UK schools must provide "group worship" -- but aren't

The UK can be a confusing place. On one hand most people will never pass through the door of a church, mosque or temple. On the other hand, state schools are still REQUIRED to hold daily corporate worship! So are schools actually holding these collective worship sessions? Do parents want them to? A new survey reported by the BBC provides insights and answers.


"Many state schools in England are not providing group worship, despite legislation making it a requirement, a survey suggests.

"The Comres survey for BBC local radio found 64% of the 500 parents questioned said their child did not attend daily acts of collective worship.

"But 60% of the 1,743 adults asked said the legislation should not be enforced.

"The Department for Education states that all maintained schools in England must provide a daily act of collective worship which must reflect the traditions of this country, which it says are, in the main, broadly Christian.

"Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) chief policy advisor Alison Ryan questioned how much schools and parents wanted daily worship.

"When a law is being flouted on a pretty major scale that is telling you something about its use, about how maybe it should be reformed or changed, so we believe it needs to be looked at."

The 2012 Olympics. What an opportunity!

The 2012 Olympics are less than a year away. But the athletes and the olympic organisers aren't the only ones getting ready. 

Lots of Christians are thinking of ways to use this as a ministry springboard to reach people who might not otherwise be as open to the gospel.

One man involved in this is Bryan Doyle, an ECM Britain missionary who is helping Greater Europe Mission to bring short-term teams from American churches across to the UK. Here's a video about what they are doing and hope to do.

New church planting school opens in London

Last week I went to meet with the founder of the new Amnos Church Planting School in London. Since then an article about the school has appeared in the local newspaper the Brentwood Gazette. What follows is excerpts from that article:

"The Amnos Church Planting School is opening at Trinity Church in Coxtie Green Road, Pilgrims Hatch, to create Christian leaders for the future and "plant" new churches where old ones have died out.

It is hoped the newly qualified pastors will help to reverse the rapid decline of Christianity in Europe, with more than 10,000 churches having closed in the UK alone in the last half century.

"The school is the brainchild of South Korean-born pastor the Rev Dr Daniel Chae, who says he is keen to pay back the debt of the gospel to the UK church.

"He said: "I was shocked coming from Asia and having such a high respect, especially being from Korea, where we are indebted so much to the UK church. I think the decline is sad and I think British people in general need to feel sad about this, whether they are Christians or non-Christians."

"Dr Chae has plenty of experience spreading the word of God, having previously been the managing director of a floating Christian community that travelled the world on board the MV Doulos ship.

"He most recently founded a new church on the outskirts of London but decided to launch the Pilgrims Hatch-based school in a bid to revitalise Christianity in Europe.

"He said the new school was unique in the way it incorporated the practical side of "showing the gospel" and working in the community in a positive way.

"The planting school will officially be launched with an inauguration service at Trinity Church, with Mr Kavoor [the Rev Canon George Kovoor is chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen] as guest speaker, from 11am on October  1."

New worship music CD in top 10!

Yesterday a friend posted on Facebook that the debut Worship Central live album - which has been released internationally, is making history in the UK as the first worship album to achieve an iTunes top ten position. It is currently at No. 9!

When I went to find out more (see here) I discovered that at no. 10 is the Beatles CD "1". So it is official. A worship CD is outselling the Beatles. Okay John, who is more famous now?

Are churches ready to help the needy?

This morning over breakfast I was reading "I", the stripped down version of the British newspaper "The Independent". Two lines jumped out at me:

- "More than one in seven retail stores across the UK are empty and in some small towns the number of boarded-up shops is nearly as high as two in five."

- "The number of people contacting a debt advice charity for help online doubled during January as growing numbers of people struggled to keep up with their borrowings."

People are increasingly in need. Local authorities are planning to lay off up to 20% of their staff. Companies are downsizing as the economy struggles. 

And for once the government isn't offering to step in and fix it all. In fact in the UK they are calling for charities like churches to step forward and help! But are we, as Christians, ready to help? 

I have a friend who isn't working so that she can have the time to set up a food bank for the town she lives in. She wants to involve churches, but also local food stores, social services, schools, etc. She is a Christian and she wants to be ready to help by the time it gets worse.

