The RE Blog

Ofsted critical of Religious Education

2004-11-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

An Ofsted report published today claimed that most locally agreed syllabuses for RE were "not good enough", and that those devising the syllabuses "did not have the educational expertise to produce them without professional support".

The Guardian (Manchester) reports here, or you can read Ofsted's official press release here.

Bishop defends right to live in castle

2004-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

Evangelical Bishop of Durham and esteemed New Testament scholar Rt Rev Tom (NT) Wright has been defending his right to live in the lavish Auckland Palace, according to yesterday's Telegraph (London).

Bishop Wright attacked "the forces of commercialism" for depriving the Church of some of its "most deep-rooted symbols" by selling off its ancient heritage for short-term gain. He warned against "inverted snobbery" and received support from the Telegraph, who commented in their leader column that the bishop "is being neither selfish nor spendthrift. He is being pragmatic and intelligent by stating that hardly any money will be saved by relocating him and that any money saved will not be worth the concomitant loss of splendour."

Read the summary here.

Jewish heritage under threat

2004-11-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

Some British Jews fear their heritage may be under threat following the sale of several hundred Hebrew manuscripts for £4.3 million last week.

The collection, belonging to the Montefiore Endowment, was auctioned off at Sotheby's in New York. According to the Telegraph (London), there is "growing concern among scholars that Britain's Jewish community is breaking up key parts of its heritage for short-term convenience and gain."

More here.

Gays and lesbians disappointed by new RE guidelines

2004-11-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

The gay community in the UK has criticized the Labour governments new National Framework for failing to address sexuality in its guidelines on the teaching of tolerance.

The document, published today, says pupils should "appreciate and view positively differences in others, whether arising from race, gender, ability or disability", but gay rights groups are claiming sexuality was deliberately sidelined in an attempt to appease religious groups.

More here.

RE framework launched

2004-10-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

Education Secretary Charles Clark's National Framework for Religious Education has been officially launched. Read more here.

Drive to educate children about Islam

2004-10-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

The BBC reports that the Muslim Council of Britain has launched a drive to equip schools in Britain with books, videos and CDs in an attempt to inform schoolchildren of the "true meaning" of Islam.

The initiative, aimed at Key Stages One and Two, has received the full backing of Education Secretary Charles Clark.

More here.

Be proud of your religion, says Pope

2004-10-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

Catholics should not be afraid to speak about their faith, and should wear symbols and signs of faith in public with pride, the Pope said this weekend.

The pontiff's remarks may be taken to indicate support for Muslims and Jews, whose right to wear headscarves and skullcaps, respectively, has been the subject of great controversy in France recently, after a new law banned the display of "conspicuous religious symbols" in French schools.

Read more at the BBC website.

Tots to be taught tolerance

2004-10-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Scotland on Sunday reported today that Scottish children as young as three will be educated on "the horror of religious intolerance" in a drive to combat sectarianism.

A pilot scheme beginning next week will target the traditional Catholic-Protestant divide, as well as Islamophobia and prejudice against other faiths. Eventually the scheme will extend to all Scottish schools, hopefully by the academic year 2005/2006.

Full story here.

Education Secretary sidesteps religious question

2004-09-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

According to the Guardian (Manchester), Education Secretary Charles Clarke avoided answering a controversial question at the Labour Conference in Brighton today. Asked whether the existence of religious schools might encourage "segregation" and introduce problems further down the line, Mr Clarke

... failed to address the issue of religious schools directly, focusing instead on outlining a new religious education syllabus thrashed out with religious leaders from all faiths, which is to be introduced across all state schools, he said.

"Agreeing a way of dealing with faith in all schools strengthening the way in which things are taught is a positive one," he said. "The framework we have agreed with all major faith leaders - and some minor ones - is a major step forward step which enables us to challenge this issue."

Full story here.

Catholics depart from official teaching on contraception

2004-09-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, has broken with official Catholic teaching to argue that condoms may be an important weapon in the war against AIDS. According to Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph (London), a "growing number of senior clerics have taken a softer line than the Church's official blanket ban on artificial contraception", including Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of Roman Catholics in England and Wales.

Sexual abstinence remains the ideal, CAFOD are claiming, but at the same time "campaigns to counter the disease in the developing world [have] to be realistic and employ a range of methods."

Full story here [registration required].

Offensive cartoon Pope dropped by BBC

2004-09-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today's Guardian (Manchester) reports that the BBC have dropped plans for Popetown, a cartoon satire that was to feature "an infantile Pope voiced by the comedian Ruby Wax, bouncing around the Vatican on a pogostick."

The corporation had been subjected to a campaign of criticism by Catholics since the series was announced last year.
Already angered by what they saw as the pursuit by Radio 4's Today programme of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, for his alleged mishandling of the issue of paedophile priests, the Catholic faithful took Popetown as part of a concerted BBC agenda to attack their church.
They bombarded the corporation with complaints, and several bishops objected.

The Guardian continues:

The Rt Rev Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth and chairman of the Catholic bishops' communications committee, was "delighted", since the series would have caused offence "not least among the Catholic community, who hold the person of the Holy Father in the highest regard and affection.
"Any attempt to belittle or diminish his status as the leader of the Catholic church is totally unacceptable and not only to Catholics."

