Shap Journal 2001/2002

Living Community

From Visions to Realities: A Multi Faith School?

Jonathan Wittenberg

Last week I led a group of seventy members of my
congregation on a journey to Auschwitz-
Birkenau. When I came home, seeking help in
integrating the experience, I watched the film
Chasing Shadows, in which Rabbi Hugo Gryn returned to
his home town Berechovo. Reflecting on the fate of his
family and of the entire Jewish community of the town,
who were all deported to Auschwitz in 1944, Rabbi
Gryn commented that Berechovo contained beautiful
synagogues and churches. Although the Christian and
Jewish communities lived peacefully side by side, he
could recollect no single occasion when he had entered
a church, or when a Christian had visited a synagogue.
That, he noted, may have been why, when the chips
were down, he knew of no single instance of a Jew from
Berechovo being hidden or helped. That is why, he
concluded, he has devoted so much of his life to trying
to create a society which not only tolerates, but
celebrates, difference.

What could promote that aim more fully than a multi
faith school?

I actually came to the idea of such a school from
working at the other end of life, - with the dying. As
coordinator of the multi faith chaplaincy team at the
North London Hospice I have come to realise the
strength to be found in sharing the wisdom of our
different traditions in ministering to the dying and their
families. Time and again I have seen how our common
humanity, so obvious at a time of such vulnerability,
transcends the differences between us and leads to a
deep respect for the various ways in which we value life
and hold it sacred. If we can work together in dying, I
thought, can we not work together in living?

For a year and a half now, a group of us have been
meeting regularly to develop our vision of a school
which will give young people deep roots in their own
faith tradition and a knowledge and respect for that of
others. Leaders in the Catholic, Church of England,
Muslim, Hindu and Jewish communities, supported by
experts in education, we are well on the way to turning
our ideas into a firm plan of action. Our discussions are
not always easy; it would do no justice to the complexity
of the issues we face if they were. But, motivated by our
common goal, we are completing statements on the
ethos, curriculum, admissions and staffing policy, as
well as on the governance of our school. At the same
time, we are taking the appropriate practical steps to
turn our ideas into reality.

These are the key features of the school:

The school will be state funded, providing secondary
education for boys and girls. Boys and girls will have
equal opportunities and share the framework of the
same school day, while studying separately.

The school will promote academic excellence in all areas
of the national curriculum.

The school will have an ethos in which the wisdom and
practice of different faiths is valued and fostered.
Children of different faith groups will study all secular
subjects together. The curriculum will reflect the range
of faith backgrounds and promote an understanding of
them. The teaching of history, literature and the arts
will be enriched by including the different perspectives of
different faith groups. The choice of languages taught at
the school will enable pupils to gain access to the core
texts of their own faith. There will be shared discussions
of ethical issues of universal concern as well as the
promotion of awareness of the traditions and festivals of
different faiths.

At the same time all pupils will study their own religion
in depth, in their own faith group. Thus, for example,
Muslim pupils will be given a serious grounding in the
texts, practices and beliefs of Islam, and Jewish pupils in
those of Judaism. They will gain the same depth of
knowledge of their own faith as they would at many of
the currently existing separate faith schools. This will be
made possible by the intensive use, and slight
lengthening, of the school day.

The school will thus reflect the understanding that we
need to be rooted in our own traditions and familiar
with the practice of our own faith, as well as aware of
the beliefs of others and the common humanity and
search for meaning which unite us.

The school will be staffed, in so far as possible, by
teachers who are personally committed to its ethos and
involved with their own faith communities. Members of
the wider school community, including families and the
governing body, will be actively engaged with the spirit
of the school.

In this manner the school will testify to the value of
faith in today's world and to the importance of
understanding and partnership. Such a school will be
an important resource for the local community and a
model to wider society.

I believe in this school not only as a religious leader, but
also as a citizen.

As rabbi of a Masorti Synagogue, traditional in liturgy
and practice and open in thought, I experience
constantly the necessity for children to acquire a deep

knowledge of the language, customs and wisdom of
their religion. Culture, values and faith in God are not
communicated by default. Only an inspired and
thorough education can give the child the grounding for
a full intellectual, moral and spiritual life. However, at
the same time I am aware of the urgent need for
understanding in a world which is threatened by
conflicts, many of which are religious in nature. We
must educate towards tolerance, and knowledge and
appreciation of the wisdom of each others' faiths, while
anchoring our children firmly in the practice and
wisdom of their own.

As a citizen I believe that a multi faith school would be
good both for the religions that support it and for this
country. For the religions it would bring a rare message
of great commitment and great tolerance combined. For
the country the school would provide an example of
what it truly means to be a multi ethnic society and
would prepare children for an active life as guardians of
its values. It would take us beyond the passivity of mere
'tolerance' and leads us into the solidarity of genuine
understanding. The school could be a model of the
principles by which we have to live if civilisation is to
survive the twenty first century, spiritually, morally -
and physically.