Will you be ready? What will you do?

Image: Mantas Ruzveltas / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What does it mean to be an "Evangelical" in the UK today?

If you have ever wondered what it actually means to be an "Evangelical" Christian in the UK today, here's a GREAT resource for you.

The Evangelical Alliance and Christian Research have just released some insightful research that they call "A snapshot of the beliefs and habits of evangelical Christians in the UK". Complete with easy to understand charts and insights by Christian leaders such as Derek Tidball, Elaine Storkey and Roger Forster, it deals with topics as diverse as Bible reading and assisted suicide, giving and abortion, women in leadership and miracles.

Well worth a look and available free online at http://www.eauk.org/snapshot/

Who NEVER goes to church?

We know that most people don't go to church regularly, but it is easy to think that most  have gone a few times and are vaguely familiar with it.

But results from the latest European Social Survey indicate that 60% of people in the Czech Republic NEVER attend religious services (except for "special occasions" like marriages and christenings). More than 50% of people in France, the United Kingdom and Belgium gave a similar response.


Out of the 28 nations polled people in Cyprus and Greece attend the most religious services (only 2.4% don't ever go to church in Cyprus and 4.9% in Greece). 


So not only do a lot of people not know Jesus. A lot of people don't know much about the church except what they see in the media. And I am not sure that does a lot to make it look attractive...

Big numbers, little numbers

The current population of the UK is nearly 62 million.That's a big number.

I recently ran across some research (I believe by Peter Brierley) that says if you add up all the evangelicals in the UK you only get 1,266,400 people. That is, by comparison to the population of the UK, a little number.

Is that really bad news? That got me thinking. 

Some networking "experts" say that the average person has about 200 relationships. If you are an optimistic person you can think about it as the number of people who would want to show up at your wedding. If you are more pessimistic, think of it as those who would want to attend your funeral.

If there is one evangelical for every 50 people in the UK (that is 62 million divided by 1.27 million), then a lot of people in the UK actually know more than one Christian! 

If those of us who know Jesus are just willing to be salt and light to those who know us, a lot of the country would be lighter and saltier by the end of the week.

Go for it! There ARE enough of us to make a difference. Little numbers can reach the big numbers.

Are European Muslims "good" Muslims?

Given the increasing number and profile of Muslims in Europe (I am no longer surprised to see women in burkhas when I am out shopping) the Nova Research Centre's (www.novaresearch.eu) surprised me.  Its most recent newsletter presented the results of a number of surveys about attitudes of Muslims living in Europe.

And there are a lot of European Muslims, more than 38 million if you include those in Russia. So are they all "good Muslims". Do they pray, give, fast, deal with money, and live the rest of their lives as the Koran and Islamic tradition commands?

From  France, 2008:
- only 10% of Muslims consider religion very important in their lives
- 60% say they never pray

From Belgium, 2005:
-  only 10% of the Muslim population were 'practicing Muslims'

From a study of Islamic Imams in Sweden, 2004:
- as few as 15% of second-generation Muslims in Sweden could be considered 'religiously active'

From Russia:
- out of 20 million officially self-identified Muslims only 35-45% practice regularly

From the UK, 2007:
- 21% of Muslims had consumed alcohol, 65% were paying interest on a normal mortgage, 19% had gambled, whilst 9% admitted to having taken drugs

What can we conclude from this? At the very least that living a life based on one's cultural religious background is just as hard for "Muslims" as it is for "Christians". Maybe that gives us something in common!

Photo used by kind permission of Graeme Weatherston: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=330

Where are UK men singing, if not in church?

If you are a man, and looking for a way to excuse not wanting to sing in church, here you go!

Research among UK males done on behalf of the magazine Sorted indicates that...
- only 52% of men say they are comfortable singing in church

For comparison:
- 40% say they are at ease singing in a pub
- 48% are confortable singing at a party


But the big winners are:
- 83% are at ease singing in the shower
- 86% are comfortable singing alone in a car

Thank you Sorted. We are all better for knowing this!