Some things are of such intimate sacredness that the classroom is not the best place to engage with them, writes Bishop Richard Clarke
It was Pascal who observed that we corrupt religion either in favour of our friends or against our enemies. Yet surely the upbringing of children in the Christian faith should, in any setting, be far beyond any desire to favour friends or to harm perceived enemies? The debacle at the gaelscoil in Dunboyne has confronted all of us with the moral obligation to look afresh at what religious education is to be, whether in the interdenominational or denominational school, and whether at primary or secondary level.
We need first to decide on whether we can delineate between, on the one hand, those riches of the Christian faith which different Christian traditions share and, on the other, aspects of faith, also profoundly significant but distinctive to a particular religious tradition.
Perhaps this methodology comes easier to those of us within the reformed traditions. Schools under the aegis of any of these denominations are, to some degree at least, already interdenominational schools in relation to religious education. There has been the convention that primary schools under Church of Ireland patronage are understood as having responsibility for the children of any of the reformed denomination who wish to enrol. Contrary, however, to the perception of many of those who belong to the majority Roman Catholic tradition, there are in reality major doctrinal and ecclesiological differences between the different reformed traditions. Such schools have a clear obligation not to "dumb down" that which is vitally important to members of the Church of Ireland, whilst also recognising that those in the class may not all be members of our tradition.
For example, members of "house churches" would have little sympathy with any concept of a ministerial priesthood, a model which is central to the Anglican understanding of church. Similarly, Baptists oppose the baptising of infants - the practice and theology of which the Church of Ireland would share fully with Roman Catholicism.
Over 150 years ago, the two archbishops of Dublin - Richard Whately (Church of Ireland) and Daniel Murray (Roman Catholic) - agreed the real possibilities of a common religious education curriculum, rooted in the study of scripture, for the schoolchildren of both their traditions. (It might be added that neither gained the gratitude of his respective episcopal colleagues for this initiative.) Yet this episode surely proves a point that there is indeed core belief common to trinitarian Christians, in particular faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, the place of prayer and of worship, reliance on Holy Scripture, and adherence to the historic creeds. And it is salutary to note the many matters with which those creeds - creeds of an undivided Christian church - do not occupy themselves.
The practice of the Christian tradition to which I belong is to reserve matters of faith development distinctive to the Church of Ireland to what we believe to be the appropriate context - that of the parish, the faith community. A school today may indeed reflect a Christian faith culture, or the ethos (to use the term employed in the Education Act) of a particular Christian tradition. However, in an age of enormous diversity and pluralism in the Republic of Ireland, it seems certain that this does not of itself make any school a complete faith community. In our view, preparation for confirmation and for the sacrament of Holy Communion is better placed in the setting of parish life than in the classroom. It is certainly not that these things are not of central importance (far from it) - but rather that they are of deep individual commitment, as well as of corporate faith development.
In other words, there are some things that are of such intimate sacredness that the classroom is simply not the best setting in which to encourage young people to engage with them. Even in boarding schools, which have to act in some senses as "parish", Church of Ireland confirmation preparation would rarely, I believe, take place within the formal school curriculum.
If we extrapolate this into the wider interdenominational setting, is it not reasonable to suggest that an interdenominational school is responsible for teaching the Christian faith as shared by Christians of different traditions? Those areas of deeply personal spirituality (and where there may well be divergences between different faith communities) might then be dealt with in the context of the individual child's worshipping community, the parish.
If we make matters as sacred as the sacraments a matter for apartheid within the classroom, are we not guilty of unnecessary divisiveness and even of damaging a child's natural sense of awe and reverence in the face of mystery and beauty? Confusion is a certain result, a confusion which may result not in children developing a spiritual sensitivity and respect, but rather deciding "a plague on both your houses. . ."
This does not mean that religious education in the classroom need be blandly minimalist or the lowest common denominator of religious faith.
Rather it should provide a foundation on which a Christian family may build in terms of membership of a particular Christian tradition, whilst also providing children with a sensitivity and critical awareness towards other Christian denominations and other world faiths.
Would we not therefore do more for education, for the Gospel, for ecumenism, and for the Church itself in all its variety of traditions if we learnt to distinguish the shared core of Christian belief and discipleship from those areas that are confessional?
This is not to remove religious education from the classroom, whether denominational or interdenominational. Indeed, I believe firmly in a place for religious education within the life of the school, primary and secondary. I also believe that it should not be immensely difficult to solve the questions raised by the Dunboyne gaelscoil, if genuine respect between different Christian traditions were to become a reality rather than a posture.
But very soon we in Ireland must grasp another issue, infinitely more complex.
Where stands religion within a multi-faith and multi-ethnic society? Will religion be further corrupted in order that we may favour those we perceive as our friends and harm those we shamefully categorise as our enemies?
Bishop Richard Clarke, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare, is chairman of the Church of Ireland's religious education curriculum committee for primary schools. In March of this year he proposed publicly that a forum be established on the question of religious education in interdenominational schools