The Hermeneutic of Continuity

While I was at the Evangelium Conference at the Oratory School, Reading last Saturday, I took the above photo of a piece of school equipment outside the Headquarters of the Combined Cadet Force who formed a guard of honour for the Blessed Sacrament Procession at the school in June. I don't expect that it can be obtained from the standard education supplies catalogues. Back home, I consulted the Blackfen Military Attaché (Blackfen readers will probably guess who he is) to obtain identification of this piece of equipment. It is an Ordnance QF 25 pounder with muzzle flash suppressor. The 25 pounder was introduced into service during World War II and was used in training units until the 1908s. Which all goes to show the truth of the observation made by my friend Lt Col Corum many years ago when we were at a pistol shooting range near Oxford, that in the British Army the weapons that are used for training are older than the men firing them. (If you're interested, I did fire a S...

Each local council in England and Wales is required to have a Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) with representation from people of different faiths, to advise the Local Education Authority. (Their advice is directed to state schools, not Catholic schools.) In Stoke on Trent, the SACRE has recently published a Public Document Pack which includes advice on Ramadan. Sex and relationship education Whilst fasting, Muslims are not permitted to engage in any sexual relations and are expected to take measures to avoid sexual thoughts and discourse. Schools are therefore advised to avoid scheduling the teaching of sex and relationship education, including aspects that are part of the science curriculum, during Ramadan. Other sections advise schools to avoid parents' evenings and after school functions during the fast, and to avoid swimming lessons because of the danger of accidentally swallowing water. There is also advice on Muslim requirements for modesty, par...

All the little epsilons reports on the visit of boyband Inju5tice to the state school in which she teaches. (See: The sort of evangelisation Catholic Voices and other lay Catholics might be more usefully engaged in? ) Not surprisingly, I suppose, these boybands have long been popular at events on the gay scene which have proved a lucrative sideline for them. Now it seems that the fashion is to be more openly ambiguous and milk the gay market at the same time as appealing to teenage girls. You can go to all the little epsilons for the link to their interview with Bent magazine in which the members of  Inju5tice  submissively respond to questions such as which male star they would like to date, and what brand of "undies" is their favourite. As epsilon observes in their list of engagements, their tour includes visits to several Catholic schools. I'm not sure what the value is of inviting them into schools at all, still less Catholic schools. Catholic parents who are ...

The Oratory School in South Oxfordshire was founded by Cardinal Newman. Nine years ago, the school chaplain, Fr Anthony Conlon, revived the Blessed Sacrament Procession. This year on 10 June, the Octave Day of Corpus Christi, he carried the Blessed Sacrament in Procession in the school grounds, assisted by Fr Irwin as Deacon. The canopy was carried by the House Captains of the school. The Procession was given a Guard of Honour by the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) of the school (which recently had its biennial inspection .) The Ceremony was competently assisted by the many servers who have been trained by Fr Conlon. "Present Arms" Officer saluting Pupils and servers kneeling in adoration House Captains with the canopy Many thanks to Linda Coupland who runs the school's Marketing & Public Relations for sending me these superb photos taken by Jim Keogh. You can click on them to enlarge them.

The Catholic Education Service of England and Wales has appointed Greg Pope as Deputy Director. Greg Pope is a former Labour MP for Hyndburn (he took the seat from the strongly pro-life Ken Hargreaves.) He has voted against amendments to lower the time limit for abortion to 16 weeks. He also signed a parliamentary motion praising a condom manufacturer for helping schools host “National Condom Week”, signed motions promoting the IPPF , and contraceptive awareness week , voted against amendments restricting adoption to heterosexual couples , and has voted in favour of compulsory sex education. For the whole sorry list with links, see John Smeaton: Catholic Education Service appoints anti-life and anti-family ex-MP as deputy director . Greg says: The CESEW is widely respected for the work that it is doing under Oona Stannard’s leadership and I am very proud to be joining this successful team.” For some indications of the wide respect that there is for the CES among the Catholic laity,...

