Anglican Mainstream

Wycliffe Hall is a theological college set within the University of Oxford, an international centre for the study of evangelical theology, an Anglican seminary for the training of Christian ministers and a centre for postgraduate study and research, aiming  to equip  students for their future ministries through excellent academic teaching, practical ministry experience, and living as part of a vibrant and supportive Christian community.

See new website here

By Roger Pearse

Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts has banned a Christian group from campus because the group requires student leaders to adhere to “basic biblical truths of Christianity.” The decision to ban the group, called the Tufts Christian Fellowship, was made by officials from the university’s student government, specifically the Tufts Community Union Judiciary.

 

The ban means the group “will lose the right to use the Tufts name in its title or at any activities, schedule events or reserve university space through the Office for Campus Life,” according to the Tufts Daily. Additionally, Tufts Christian Fellowship will be unable to receive money from a pool that students are required to pay into and that is specifically set aside for student groups.

Had the group dropped the “biblical truths” requirement, and adopted democracy, they could have still chosen leaders who shared their beliefs, albeit with a ballot and not discrimination.

From Science Daily

New research from North Carolina State University, Brigham Young University and the University of California, Irvine finds that parental involvement is a more significant factor in a child's academic performance than the qualities of the school itself.

"Our study shows that parents need to be aware of how important they are, and invest time in their children — checking homework, attending school events and letting kids know school is important," says Dr. Toby Parcel, a professor of sociology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. "That's where the payoff is."

The researchers evaluated data from a national representative study that collected information from more than 10,000 students, as well as their parents, teachers and school administrators.

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By Michael Hannon, Witherspoon Institute

How the  US's Most Elite Universities Lost Their Way and Sold Their Souls to Porn Stars, Sadomasochists, and Sexual Obsession

Nathan Harden’s “Sex and God at Yale” graphically shows what moral bankruptcy and relativism has produced at the Ivies.

They say everyone is entitled to his fifteen minutes of fame. My mom had her brief moment in the spotlight a couple years back, when the New York Post called her for a comment about a new dorm policy at Columbia, where I was a sophomore at the time. As the article put it, “Columbia University students will soon be able to live in sin—on their parents’ dime. A new ‘gender-neutral’ housing policy . . . will allow boys and girls to shack up together in campus housing.”

My mom’s reaction was, I hope, the reaction most parents would have to such news. “I was shocked enough last year when we moved our son in and we saw that guys and girls shared a bathroom on the hall,” she told the Post. “If it had been our daughter, we would have turned around and walked straight out. As far as coed roommates go, that would be insane. If our child chose to do that, we would opt out.” Thankfully for my mom’s sanity, sharing a dorm room with a girl was never high on my college to-do list. But had she known what else Columbia had in store for us, I can guarantee she would have opted out anyway.

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By Simon Heffer, Mailonline

[...]  A few weeks ago I was greatly honoured to be asked to speak at the annual dinner of a Conservative Association in a safe seat in the Home Counties.

The chairman told me that because of some successful investments in the past, the association was in good financial health, despite a steep decline in membership.

However, she also told me it would not be paying its quota this year — the sum levied by Conservative Central Office as a suggested affiliation fee — for two reasons.

The first was the leadership’s opposition to grammar schools, which outrages thousands of Tory members who were products of them, or who want them to be available for their children and grandchildren.

The second, as the chairman put it, was that ‘there is no guarantee that the money we send them won’t be used to campaign for the right of homosexuals to get married to each other’. Some ‘modernisers’ love to rub the noses of the Tory faithful in the dirt in this way. However, they forget it does have consequences.

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By John Bingham, Telegraph

A Roman Catholic diocese has faced accusations of “McCarthyism” after inviting teachers to make a public profession of faith.

The Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt Rev Michael Campbell, has written to clergy in his diocese about plans to ask Catholic teachers and school governors to make public declarations of belief during special masses.

It is part of a series of events planned in the area to mark the Year of Faith, a worldwide initiative announced by Pope Benedict to re-enthuse worshippers.

The bishop insists it is an “invitation not an imposition” and would not apply to non-Catholic teachers. But some heads have voiced concerns that staff might feel under pressure to conform.

Earlier this year Bishop Campbell attracted attention after suggesting that the Church should consider ending its ties with schools that are now “Catholic in name only” because the majority of pupils and teachers belong to other faiths and none.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said that the bishop’s letter could be perceived as a test of suitability to teach in a Catholic school. He said that those who do not comply might be fearful that their career would suffer.

