26/11/2020
Jennifer Uzzell, writing for a new blog post by the Pagan Federation, says that the Commission On Religious Education has recommended an overhaul of the previous School Religious Education requirements and gives space for many more LGBTQ friendly faiths and practices such as humanism, atheism, polytheism and paganisms to be discussed. Jennifer notes that the report was actually published in 2018 but met with little fanfare. However, it might be what she calls a “gamechanger”. In her blogpost, Jennifer examines the history of Religious Education lessons in the UK, from the pre-1988 Christian Instruction classes to the acknowleldgement by the Thatcher government that children needed to discuss and appreciate the traditions of the European and Indian continents' larger faiths: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. Now, however, the recommendations, made in an document available for download include Appendix 2 which explains: “pupils should be taught not only about non-religious world views such as humanism and secularism, but also ‘smaller, local indigenous and newer religions’ ; that they must be made to feel included even if they belong to smaller religious communities and that the teaching of Religion and Worldviews might include ‘historical and contemporary Paganism in the UK…as this is both growing and influential beyond those who identify as Pagans.’ Apparently, even the more progressive wings of the Church of England agree with these recommendations. The challenge for RE campaigners and educationalists now is the make the recommendations ready for implementation by a future government.