Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali and other speak-ers are to affirm the Christian basis of British Values at an annual education con-ference, it has been announced.
The Christian Coalition for Education (CCFE) represents a broad group of agencies ‘seeking to bring a Christian contribution to education’. Their annual conference at St Ebbe’s church in Oxford last November saw political and church leaders, including MPs and others from the main parties, discussing an orthodox and biblical response to the current controversies over sexuality, gender, and identity, within an educational context. The headline speaker, Professor Stanton Jones, a former Provost of Wheaton College, Illinois, met with leading figures in the UK to propose ways of speaking of Jesus Christ in education faithfully, lawfully, and with compassion.
Opportunity
With schools under increasing pressure from Ofsted and other agencies to demonstrate that they promote British Values, CCFE is keen to show that Democracy, Liberty, Law, and Tolerance are underpinned by the Bible’s teaching. A spokesperson for the group said: ‘It’s important that Christians are on the front foot in education, and the emphasis on British Values gives us a valuable opportunity. Secular writers like Douglas Murray understand that our culture still “dreams Christian dreams”, and that the idea of human rights does not make sense without the Bible’s teaching on Imago Dei.’ A statement affirming the Christian basis of British Values has been authored by a cross-party group led by Lord Alton, and CCFE currently promotes this statement to schools across the nation.
