Collective Act of Worship

 

Separation of Church and State. America.

In Saturday’s Guardian, [29/06/2024] I noticed a short piece headed, “All Oklahoma schools ordered to teach Ten Commandments.” Apparently the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction has announced that all State schools are now required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments to students from Grades 5-12”, adding, rather grandly, that Bible study would enable “a complete understanding of  western civilisation ... and an understanding of the basis of our legal system."

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent

 So, a Bible in every classroom in Oklahoma is ordained, which seems to fit the concept of a Christian nation despite the wide range of religions studied or followed in the U.S. Recent research shows that 65% of the American population believe religion is important and that figure seems a little low given the impression one gains from films and public discussions in the U.S. Mercifully, such religious fervour does not appear in the U.K. but there does appear to be a growing movement across the U.S. to push Christianity in public education.

Louisiana Governor signs Ten
Commandments Law

Louisiana for instance became the first State to pass a law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments though hearteningly, parental, and civil rights groups are suing the State arguing that the law is unconstitutional. A similar fate awaits the impetus to establish new religious U.S. Charter Schools which would be state-funded. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has since ruled that the idea of a religious Charter School was unconstitutional; Charter Schools must be non-sectarian.

Approaching the subject
from a different direction

In the U.K., the most recent legislation we have is the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, although the original legislation on collective worship was passed in 1944 stipulating that pupils of community, foundation or voluntary schools must take part in a daily act of Collective Worship, broadly Christian, unless they have been explicitly withdrawn by parents. It was such a requirement which caused me considerable irritation when I was Head of a High School. A daily school assembly is a useful tool but the religious legal requirement had become unnecessary and indeed insensitive in view of students’ varied religious beliefs or lack thereof, rather than principally Christianity. I am a happy atheist and not at all the person to conduct a Christian service; nor would a person who happened to be a Buddhist for example or a Muslim. The view of Humanists U.K. is that worship is out of place in schools and that repeated demands for collective worship are unworkable, hypocritical, counter-productive and divisive. This uncomfortable but continuing legal requirement does have echoes of a bygone era when national Christianity was the norm.

And interestingly, a spot of online research shows that modern developments in this field, are moving in the right direction. Nikki McGee, lead teacher on religious education for the Inspiration Trust, which runs 18 schools in Norfolk, said: “Collective worship is pretty much meaningless in schools that are not faith-based. The census results show it is archaic.”                Many heads admit privately they no longer stick to this, preferring to run non-religious assemblies more relevant to their diverse student bodies. Mark Shepstone, assistant head at Bungay High School in Suffolk, said the requirement for collective worship is “simply ignored” in a lot of schools, and called for the government to drop it completely. “In the schools I have worked in

         

since 2007, there’s never been a daily act of collective  worship"

Bungay High School

 he said. “We still do assemblies and they will often have a moral message, but they aren’t daily. We all dance around it, but in truth it’s not collective worship. It’s more like group pastoral messaging.                                                                                                                              Post Script

1960 John F. Kennedy, R.C. Presidential hopeful articulated the liberal ideal:

".... an ideal America where the separation of church and state is absolute."

2012 Rick Santorum, R.C. Presidential hopeful presented a more traditional view.

"The idea that the Church can have no influence .... in the operation of the state is

absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country."

                                                         As ever, religion divides.