As thousands of children and young people across the Diocese begin a new academic year, many of our churches will be working hard to build and strengthen meaningful links with their local schools.
Churches serve schools in so many and often surprising ways, making the love of God known to children from diverse backgrounds. Very often the links churches form with schools develop into community action and as Bishop Lee says, Frequently it is the physical which speaks of the spiritual.
As part of our strategic vision for Creating Connections, building and enhancing these positive links with schools will become increasingly important.
If your church is new to this kind of work, the Diocesan Support Services are here to help you consider some of the key issues around building a successful relationship with a school and there are a wide range of resources and support available to give you ideas of whats worked in other areas and help you get started.
Church-school links case studies
An ideal starting point is our brochure ofchurch-school links case studies. It outlines the stories of how relationships have been developed between churches and all kinds of schools, and what impact they have had. There is guidance on witness in the school context, including new takes on classic routes and some completely novel approaches
Hopefully we can all be inspired to look at ways to serve children, parents and staff, and make our faith known.