Faiths and further education - Church of England

Faiths and Further Education:A Handbook62This is an extract from an article by Dr Fatma Amer, for the Churchof England Newspaper (June 2005):Within the Muslim community, provision for spiritual and religiouscare used to be ( and still is, to a large extent) provided mostly bylay people, in many cases on a voluntary basis. The community hascome to feel the need for provision of professionals who areequally competent in their professional skills as well as theiracademic and theoretical qualifications. Hence, the introduction… .in 2002 of certified training courses in order to provide Muslimchaplains as part of its duty towards the wider society at large aswell as its immediate circle. The certificated course should be theminimum standard or any practising Muslim chaplain.63This is an extract from a contribution by Jay Lakhani from a Hinduperspective to the recent paper on 14-19 education,Taking YoungPeople Seriously (NEAFE, 2005):‘Religious Pluralism’ is a theme not yet fully understood by manytheologians, who mistake it for ‘relativism’. Pluralism is an aspectwe have explored at length with many youngsters from manydifferent faiths and no-faith backgrounds. The need to reconciletruth claims of many religions is a must if we are to expect theyouth of today to treat religious teachings seriously. Hinduism withits inherent pluralistic approach is well geared to tackle this issue.How spirituality can be usefully tapped through theisticapproaches and how it can also be tapped into through nontheisticapproaches including the approach of science, makesreligious teachings relevant, interesting and exciting.64This an extract from the Scottish educationalist Herman (2002,p.65):We are born to make to make moral judgments, just as we are bornwith a mouth to eat and eyes to see. Moral reasoning (‘what he didwas good, what she did was bad’) is a natural human faculty, but itdiffers from other kinds of reasoning, such as judging distances oradding up columns of numbers. It is expressed through ourfeelings and emotions. The most important is love, particularlylove for others, which is the starting point of all morality.65You may choose your own extracts and add them to the space inthe back for further notes.“To be frank, I was a sceptic. It was the principal’s idea,and I have no religion. But I have to admit, I’m aconvert – not to religion but to chaplaincy! Today’sstudents seem to really like it, and it keeps some ofthem on track.” (Vice-principal)