NSS urges Welsh councils to resist Church evangelism in schools

The National Secular Society has urged local authorities to ensure schools "will not be used as mission fields", after the Church in Wales announced plans to "build stronger links" with schools in south Wales.

The Church's diocese of Monmouth announced last week it is dedicating £1 million to "help grow new worshipping communities" by targeting local schools.

The diocese plans to install a "Schools Engagement Pioneer" in North Monmouthshire, East Cardiff, Islwyn and Abergavenny to focus on "relationship-building with primary and secondary school-age pupils in a manner which goes beyond school assemblies".

The schools targeted include community schools, which the Welsh Government has said are "not permitted to have a religious leaning". The project aims to engage with people "with no prior involvement in church".

The project is resourced by the Church in Wales' £100m 'Church Growth Fund' for projects which promote "confident and consistent evangelism".

The Church in Wales' 2018 membership and finance report said the Church saw "continued decline in most measures of participation in parish life".

The latest Census revealed the percentage of Christians in Wales decreased from 58% in 2011 to 44% in 2021, while people with no religion increased from 32% to 47%. This makes the nonreligious the largest religion or belief group in Wales.

NSS: Church initiative "cynical move to use local schools to ease its plummeting membership"

In a letter to councils in Caerphilly, Cardiff and Monmouthshire last week, the NSS asked what steps they will take to "safeguard schools as inclusive environments" and "ensure they will not be used as mission fields for the Church in Wales".

The NSS said using schools to try to convert children to Christianity is "divisive" and "incompatible with children's rights to freedom of religion or belief".

It pointed out that parents who choose community schools expect those schools "to be fully inclusive of families of all religions and beliefs" and "certainly do not expect them to host evangelists who aim to convert their children".

It added that the diocese's communications mention only how the Church in Wales will benefit from this scheme and "do not mention how the scheme will serve the educational needs of children".

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "As much as the Church in Wales may wish it, community schools are not there to serve the interests of the Church. They're there to educate children.

"This new initiative is a cynical move to use local schools to ease its plummeting membership.

"Local authorities must not allow state funded schools to be exploited by the Church to help it convert children."

Media coverage:

'Cynical move' to use schools to ease 'plummeting' church membership (South Wales Argus)