The satirical website The Onion has a funny article on the increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home. "Every year more parents are finding that their homes are not equipped to instill the right values in their children," Miller said. "When it comes to important life skills such as proper nutrition, safe sex, and even basic socialization, a growing number of mothers and fathers think it's better to rely on educators to guide and nurture their kids." H/T Ignatius Insight

In the Times yesterday, Madeleine Teahan wrote on the pressures faced by school teachers who are called upon to fulfil an increasing set of roles "sex advisor; behaviour manager; dietician; counsellor and fitness instructor, to name a few." The article offers a different perspective on the proposals for compulsory sex education in schools. See: Is sex education the responsibility of parents or teachers?

James Preece has a roundup of posts on the Government-CES-PSHE affair: see Ed Balls: Catholic Schools "must explain how to access an abortion" . This morning two other good posts were published that are worthy to be added to the list: Cranmer in his post Teaching abortion in an ‘enlightened’ and ‘non-judgmental’ way gives a good analysis of the way in which terms like "non-judgemental" are being used to erode the freedoms for Catholics and others that developed over three centuries. As he rightly says: One cannot be ‘neutral’ about sex, sexuality or the sanctity of life without being indifferent. Joanna Bogle gets to the key point that many clergy and laity now have no confidence in the CES and that a fresh start is needed.

Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk Recently, the Government introduced an amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill, allowing Faith schools to teach Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) "in a way that reflects the school’s religious character." The Catholic Education Service (CES) claimed credit for this, citing its "extensive lobbying." As we have now come to expect, according to a wearily familiar pattern, the purported concession is worthless, allowing the Government to be seen to appease Catholics, and then reassure the secularists and gays who protest loudly. Under pressure from humanist and homosexual activists (e.g. NSS and Pink News ) but focussed particularly as a response to the Accord Coalition , the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has issued a response . In a "Let's be absolutely clear" statement, the DCSF specifies that faith schools will not be able to opt of statutory PSHE and SRE (sex and rela...

I warmly recommend the Family Education Trust (Family & Youth Concern) which campaigns tirelessly on pro-life and pro-family issues. The latest bulletin is now available online. This issue has several articles related to the Children Schools and Families Bill, sex education, homeschooling and the rights of families.

The gay magazine Attitude has recently published an interview with David Cameron in which he has tried to convince the gays that he has converted from being a diehard supporter of Section 28 to being a right-on "it's normal and harmless" guy. For what it's worth, they don't trust him: the magazine invites readers to make up their own minds about "whether his pro gay conversion is simply to win votes." The text of the interview is not available online and there is no way I am going to scandalise my devout and hard-working Hindu neighbours by buying a copy in their shop, so I am relying on quotations. Ruth Gledhill has helpfully focussed on his remarks on Christianity. (See: Cameron tells Rowan: Make your Church pro-gay ) Cameron effectively confirms that if a Conservative Government is elected there will be no change in the current drive to prevent "faith schools" from teaching Christian doctrine. In response to the loaded question 'Do...

Back in June, I wrote about the establishing of St Bede's Hall at Oxford. St Bede's is an independent Catholic college which provides courses for "Study Abroad" and mature students. Today, St Bede's are delighted to announce that Cardinal Pell has become a patron of St Bede's Hall. His Eminence said: "I would be honoured to serve as an honorary patron of St. Bede's Hall... I would be delighted to assist in any way that I can and look forward to visiting St. Bede's Hall when next I am in Oxford." St Bede's already has a bi-lateral agreement with Campion College in New South Wales: today's announcement helps to further ties with Australia. The first student from Australia has arrived at St Bede's and has begun her courses with the tutors of the new academic community.

Nearly two years ago, I blogged about a Visit to Chis 'n Sid , the popular nickname for our local non-denominational school, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar. For non-UK readers, I should explain that a "grammar school" in the UK is a school where pupils are selected by academic ability. Today, I was at the school again, at the invitation of one of the senior pupils who is a parishioner at Blackfen. The subject was the same: "Science and Religion", and I received a warm welcome at the voluntary lunchtime "Christian Union" meeting. The turnout was very impressive - and included at least half a dozen members of staff, mostly from the science department. The school includes pupils of all religions and none, so I had no idea what the makeup of the audience would be. My young parishioner made the wise decision of advertising the talk without specifying that it was organised by the Christian Union, so that people did not have to wonder whether they had to be C...

