Inclusive, Invitational and Inspirational – Collective worship is the heartbeat of Church of England Schools

Last week, the Church of England published updated guidance for collective worship in schools. This is mainly a resource for Church of England schools but one which can be helpful to all schools who want to help their children get the most from this opportunity to pause, reflect, sing and pray.

State schools in England are required to provide a daily act of collective worship which is ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character’. Although there is scope for schools to apply for an exemption to that depending on their particular circumstances, very few overall seem to do so.

That’s perhaps not surprising as schools tell us that, whatever the legal obligations, daily collective worship has proved a powerful tool in bringing pupils together, giving them a rare opportunity to pause and reflect – to be inspired – in the midst of a busy day. For Church of England schools that means Christian worship and that will remain the case.

The guidance builds on the Church of England’s Vision for Education, which is to be ‘deeply Christian’ while ‘serving the common good.’ In collective worship terms, this means opening the rich traditions and modern expressions of Christian worship to people of all faith backgrounds in a way which does not presume a particular starting point, so is invitational and inclusive as well as inspiring.

Children can expect the worship they encounter in a Church school to be formational and transformational: it should enable pupils and adults to ask big questions about who we are and why we do what we do. It should call us to action, to thinking and behaving differently. We suggested that schools take care that pupils and adults do not feel “compelled to sing strongly confessional lyrics”. But it became clear that the word “confessional” had been misunderstood – one rather over-the-top newspaper column even tried to claim that this meant we were “purging” hymns of Christian content. Far from it.

Read here

Please right-click links to open in a new window.