Apparently the BBC need not be too glum, however. Some of the costs can be recouped "by selling the programmes on and through video sales."

All's well then.

Homosexual controversy in Croatian RE

2004-09-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

One World reports:

Last Friday, the deadline expired for Nenad Primorac, [Croatian] Minister of Education, to provide information on the request sent to his office by the Gender Equality Ombudsperson Gordana Lukac-Koritnik on August 20. The request refers to the complaint by Iskorak and Kontra associations about the discrimination of homosexuals in the religious education curriculum in elementary schools.

Namely, in the programmes for eight-grade, one of the lessons carries the title: "Discussion on the Complete Meaning and Relationship Between "love" and "sex" and Judgment on the Wrong Forms of Sexuality (Homosexuality, prostitution, incest, trans-sexuality)". The Ombudsman located two disputable elements in the Religious Education Programme. The first one is the way homosexuality is defined as a wrong form of sexuality, and the second is the equation mark put between homosexuality and incest, having in mind that the latter is considered a criminal offense in the Croatian Criminal Law.

Welcome!

2004-09-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the RE Blog.

My aim here is simply to provide a continually updated resource for practitioners of Religious Education in the United Kingdom. I'll be blogging on sites of interest, news stories, articles -- anything that comes to my attention that I think would be useful to RE teachers in the UK.

Pass the word around that the RE Blog is online. I welcome your contributions, and may be looking for co-authors in the near future.

How this blog will work

2004-09-23T04:11:00.000-07:00

I chose a blog format for this site because it was going to be the most straightforward and least time-consuming format to work with.

Here's how I intend to do this: I will create a blog entry for each group of links and resources. So, for example, I just created an entry entitled Christianity, and in that entry, I included various subheadings such as Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism and New Testament. Eventually those subheadings will link to lists other entries listing relevant resources and links. Ultimately, there will be sections for every area of RE, including all the religions. I'll make a menu of links in the sidebar taking users to the different sections for easy reference.

Entries containing links will be backdated, where news stories and the like will appear on the site chronologically, just like a regular blog.

Got it? Nah, neither have I. It'll all sort itself out sooner or later. In the meantime, bear with me, enjoy the site as it develops, and pass the word around!

Clearing up the confusion...

2004-09-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

I noticed someone on the TES forums commented that they followed my link and what they found "didn't seem very RE" but rather "more about your personal faith".

Just to clear up any confusion, whoever made the comment probably mistakenly followed an external link (no longer available) to another blog. The RE Blog is not a personal blog, and will not be used for those purposes. At the moment it consists only of what you see on this page in front of you, but what I hope to include is news stories, links to resources, that kind of thing.

2004-09-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

CHRISTIANITY

2004-09-21T04:08:00.000-07:00

Roman Catholicism

Anglicanism

Eastern Orthodoxy

Other Denominations

Evangelicalism

Fundamentalism

Sects & non-orthodox churches

Old Testament

New Testament

Bible

Church History

CHURCH HISTORY

2004-09-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Catholic Reformation. Archive of resources pertaining to the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the 16th century.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Mammoth online library of writings and documents dating back to the beginning of Christianity.

Christian History. Articles and features.

Early Church. Extensive database of historical information.

Protestant Reformation. Archive of resources pertaining to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

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Back to Christianity

BIBLE (General)

2004-09-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Bible Gateway. Search any of several Bible translations online.

Bible Study Tools. Various useful aids, including commentaries, concordances, encyclopaedias and dictionaries.

EVANGELICALISM

2004-09-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Online reference guide to evangelical biblical theology.

Christian Herald. News from the British evangelical mainstream.

Christianity Today. News and views from a contemporary American evangelical perspective.

Evangelical Alliance. The voice of mainstream evangelicalism in the UK.

Evangelicalism. A handful of scholarly essays addressing evangelicalism as a movement from ReligionOnline.

Evangelical Theology. More scholarly essays on evangelical theology from ReligionOnline.

Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals. Academic site focusing on American evangelicalism, but relevant to evangelicalism as a whole.

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Back to Christianity

SECTS & NON-ORTHODOX CHURCHES

2004-09-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

Church of Christ, Scientist. Official website of the metaphysical sect also known as Christian Science.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Official website of the church otherwise known as the Mormons.

Jesus Army. Official website of the UK-based sect.

Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Official website of the Adventists.

Unification Church. Official website of the organization better known as the "Moonies".

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Official website of the church otherwise known as the Jehovah's Witnesses.

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Back to Christianity

EASTERN ORTHODOXY

2004-09-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

The Antiochan Orthodox Church in the UK. Official site representing Orthodox Christians in Britain.

The Orthodox Christian Foundation. Useful collection of links and resources pertaining to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Orthodox Christian Information Center. Comprehensive guide to Orthodoxy.

The Orthodox Church. The BBC's handy introduction to the Orthodox faith.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain and Ireland. Official site, including liturgical texts and other resources.

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Back to Christianity

ANGLICANISM

2004-09-20T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Anglican Domain. General information site about Anglicanism worldwide.