Last week I mentioned the Children, Schools and Families (CS&F) Bill as a result of a mistake that I made, some very helpful information and advice on strategy came in from various sources; for which I am most grateful. (Commenters who could not allow their comments to be published may contact me on rosary@freeuk.com - I would be very glad to hear from you, at least to have the chance to thank you personally.) The current business statement for Parliament runs to 3 December and the CS&F Bill second reading is not included in it. When any progress is made, such information as the Hansard record of debates, procedural motions, lists of amendments will be posted at the dedicated page for the CS&F Bill at the Parliamentary website. There is also a link there to further information about the passage of a Bill . It was also pointed out to me that since this session of Parliament will be very short (there is widespread speculation that Parliament will be dissolved around Easter)...

Freedom for Children to Grow is the site for the Home Education campaign run by Education Otherwise . They have an article about yesterday's Queen's Speech in which Her Majesty announces her government's legislation. One sentence was: "Legislation will be brought forward to introduce guarantees for pupils and parents to raise educational standards" This refers to the Children, Schools and Families Bill which will "introduce a new home educators' registration system." A good article on the Badman Review of Home Education, which has been used to justify the new legislation, describes it as " Policy Based Evidence Making ." [ Correction : many thanks to those who corrected my impression that the Bill was to be debated in the next few days. I've removed that section of the post. I'll post something more later. ]

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is a political football in educational policy in the UK. Many Catholic parents are rightly concerned that their right to bring their children up according to the faith is undermined by some of the programmes in use. Therefore it is good to see a new PSHE programme that can be highly recommended. Alive to the World was created by Christine Vollmer, who is well known in international circles for her campaign work for the family. She sits on the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Academy for Life. She originally created the programme for Latin America and the UK team has edited the English translation to make it suitable for use in England. The books are designed for whole school PSHE but can also be used in the home and in parishes. Alive to the World is published by Gracewing and may be ordered from the dedicated website at a special introductory discount. Knowing that there can always be pitfalls, even in well-meaning pro...

I have not time to do much analysis of this but I thought readers might be interested to see the response of the Catholic Education Service (CES) to the Government's proposals for registering and monitoring homeschooling families. The CES agrees with proposals for registration, agrees that someone should have the right to visit and inspect (though suggests this should be OFSTED rather than the Local Authority), but disagrees with the right to interview children alone - suggesting that a "trusted person" should be present. The CES also wants a share of the monitoring arrangements: We have also been told of parents describing their home schooling arrangements and curriculum as being “Catholic home schooling". There is no such model or programme of which we are aware and it is important that monitoring authorities are aware of this and feel able to revert to diocesan authorities and/or CESEW for advice if such queries arise. We would also find it helpful to be kept in...

The website for the cause for the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman has an article highlighting the reflections of the distinguished philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre: Alasdair MacIntyre on Newman: Education, Conscience and Faith today . MacIntyre recently spoke concerning the cause for Newman's beatification and has developed his thinking on Newman in his latest book God, Philosophy, Universities (2009)

The grounds of Woldingham School occupy 700 acres in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the heart of Surrey. Historically it is linked with the Sacred Heart Convent at Roehampton. Marden Park was purchased after the second world war, the new school opening in 1946. The Good Schools Guide speaks of "a hugely supportive and cooperative atmosphere" at the school; the various highly impressive displays of work help to show this to the visitor. Along with the other clergy, I'm in "Berwick House" which is the accommodation for sixth formers. It is very impressive - you can imagine the way in which the common areas help to build a sense of community in the school. For a student conference such as the Faith Summer Session, the facilities are outstanding. The Auditorium where the lectures are given is a fully equipped theatre, there is a swimming pool available for our use in the afternoon together with a state of the art gymnasium, squash and tennis courts and - ...

The Catholic Certificate in Religious Education (CCRS) is a qualification especially for teachers who wish to teach RE in a Catholic School but is also valued for other purposes, for example other RE or catechetical posts in dioceses. The Diocese of Lancaster now offers the CCRS online . The course is based on the scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church and has been written and prepared by people within the Lancaster Diocese. From the homepage, you can have a look round some sample material. This impressive venture into online education was the brainchild of Bishop O'Donoghue to help encourage good standards of RE in schools and it continues as part of the Education Service of the Diocese of Lancaster which is headed by Canon Luiz Ruscillo.