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Bill Gates

This should be posted in every school or kid's bedroom. Love him or hate him , he sure hits the nail on the head with this.!!!

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about eleven (11) things they did not and will not learn in school.  He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings  created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something  BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.  You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping:  They called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault,  so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were: So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT.  In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds.  Chances are you'll end up working for one…

If you can read this… Thank a Teacher.
If you can read this in English… Thank a Soldier!
And for life and everything else you have… Thank God!!

By Peter Stanford, Telegraph

The Roman Catholic primary school with a 90 per cent Muslim intake raises questions about immigration and the future of our church schools

'We’ve only the one family who insist on taking their children out of RE lessons,” says Father Bernard Kelly, the long-serving chairman of the governors at the Rosary School at Saltley in inner-city Birmingham.

By Stewart Cowan, Real Street

The evangelical Everyday Champions Church first proposed a free school that would teach creationism as a valid scientific theory last year.

 

That application was rejected by the Government on the basis that “the teaching of creationist views as a potentially valid alternative theory [to evolution] is not acceptable in a 21st-century state-funded school”.

 

Now a new bid submitted by a group of individuals from the Church, but without its formal backing, has been accepted. The backers say Exemplar Academy in Newark, Nottinghamshire, will have a faith ethos but will not be formally designated a faith school, and will only teach creationism in RE.

 

Richy Thompson, campaigners manager at the British Humanist Association, said that the proposed school was “absolutely still dangerous”.

 

The Department of Education said that the new school would be banned from teaching creationism in science classes, but it would be allowed in religious education lessons.

By John Bingham, Telegraph

Christianity is in danger of 'sliding out of cultural memory', the Church of England’s head of education has warned, as he unveiled a new drive to use its network of schools to spread the religion.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, chairman of the Church’s board of education, signalled a new move to promote religion through its schools.
 
He told the Church’s General Synod meeting in York that plans are being drawn up to overhaul the entire curriculum to reflect the Christian foundation “in every part”. He also called for clergy to be trained to maximise their use of schools to extend the church’s “mission”.
 
The bishop said church schools were “under attack” from all corners but the Church should respond to “creeping scepticism about religion” by using its schools as a tool for evangelisation.
 
He made his comments as he launched a new report on the future face of the Church of England’s schools, which calls for “faith and spiritual development” to be placed at the “heart” the curriculum.

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By Ed West, Telegraph

[...]  But what do people have against the 1950s? It’s a strange insult to use because, not only were the 1950s an incredibly peaceful, ordered time but they were also, by today’s standards, very equal (and getting more so).

It was a great time to be poor – the first time in history when a working-class Englishman could afford to support a wife and two kids, as well as having enough to save, afford a holiday and, often even run a car. Today, especially when housing costs are considered, that is very difficult.

And so it was with the education system; today the state spends, on average, four times more per pupil that it did in the 1950s, yet literacy has certainly not improved, and nor has educational equality. By the late 1960s, when the changes in the education system began to have an impact, over 70 per cent of Oxbridge admissions came from the state sector, rather better than the 55 per cent we enjoy now.

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by Kirsty Walker, Mailonline

Graphic sex education films could be banned from primary schools under plans being considered by ministers.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey yesterday confirmed the Government was looking at introducing cinema-style age ratings for educational videos.

Films are currently exempt from the classification system if used for educational purposes.

However, there is growing concern among parents and MPs about the graphic content in some videos seen by children as young as six.

Ministers are in the process of lowering the threshold for video games and pop videos to be submitted to statutory age ratings.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport confirmed that the Government’s new measure could also be applied to sex education films.

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By Graeme Paton, Telegraph

Religious education is being systematically undermined by Government school reforms, experts warned today, despite mounting public support for the subject.

Growing numbers of teenagers are being forced to drop GCSEs in religious studies because of the introduction of new-style league tables that prioritise other disciplines, it was claimed.

In some schools, pupils are no longer allowed to take RE at all in the last two years of secondary education.

It is also feared that an expansion of independent academies – state schools run free of local authority control – is leading to rising numbers of schools dropping locally-agreed syllabuses in the subject.

The comments by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales were made despite claims of strong backing for the subject.

A survey of 1,800 adults – published by the council tpday – shows that more than half of people back compulsory lessons in RE up to the age of 16. Only a third said it should not be mandatory, it was revealed.

