Revd Canon Anna Macham, Canon Precentor of Salisbury Cathedral, tells the story of how a prayer vigil for Ukraine at the Cathedral grew from an expected 40 people to more than 600.A couple of days after the invasion on February 24, a local Ukrainian woman named Olga approached us to ask if she could hold an event in support of her homeland in the Cathedral grounds. We were all shocked at what had happened, and Olga’s passion for her country and grave concern for family and friends in Ukraine, along with her strong determination to do something public, moved me. The vigil was to be the next day, on the Sunday at lunchtime, so we had 24 hours to work out what to do. We agreed to meet on the Green, after morning services, and then go inside to one of the side chapels for a moment of prayer, following which everyone could light a candle.It felt important to me that the “moment” was as personal as possible, and so I asked Olga if there was anything she would like to include.She asked if her husband Taras could read a poem composed by her mother-in-law, who lives just 30 miles behind the current front line, and that I say “Mi molimosya za Ukrainy,” which means “We pray for Ukraine”.Olga publicised the short service with her contacts on social media, and we were told to expect about 30 to 40 people.When I walked out on to the Green on the Sunday, the number of people who had turned up was astonishing. There were hundreds and the whole green was full.Normally such a large gathering or service would take weeks to plan and require many volunteer stewards and others to manage.There were just three vergers on duty. Phoning ahead as the crowd grew, I asked the vergers to move the service into the Cathedral nave, then we led Olga and the crowd of, by then, around 600, inside.The prayerful, spiritual atmosphere helped focus our collective sense of respect and solidarity, as everyone took their places.With the poem and prayers, the service lasted only about 10 minutes, but it was powerful. After the welcome, prayers and Taras’ poem, when Olga and her children lit a large candle to symbolise all our thoughts and prayers, the gathering broke into spontaneous applause and everyone rose to their feet. A standing ovation for Ukraine. It was very good to welcome members of the wider community, including our regular congregations, and it felt absolutely right for all of us, of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds to be there in the Cathedral to pray and stand alongside our Ukrainian friends.(Revd Canon Anna Macham is pictured above, looking on as Olga lights a candle for Ukraine)
Our Lent course will meet again tomorrow (Thursday) evening in the Vestry at Hascombe Church at 7pm. We'd love you to join us there. But if you can't be with us in person you can be part of our discussions and prayers by clicking on this Zoom link: <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86285911070?pwd=RFBFNHBPTVE1cVlUbzkvd0szOGFrUT09">https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86285911070?pwd=RFBFNHBPTVE1cVlUbzkvd0szOGFrUT09</a><br>>
As the Government publishes its White Paper on Education, the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer says that Multi Academy Trusts can be the foundation for fruitful partnerships supporting all pupils to flourish.We have much to learn from the African concept of Ubuntu which outlines how an authentic individual is part of a larger and more significant relational, communal, societal, environmental and spiritual world, writes Revd Canon Nigel GendersIt’s a concept which is at the heart of the Church of England’s approach to education which sets out our commitment to educating for life in all its fullness through a broad and rich curriculum that enables children and young people to truly flourish. Such an education, with its focus on hope and aspiration, is vital in the light of a pandemic which has impacted massively on children’s mental health and wellbeing. The latest Government White Paper has stepped up momentum for schools to become academies, with the Government setting a clear aspiration for all schools to join a strong multi academy trust by 2030.Since the beginning of the Academy programme, I have always spoken of the need for interdependence rather than an approach to the school system which has been driven by individualism and autonomy. Our work on rural and small schools has highlighted the need to work together and for schools to embrace change through formation of structural collaborations and partnerships, so I am delighted to see this emphasis in the White Paper.The leadership practices which lie at the heart of our work as a national provider of National Professional Qualifications and are underpinned by our Church of England vision for education, are based on the three core concepts of being called, connected and committed, and it is that connectedness which is vitally important for the future of our school system. For us, the purpose of connection and collaboration is not simply the economies of scale or the benefits of sharing practice across a group of schools (important as they are) but it is fundamentally about doing better for the children we serve and the desire for us to move from being a network of schools and leaders who share a common vision to being a powerful movement for transformational education for the common good. It’s a movement which needs to work for the small rural schools (of which the Church of England provides the vast majority across the country) as well as the large urban schools (where the majority of our 1 million children learn).The White Paper recognises the vital role the churches have played over the last 200+ years in this country and sets out how that role needs to continue to be enabled in the future development of the school system. The move towards the fully academized educational landscape set out in the White Paper requires two key things:Significant investment of resource to make that transition possible. The Church of England is the largest provider of academies, with 1535 of our schools having already converted - but that still leaves two thirds of our schools to become academies and this will require time and resource for the conversion process as well as new strong trusts to be formed to enable that transition. The recognition that MATs must grow to a sustainable level of about 7,500 pupils means thinking carefully and strategically about the small rural schools and how a funding model can work for them which enables their vital education to remain at the heart of communities across our land.Legislation to ensure that the statutory basis on which the dual system of Church and State as partners in education (which has been in operation since 1944) securely translates into the contractual context in which academies are based so that the sites on which are schools are situated can continue to be used for the charitable purposes for which they were given.
