SATURDAY APRIL 21st 2012.

‘First Things’, organised jointly by the Church of Ireland Evangelical Fellowship, New Wine Ireland, the Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy and Reform Ireland, will be an opportunity for members of the Church of Ireland and of other denominations to come together to celebrate and affirm the essentials of evangelical faith in the 21st century. The two keynote speakers will be the former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, who is now President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue (OXTRAD), and the Bishop of Argentina, the Rt. Rev Greg Venables, formerly Primate of the Southern Cone.

The conference will be held in Lurgan, beginning at 2pm in the Jethro Centre. During the afternoon session, both bishops will address the conference, examining the issues of mission and evangelism and the uniqueness of Jesus in a pluralist society.

At an evening celebration in Shankill Parish Church, a panel including Bishop Nazir-Ali, will respond to questions addressing a range of issues which evangelicals are grappling with today, and Bishop Venables will preach on the importance of holding to ‘First Things’.

The celebration will be led by Bishop Harold Miller.

The conference is open to all and more details are available from the following websites:

A plan by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to send a copy of the King James Bible to every school in the country – each including a personal inscription from him – has run into trouble after government sources reported he has been told to find private funding for the project.

Sources said David Cameron told Gove that while he supported the idea, the education secretary should avoid using taxpayers' money for it. But Gove has yet to find a private philanthropic sponsor for the enterprise, and some Whitehall sources said he has been told he cannot distribute the book until he does so, leaving thousands of copies in a warehouse abroad.

The Department for Education denied aspects of the story, but said they did not know if the copies had yet been printed, or where the copies might currently be stored. They added the Bible was always intended to be distributed to schools at Easter, so there had been no slippage in the timetable due to the lack of a sponsor.

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Free schools that teach 'intelligent design' as science will lose funding

Leading scientists and naturalists, including Professor Richard Dawkins and Sir David Attenborough, are claiming a victory over the creationist movement after the government ratified measures that will bar anti-evolution groups from teaching creationism in science classes.

The Department for Education has revised its model funding agreement, allowing the education secretary to withdraw cash from schools that fail to meet strict criteria relating to what they teach. Under the new agreement, funding will be withdrawn for any free school that teaches what it claims are "evidence-based views or theories" that run "contrary to established scientific and/or historical evidence and explanations".

The British Humanist Association (BHA), which has led a campaign against creationism – the movement that denies Darwinian evolution and claims that the Earth and all its life was created by God – described the move as "highly significant" and predicted that it would have implications for other faith groups looking to run schools.

Dawkins, who was one of the leading lights in the campaign, welcomed confirmation that creationists would not receive funding to run free schools if they sought to portray their views as science. "I welcome all moves to ensure that creationism is not taught as fact in schools," he said. "Government rules on this are extremely welcome, but they need to be properly enforced."

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In secondary schools over 60 per cent of teachers are women and there are no male teachers at all in 27 per cent of primary schools (down slightly from 28 per cent in 2010), according to statistics from the General Teaching Council for England.

The lack of male role models in responsible positions is often given as a reason for boys to go off the 'straight and narrow', fail at school, get into gangs and end up in prison, as the Education Secretary Michael Gove alluded to in his speech at the Durand Academy in Stockwell, south London. The latest GCSE results showed that the achievement gap between girls and boys in secondary schools was wider than ever.

The figures showed that only 12.4 per cent of teachers in primary schools are men and just 3.1 per cent in all of England's state-run nurseries. In secondary schools, 37.5 per cent of teachers are male. However, most head teachers and deputy heads are men.

Gove said: "We need more male teachers, especially in primary schools to provide children who often lack male role models at home with male authority figures who can display both strength and sensitivity. One of the principal concerns that men considering teaching feel is the worry that they will fall foul of rules which make normal contact between adults and children a legal minefield.

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The Rt Rev Michael Campbell, Bishop of Lancaster, asked if it was right for parishioners to continue paying for the upkeep of schools where the majority of pupils and teachers belong to other faiths and none.

The government is said to be considering making it easier for the Church of England to take control of state schools

Secular campaigners have criticised reports that ministers are considering making it easier for the Church of England to take control of state-funded schools.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has written to the education secretary, Michael Gove, describing the plans as "the single most threatening development in the area of faith schools since their expansion began in 2001".

The criticism follows a report that the government is preparing to smooth the path for community schools that wish to opt out of local authority control and become academies backed by the Anglican church.

At present, there have to be separate consultations dealing with academy and faith status, but the government is looking at combining these in a single step, according to the Times Educational Supplement.

The TES reported that the church was also looking at fostering looser partnerships with schools that would not take on a faith designation.

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Both Michael Gove and David Cameron have recently embraced the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible. As is only right, the Secretary of State and Prime Minister are keen to celebrate the unique contribution the text has made to our national life. However, 2011 has also marked another significant anniversary for the Church of England, one which has not received as much publicity but is just as significant for our wider society.

Two hundred years ago the National Society was established by the Church of England, to provide a free education to some of the most disadvantaged in society. The story of the National Society is an impressive one; and it is a story that has important lessons for us in education today.

It was in 1811 that Joshua Watson and his peers made a commitment to establishing a school in every one of England’s 19,000 parishes. They believed that all members of society deserved an education, regardless of whether or not they could afford one.

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The chair of the Toronto District School Board has confirmed their policy of forbidding exemptions from the board’s radical pro-homosexual curriculum, insisting to LifeSiteNews that any attempts by parents “would not be condoned” in their schools.

“Nobody will chase them down in the street,” board chair Chris Bolton told LifeSiteNews in a phone interview earlier this month. If such a request were made, school officials would first “ask that they keep their children involved in the class,” he said.