Book of Common Prayer (1662). Online text of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's original Anglican prayerbook.

Church of England. Official website of the Anglican church in England.

The English Reformation. Resources pertaining to the English Reformation in the 16th century, and the beginnings of Anglicanism.

Episcopal Church, USA. Official website of the Anglican church in the US.

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Back to Christianity

ROMAN CATHOLICISM

2004-09-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

Catechism of the Catholic Church. Probably the most important source of official Roman Catholic teaching.

Catholic Answers. Apologetic website dedicated to defending Roman Catholicism and promoting a proper understanding of the faith.

Catholic Encyclopaedia. A century-old, but still a veritable mine of information on the historical Roman Catholic faith.

Catholic Information Network. General information source on Catholicism.

EWTN Library. Extensive online library of documents pertaining to the Church.

The Vatican. Official site. 'Nuff said.

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Back to Christianity.

ISLAM

2004-09-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

A Brief Illustrated Guide to Islam. Information on Islam with an apologetic slant.

Islam 101. Guide to Muslim religion and culture.

IslamiCity. Online Muslim community.

Islam Online. Extensive source of news and information on contemporary Islam.

IslamWorld. Essays, articles, FAQs etc. relating to Islam, from a Muslim perspective.

Qur'an Resources. Online Qur'an, study tools and apologetics.

BUDDHISM

2004-09-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

About Buddhism. About.com's introduction to Buddhism.

BuddhaNet. Comprehensive website dedicated to Buddhist education and information.

Buddhism. The BBC's concise guide to the Buddhist religion.

DarmhaNet. Primitive, but useful resource for all things Buddhist.

Therevada Buddhism. Online readings from the Therevada tradition.

HINDUISM

2004-09-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

About Hinduism. About.com's introduction to Hinduism.

Hindu Kids Universe. Excellent resource aimed at children, including games, quizzes and stories.

Hinduism Online. Introductory website.

Hindu Resources Online. Extensive information on Hinduism.

HinduNet. Various Hindu-related resources.

Sacred Texts of Hinduism. The Vedas, Upanishads and other Hindu sacred texts.

JUDAISM

2004-09-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

About Judaism. About.com's introduction to Judaism.

Board of Deputies of British Jews. The "Voice of British Jewry" online.

Chief Rabbi. Website of Britain's Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks.

Jewhoo! Parody of Yahoo! providing an informative look at Jewish culture, with a comprehensive biographical encyclopaedia of famous Jews.

Judaism. The BBC's online guide to the Jewish religion.

Judaism 101. Online encyclopaedia of Judaism.

Reform Judaism. Website of Reform Judaism in the UK.

Torah.org. Website dedicated to Jewish education and information.

United Synagogue. Website representing Orthodox synagogues in Great Britain.

SIKHISM

2004-09-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

All about Sikhism. Self-described "Gateway to Sikhism".

Guru Granth Sahib. Sacred scriptures of the Sikh faith online, along with a few other resources.

Sikhism. Comprehensive resources on the Sikh religion.

Sikhism Home Page. Smart-looking introduction to Sikhism.

SikhNet. Extensive Sikh-related news coverage and resources.

Sikh-Seek. Guide to Sikhism on the web.

GENERAL RE SITES

2004-09-16T03:10:00.000-07:00

Local Education Authorities. Links to LEAs, SACREs and Locally Agreed Syllabuses.

National Society for Promoting Religious Education. Resources for RE in a CofE context.

QCA. Official information on RE from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

RE Directory. Various resources.

RE Today. Premiere publication for RE teachers in the UK.

RE Site. "Your starting place for RE on the web."

Virtual Teacher Centre. Government website with handy RE resources and links.

OTHER DENOMINATIONS

2004-09-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

Assemblies of God. British website of the world's largest Pentecostal denomination.

Baptist Union. Official website of Baptists in the UK.

Church of Scotland. Official website of the historic Presbyterian church in Scotland.

Elim Pentecostal Church. Official website of one of the UK's main Pentecostal denominations.

John Wesley. Online exhibition dedicated to the founder of Methodism.

Methodist Church of Great Britain. Official website.

Religious Society of Friends. Extensive archive of information on the religious group better-known as the Quakers.

ETHICS

2004-09-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

Abortion

Environmental Issues

Euthanasia

Gender Equality

Human Rights

Marriage and Sexuality

Medical Ethics

Racism

War

Wealth and Poverty

ABORTION

2004-09-09T23:57:00.000-07:00

Abortion Facts. Comprehensive information representing both sides of the abortion debate.

Abortion Rights. British-based pro-choice organization.

History of Abortion. Informative look at the history of the issue from a pro-choice perspective.

LifeNews.com. US-based pro-life news source.

SPUC. The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, Britain's foremost pro-life organization.

Voice for Choice. Website of the UK pro-choice campaign group.

WAR

2004-09-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Coming soon.

RACISM

2004-01-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

BritKid. Educational resources on racism.

Kick It Out. Website dedicated to kicking racism out of football.

Let's Beat Racism. Educational resource from Childline.

Show Racism the Red Card. Further resources on racism in football.

World Racism. Up-to-date international race-related news.