It comes as MPs and peers prepare to attend the first meeting of the newly-formed all-party parliamentary group for RE on Monday – established to raise awareness of the importance of the subject in schools.

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By Keith Leslie, Canadian Press

Public funding of Catholic schools clashed with the right to religious freedom Monday as one of the most powerful church leaders in Canada attacked the Ontario government's anti-bullying legislation.

"Please consider the implications for all when legislation is enacted that overrides the deeply held beliefs of any faith community, and intrudes on its freedom to act in a way that is in accord with its principles of consciences," said Thomas Cardinal Collins.

The Liberal government initially said Catholic trustees could determine the name for new anti-homophobia student clubs called for in the legislation.

However, last Friday Education Minister Laurel Broten announced all schools would have to allow the groups to be called gay-straight alliances if that's what the students want.

"Why is a piece of provincial legislation being used to micromanage the naming of student clubs?" asked Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto.

"We all are committed to obeying the law, but we can question whether the law is wise, whether the law is just or whether a law is a kind of intrusion or limiting of religious freedom."

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by Christian Today

The Anglican Archbishop of York has expressed the importance of religious education, saying that knowledge of religion "forms and creates a culture."

By David Conway, Telegraph

[...]  For all who favour high standards, and who also believe that moderate religious affiliation benefits children and those involved in their education, the Secretary of State’s support for the expansion of publicly funded Anglican schools can only seem a cause of celebration.
 
But I’m not so sure. There’s a risk that educational standards, and even Anglicanism itself, might be endangered by the expansion of church schools. My fear is that Anglican schools may be forced, for the sake of becoming more inclusive, to dilute their distinctively religious character, and even to turn away applicants from genuine Anglican backgrounds, to accommodate those who are not.
 
Last year, the Church put John Pritchard in charge of developing its policy on schooling. He soon disclosed – much to the horror of many Anglicans – that he favoured his Church’s schools reserving no more than 10 per cent of places for children from Anglican backgrounds, an unprecedented level of “inclusiveness”. The bishop justified this, saying, “Our commitment [is] to serve the whole community, including those of other faiths and no faith. We are not a club that exists only for its members.”
 
He must realise, however, that church schools will only continue to achieve good academic results, and hence remain popular, so long as they preserve enough of their religious character. It’s what drives their success.

The question that should be exercising Bishop Pritchard and Mr Gove in the coming months is whether all or any new Anglican schools should be encouraged, or made, as a condition of extra state funding, to become so socially inclusive that the vast majority of their pupils cease to be from Anglican or Christian backgrounds.

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By Robert Winnett, Telegraph

Mr Gove said he “cherished” the education currently provided by the Church to more than a million children.

by Jonathan Petre, Mailonline

Paganism has been included in an official school religious education syllabus for the first time.

Cornwall Council has told its schools that pagan beliefs, which include witchcraft, druidism and the worship of ancient gods such as Thor, should be taught alongside Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

The requirements are spelled out in an agreed syllabus drawn up by Cornwall’s RE advisory group. 

It says that from the age of five, children should begin learning about standing stones, such as Stonehenge. At the age of 11, pupils can begin exploring ‘modern paganism and its importance for many in Cornwall’.

The syllabus adds that areas of study should include ‘the importance of pre-Christian sites for modern pagans’. 
 
And an accompanying guide says that pupils should ‘understand the basic beliefs’ of paganism and suggests children could discuss the difficulties a practising pagan pupil might face in school.

But the council’s initiative has dismayed some Christian campaigners, who are alarmed that a religion once regarded as a fringe eccentricity is increasingly gaining official recognition.

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From Civitas

From The Telegraph

Young people's hostility towards faith is not as extreme as society perceives with many taking the issue of religion seriously, Rowan Williams will say in his Easter sermon.

Speaking at Canterbury Cathedral later today, Dr Rowan Williams will argue that a number of youngsters appreciate the role religion plays in shaping and sustaining human existence and are keen to learn about it.
 
He will warn that now was the "worst possible moment" to downgrade the importance of teaching religion in secondary schools.
 
Delivering his last Easter sermon as leader of the Church of England, Dr Williams will say: "There is plenty to suggest that younger people, while still statistically deeply unlikely to be churchgoers, don't have the hostility to faith that one might expect, but at least share some sense that there is something here to take seriously – when they have a chance to learn about it.
 
"It is about the worst possible moment to downgrade the status and professional excellence of religious education in secondary schools – but that's another sermon."

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