate – A User Guide

Since the ordination of women began in 1994, there have been a number of diocesan bishops who have not ordained women.  Currently in the Church of England the Bishop of Chichester does not ordain women as priests, and Bishop Richard Chartres, who has just retired after twenty years’ service as Bishop of London, also did not ordain women as priests.  Both those bishops have supported the vocation and ministry of women within their dioceses.

It has been established for over two decades, both within the Church of England and within the Anglican Communion that both positions, those who support the ordination and consecration of women, and those who in conscience cannot support that, are fully Anglican.  

For many years the Church of England wrestled with how to accommodate this commitment to supporting both positions while also permitting the consecration of women as bishops. The Church’s first formal attempt to do this failed when the General Synod rejected the relevant legislation in November 2012.  

At the second time of asking, the Church of England did pass legislation to permit the consecration of women as bishops in July 2014, after a process of reflection and dialogue to learn the lessons of its previous failure.  The package that was agreed, and passed into law, in 2014, was founded on a declaration by the House of Bishops, approved by the General Synod. The declaration comprised five guiding principles, and above all a commitment to “mutual flourishing” for all traditions within the Church.  That declaration forms a key part of the package which permitted the 2014 legislation, and enabled the consecration of the first women bishops (now ten, by February 2017) within the Church of England.

The declaration specifically provides that:

A diocesan bishop may be either a bishop who does, or who does not, ordain women;

A diocese may express a view, prior to a diocesan see being filled, as to whether the diocesan bishop should be someone who does or does not ordain women;

In every case where the diocesan bishop does not ordain women, there should be at least one bishop in the diocese who does ordain women;

Senior leadership roles within dioceses should continue to be filled by people from across the range of traditions.

Those provisions are part of the “mutual flourishing” that is central to the declaration and to the package.  The declaration also recognises that “there will need to be sensitivity to the feelings of vulnerability that some will have that their position within the Church of England will gradually be eroded and that others will have because not everyone will receive their ministry.” It appreciates that the practical working out of these arrangements may not be easy, for the Church as a whole or for individuals.

The nomination of Bishop Philip North was made by the Crown Nominations Commission, a group comprising six representatives from the diocese itself, six from the national Church, and the two Archbishops. The process of selecting Bishop Philip was made entirely in line with the provisions of the House of Bishops declaration.  His nomination for the see of Sheffield is therefore also in line with the provisions that made it possible for women to be consecrated as bishops.  

The argument against Bishop Philip’s nomination is based on a rejection of the five guiding principles in the House of Bishops’ declaration.  Some critics of the nomination have made clear that they do not believe in the five guiding principles.  Instead, they would like to reopen the settlement made by the Church of England in July 2014 which enabled both supporters of women’s consecration, and those who opposed it, to flourish alongside each other within the Church. 

Extracts from the House of Bishops Declaration Now that the Church of England has admitted women to the episcopate there should within each diocese be at least one serving bishop, whether the diocesan or a suffragan, who ordains women to the priesthood. This has a bearing on the considerations that the Crown Nominations Commission and diocesan bishops will need to take into account when considering diocesan and suffragan appointments.

12. In addition, dioceses are entitled to express a view, in the statement of needs prepared during a vacancy in see, as to whether the diocesan bishop should be someone who will or will not ordain women. In dioceses where the diocesan bishop does not ordain women he should ensure that a bishop who is fully committed to the ordained ministry of women is given a role across the whole diocese for providing support for female clergy and their ministry.

13. All bishops have a shared responsibility for the welfare of the whole Church of England. It will be important that senior leadership roles within dioceses continue to be filled by people from across the range of traditions.

Five guiding principles

Now that legislation has been passed to enable women to become bishops the Church of England is fully and unequivocally committed to all orders of ministry being open equally to all, without reference to gender, and holds that those whom it has duly ordained and appointed to office are true and lawful holders of the office which they occupy and thus deserve due respect and canonical obedience;

Anyone who ministers within the Church of England must be prepared to acknowledge that the Church of England has reached a clear decision on the matter;

Since it continues to share the historic episcopate with other Churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and those provinces of the Anglican Communion which continue to ordain only men as priests or bishops, the Church of England acknowledges that its own clear decision on ministry and gender is set within a broader process of discernment within the Anglican Communion and the whole Church of God;

Since those within the Church of England who, on grounds of theological conviction, are unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion, the Church of England remains committed to enabling them to flourish within its life and structures; and

Pastoral and sacramental provision for the minority within the Church of England will be made without specifying a limit of time and in a way that maintains the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church of England.

Published by the Communications Office for the National Church Institutions