Our annual schools conference, held in Manchester Monastery on Friday, was a great success with over 180 school and church leaders attending. The day was entitled ‘Distinctly Christian in a Changing World.’
Deborah Smith, Director of Education began the conference by encouraging us all to look back to the foundations of Church school education as we seek to prepare our children and young people for a future world.
The Revd Canon Grace Thomas, Canon Missioner at Manchester Cathedral led one of the keynote speeches, and focused on hope for the future whilst acknowledging the problems caused by CO2 omissions and its’ global impact. We were reminded we are ‘a family of church schools and we should respond as a family, for our future family.’
Ni-Cola Scott, Shades Lead from Children Changing Places spoke about racial justice and faith, challenging us that our faith should be the catalyst for anti-racism.
The Shades Ambassadors from Canon Slade High School embodied this as they shared their recently produced video ‘It’s Not Alright.’ Watch it here:
The final keynote of the day was from Chris Curtis, CEO of Youthscape whose focus was youth culture. He shared with us ways in which young people who don't attend church can misinterpret Bible stories when seen through the eyes of popular culture. He encouraged us all to help to give young people the tools of faith and explored ways in which our church schools may be ‘liminal spaces’ between church and society.
In amongst the keynote speakers, we shared communion together and were led in worship by children from the Archbishop Temple Multi-Academy Trust. Many thanks to all who came and those who contributed to the day.