School assemblies

Nanny27

So many people don't follow any religion and many weddings now take place outside churches which is fine of course.
What I never understood is the number of parents who continue to have their children Christened. With no faith why would they do this?

Apparently I was christened because my grandmother insisted and my parents saw it as an excuse for a party. Obviously, I don't remember anything about it, although I've been told that my parents and my godparents turned up at the church without me. Somehow or other, each thought somebody else was going to bring me, so they had to rush back to get me from the garden, where I was sleeping in the sun.

Chardy

Franski

I've been to a few funerals recently. Very few people (young or old) seem to know the hymns- the sort of hymns we used to sing at school. But the families of the deceased obviously think these songs have meaning.
Seems like this UK is now a secular country with a sentimental attitude towards Christian tradition. So not many folk seem to want children in schools to learn the songs and prayers, but on the other hand there is nothing to replace them. Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals. Why is this? And what can or should replace prayers amd hymns?

What do GNetters think?

"Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals" I really don't agree

I clearly have heathern friends. I don't think I've been to church wedding for 15 years, and have only been to 3 church funerals ever, all for people 1 or 2 generations older than me. (I appreciate I don't go to as many weddings nowadays as I did when I was younger)

Personally I wouldn't want a church funeral, because as I don't go to church, I think it would be hypocritical.

The only church funeral I've ever been to was a baptist funeral. Like you, I haven't been to a church wedding for years (about 30, I think).

My thinking about this is that state run schools should take into account that the children attending them are not all from Christian homes. There will be Muslim, Jewish, atheist, agnostic humanist, perhaps Buddhist and Hindu homes represented amongst the children, as well as any denomination of Christianity you can think of.

This being so, morning assemblies should either be abolished, purely secular - a means of strengthening the school as a community by begining the day together, or if they are to have any form of prayers, these should be strictly rotated amongst the faiths the pupils and staff belong to.

Parents who wish their children to receive instruction in their own religion should either send their children to a private school, lobby their MPs to provide state run schools that are divided along doctinal lines, (not that I think this would be a particularly good idea, as it would undoubtedly lead to narrow-minded sectarianism) or schedule religious instruction for their children as after-school activities.

If you, as I, feel it sad that so many children grow up without any idea of what the religion they nominally belong to has to offer, then we - by which I mean all adult believers, should be doing what we can to encourage whichever religion we belong to, to do more to attract the curious.

In other words, get off our backsides and run Sunday schools, Thursday evening classes in the synagogue, groups in the mosque etc. Or go out into the streets, as various groups did formerly and engage the interested in a discussion.

When did you last see the Salvation Army singing hymns in the local square, or a Franciscan or Dominican friar preaching at a street corner? Or even a nun, monk, priest, parson or Lutheren deaconess in a habit in public? Or a Jew wearing his kippah?

When we relegate religion strictly to the private sphere, we can hardly wonder it declines.

I do believe in what Sarnia has said!

It's a good thing they stopped. We were brainwashed because it's all we were told. It's a better thing that young ones nowadays are able to see the science

Franski

I've been to a few funerals recently. Very few people (young or old) seem to know the hymns- the sort of hymns we used to sing at school. But the families of the deceased obviously think these songs have meaning.
Seems like this UK is now a secular country with a sentimental attitude towards Christian tradition. So not many folk seem to want children in schools to learn the songs and prayers, but on the other hand there is nothing to replace them. Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals. Why is this? And what can or should replace prayers amd hymns?

What do GNetters think?

"Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals" I really don't agree

I clearly have heathern friends. I don't think I've been to church wedding for 15 years, and have only been to 3 church funerals ever, all for people 1 or 2 generations older than me. (I appreciate I don't go to as many weddings nowadays as I did when I was younger)

Personally I wouldn't want a church funeral, because as I don't go to church, I think it would be hypocritical.

So many people don't follow any religion and many weddings now take place outside churches which is fine of course.
What I never understood is the number of parents who continue to have their children Christened. With no faith why would they do this?

Annewilko

My grandchildren attend a C of E school and although no daily assembly, they do have RE. I attended a RC school in the 70s, primary had a lot of morning prayers, lunch prayers, home time prayers, masses and priest visits. Secondary school, assembly once a week, a school priest, less prayers and compulsory RE lessons.
I think embracing other religions and beliefs can only be a good thing, we do live in a multi cultural society.

My children attended C of E primary schools (not by choice). They attended different ones - one was almost secular. The other one was quite religious. There was a cross in the main entrance and traditional daily assemblies with visits to church at Easter, Christmas and other times of the year. I could have withdrawn my children from the assemblies and the church visits, but I didn't want them to appear like outsiders.

At Primary school from '61 on we had assembly every day. The only child who was allowed to stay out was a Jehovah's Witness. We used to have a film once a week about the Holy Land and Bible featuring a husband and wife travelling around. In Grammar school we still had assembly every day, but Grammar school was only a fraction the size of secondaries and comps.