“If a parent doesn’t send their child to school, we mark them as absent,” he continued, adding that if the child racked up repeated absences, there would be “questions raised.”

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Education secretary will write a brief foreword in special edition marking 400th anniversary of its publication

Michael Gove, the education secretary, is to send a 400th anniversary edition of the King James Bible to every school in England.

Every state school in England is to receive a new copy of the King James Bible from the government – with a brief foreword by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to mark the 400th anniversary of its translation. In a move intended to help every pupil access Britain's cultural heritage, every primary and secondary school will be sent a new copy of the 1611 translation by next Easter.

The initiative has been criticised by secular campaigners as a waste of money. The National Secular Society said that schools were already "awash with Bibles". It urged Gove to send out a copy of Darwin's On the Origin of Species instead.

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The Bible Society has launched a brand new resource for schools and churches using the BBC’s hit Christmas drama, The Nativity.

The acclaimed TV special was written by Tony Jordan and broadcast in four parts on BBC 1 last December.

Now Bible Society is hoping schools and churches will be able to use The Nativity to take a fresh look at the story behind all the Christmas festivities.

The package includes a DVD, additional resources and a license to show the film.

The resources are available for teachers to download and cover the syllabus for Key Stage 3 RE.

Luke Walton Bible Society’s Culture Programme Manager said: “Tony Jordan is a top quality writer and producer. His work, such as for EastEnders, Hustle and Life on Mars, shows that he creates popular and compelling story telling for the widest audience.

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Parents are dressing up their children in provocative clothes and allowing them to wear make-up and high heels because they lack traditional values, according to a leading headmistress.

Hundreds of Anglican schools face being ordered to rewrite their admissions rules amid claims they select middle-class pupils “by the back door”, it was claimed today.

Schools could fall foul of the admissions watchdog after it emerged they are employing contentious entry policies that prioritise families who volunteer for church activities.

The claims come just 24 hours after a leading Roman Catholic school was criticised for using the policy to mark out the most devout children.

Currently, many Church of England schools employ points-based systems that reward the most religious pupils.

Typically, they get more credit for regular church attendance and taking part in some form of work attached to the parish, such as volunteering at Sunday school and church fetes.

But the Government’s official admissions rules already warn that schools must not give priority to parents who “commit themselves or their child to taking part in activities outside of normal school hours”.

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AM Comment:  This article refers to the  news: Enquiry removes control of school from Ealing Abbey

How many local authorities are now going to have control of their schools taken away from them?

After decades of teaching both children and adults that sex between adults and children, especially teenage boys, was normal and healthy.  Even requiring as a condition of certain employment the attainment and periodic maintenance of qualifications requiring one at least to read, if not to write, such material.

And after decades of putting it all into practice in their "care homes" and similar institutions.

At least the Catholic Church has always taught against this sort of thing. Those who engaged in it were breaking the rules and they knew it, however imperfect the institutional response might sometimes have been. Not so, the Church's smuggest and fiercest critics. Who now scent blood in their long-running battle for control of Her schools. And who are almost never so much as investigated, no matter how clear the case against them. I wonder why not?

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Viki Knox, a public school teacher, posted on her personal Facebook page objections to celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History month in her public school. Gay-marriage advocates are now demanding she be fired.

“She has a right to say it. But she does not have a right to keep her job after saying it,” one former public official said.

What did Viki Knox say? She did not call any person a name. She specifically called for kind and loving treatment of gay people and said that’s the way she treated gay people in her life.

We can’t afford to sit by while our right to speak the truth is taken away. A Christian teacher like Viki shouldn’t have to face these sorts of attacks alone.

Your petition will be delivered to Union Township Superintendent Dr. Peter Martin – and we’ll deliver a copy to Viki, too, so that she knows how many thousands of decent, loving, law-abiding Americans are standing with her.

Read and sign petition (US only) here

A vote to change the law on Christian assemblies was abandoned in the House of Lords last night due to a lack of support for the proposal.

Lord Avebury, a Lib Dem Peer and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, tabled an amendment to the Education Bill to remove the requirement for Christian worship in schools.

The House of Lords debated his amendment, at the end of which he wanted to push it to a vote, but it lacked support.

Currently schools must have a daily act of collective worship. Collective worship must be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.”

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It is one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious public schools, founded 500 years ago by the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral.

Yet St Paul's School in south west London has knocked down its chapel to make way for new science classrooms, becoming the first of the country's leading public schools to do without a place of worship.

The decision has upset the Church of England and brought complaints that the institution is turning its back on its Christian heritage in favour of a more secular approach to education

The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, has expressed his dismay in a private letter to the school.

The decision to knock down the chapel comes as St Paul's undergoes a renovation programme for which it has raised £77 million.

While £5 million has been spent on a new theatre and £4 million on a sports complex, no money has been made available for a replacement chapel.

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Schools will be penalised if they fail to improve the progress of ‘vulnerable’ groups of pupils such as those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual.

New Ofsted guidelines reveal that heads of primary and secondary schools must show their education ‘meets the needs of the range of pupils’ in their classrooms, including gipsy and traveller children.

Schools could see their teaching being judged ‘inadequate’ if they do not reduce gaps in achievement between different groups who make up a significant proportion of their student population.

However, critics hit out at the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual pupils in an Ofsted list of groups that could be monitored for signs of progress. They insist that head teachers will not wish to pry into the private lives of pupils and claim that youngsters should be treated as individuals, not groups.

One in five children are lagging behind in English and maths by the age of 11

There are also fears that teachers will feel forced to categorise pupils by their sexuality at a time when they are young and impressionable.

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