We live at a time when children feel besieged by social media, weighed down by pressure and report poor mental health. Collective worship offers 10 minutes in a day for children to pause and reflect on the big questions such as “Why am I here?” and “How then should I live?”.
Offering this in the context of authentic Christian worship is not “religious indoctrination” but a chance for children of all faiths and none to develop spiritually and gain perspective in an otherwise stressful day (Parents launch legal action over ‘evangelical’ school assemblies, 29 July).
There is much evidence of the value of collective worship to children and young people, which is why thousands of community schools also have strong partnerships with local churches and faith groups. What happens in schools must be evidence-based and should not be in response to secular pressure group campaigns.
Rev Nigel Genders
Chief education officer, Church of England
• “Collective” worship in schools should be quite different from “corporate” worship in church. Corporate worship assumes a body of like-minded worshipers while collective worship does not and is intended to be broad and inclusive of those who are religious and secular. Faith communities (the local church in this case) can and do make important contributions to school assemblies but need to be briefed against proselytising.
It is a pity that Lee and Lizanne Harris feel the need to withdraw their children from assemblies because they are of immense value and it is healthy for children to encounter different viewpoints.
Christine Crossley
Religious studies teacher and assembly leader, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
• I was a pupil at a church school up to age 11, and religion played a part in morning assembly at the school I went to up to age 16. Those whose parents objected just sat outside and read until it was time to go to class.
I don’t remember ever believing the stories we were told. But more than 50 years later I did commit to becoming a Christian and have never regretted it. It is the best thing that has ever happened in my life.
Graham Hart
Halesowen, West Midlands
• Religious indoctrination in schools may not always achieve the intended results. Back in my 1960s Herefordshire school days a classmate achieved a grade 1 in GCE scripture. He proudly boasted that he “didn’t believe a word of it”.
It is significant that church attendance in the UK, with a daily act of religious worship in schools, is far lower than in the US, where prayer in public schools is banned. Perhaps proselytising atheists should campaign for more prayers in schools, not less.
Roger Backhouse
York
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