As a retired teacher this stopped many many years ago, in Scotland anyway.

I think assemblies are very valuable. At my primary school we had daily classroom assemblies with a short ( not necessarily religious or spiritual) reading giving some food for thought. To this day I can remember at least three:
“I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet”
The parable of the long chopsticks ( or spoons)where there was plenty of food for all but it was impossible to feed oneself. You could only feed each other and so you learnt the lesson of cooperation while feeding each other.
Then there was the one about the old lady of eighty(heaven forbid!) who had seen eighty years of good and bad weather but was grateful for this sunny one.

My grandchildren attend a C of E school and although no daily assembly, they do have RE. I attended a RC school in the 70s, primary had a lot of morning prayers, lunch prayers, home time prayers, masses and priest visits. Secondary school, assembly once a week, a school priest, less prayers and compulsory RE lessons.
I think embracing other religions and beliefs can only be a good thing, we do live in a multi cultural society.

Paperbackwriter

NotSpaghetti

I would NOT like to hear our National Anthem to be sung on the USA level!
😱

Completely agree!

I’m another in agreement with this!

I honestly can't say I ever loved assemblies. I endured them, but that was all.

We had Christian assembly with prayers and hymns in secondary school (1950s) and I used to enjoy them. I had a good singing voice and was soon picked out for the solo and duets we had in the music festival. We had 4 competing houses in these events. There were a few Catholic children who did not come in to assembly. There must have been some reason why their parents chose not to send them to the local Catholic school which was just across the road.

NotSpaghetti

I would NOT like to hear our National Anthem to be sung on the USA level!
😱

Completely agree!

I loved assemblies at school in the seventies. At primary school, some assemblies were for the whole school and some were for either the infants only or the juniors only, depending on the day of the week. Always a hymn, prayers, including the Lord's Prayer, a moral story and notices. Most teachers could play the piano well enough for assemblies but my favourite was my top infants' teacher who, when it was her turn to, would play us out to Country Gardens, which was her party piece. She would often choose my favourite song when it was the infants only assembly - Little Bird, I have heard, what a lovely song you sing. Another favourite infant song was Daisies are our silver, buttercups our gold. In the juniors, we graduated to a hymn book with an orange cover. When a Knight won his spurs, He who would true valour see, When lamps are lighted in the town. All rousing. When l was eight, my first headmaster retired and we practised his favourite hymn for weeks: The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended, which is one of my favourite hymns to this day. It was a county school rather than a church school but it was always overtly Christian. In addition to assemblies and RE, which was called Scripture in the infants, we said grace before our school dinners and always ended the day with a prayer. I have very happy memories.

chattykathy

It's actually a legal requirement in England and Wales for schools to have a daily act of worship that is broadly Christian. There are campaigns, mainly by the Humanists, to abolish it but it's still the law at the moment.

You're right, although I think it's often officially ignored.

School didn't teach me to "know my bible". In fact, I still don't know it that well. Nevertheless, I can appreciate paintings and sculptures influenced by Christianity, just as I appreciate art influenced by other religions and pre-religions.

I'm of the opinion that assemblies shouldn't be Christian, unless in a faith school. Unfortunately, the history of education in England means that a high percentage of primary schools are CofE and parents have no choice.

The Christian icon, Jesus, aka love, is a moving icon.
For me it is the opposite. A grim icon of a man being tortured in an ancient barbaric ritual. I hate children being exposed to this.
Is a Jesus's equivalent were to return now and the whole scenario be reenacted it would be a modern image of torture that people hurt g round their necks .... a gun maybe?

Our country, its culture and its basic laws are based on Christianity. It's a shame that assemblies have changed so much. For those who think that Christian teaching shouldn't be part of the school syllabus, can I ask when you last went to a museum or art gallery? Because many of our most beautiful paintings and sculptures are to do with biblical accounts. If you don't know your bible, much of those art works would mean so little to you. Sad.

It's actually a legal requirement in England and Wales for schools to have a daily act of worship that is broadly Christian. There are campaigns, mainly by the Humanists, to abolish it but it's still the law at the moment.

My experience was much like yours YorkLady. Assembly began and ended with classical music played on an organ by the school's music teacher. Through this I became aware of a broad range of classical music that otherwise I would not have come across.

At school during the early 60s our headmistress was way ahead of her time.
We split for prayers into Christian, Jewish and Moslem, then joined together for any other school business. There were not many girls of religions other than Christian but their traditions were respected.
I am much against Christianity being forced on children. This, like other religions, has been used for years to control the masses. It has very little relevance today.

Even in the 50/60s when I was a t school we had assmbly with hymns every day, but it didn't actually mean anything. It was just sung by rote because it was expected. Each to their own when it comes to religion, personally it's not for me. Singing the school song was more popular.