you

 

Had a funny day in a Church of England school. There was a vicar in the school and prayers on the wall and one of the artworks was about the symbol of the cross. The caption underneath said that crosses were a symbol of hope. And that they could be found all about us in life as a sign of hope.

For me, crosses aren't a symbol of hope and I felt very alien being there. Most schools that I go into have no obvious signs of religion. There was a Somali woman on the staff and I wondered whether she felt strange about being in such a C. of E. environment and there was an Asian woman who also may not have been Christian, but I don't know. Maybe it is a bigger deal for me because I went to a Jewish school and Christianity was a very alien thing, an outside threat (literal and metaphorical), to me.

There is a perennial argument over religious schools here in Britain - about whether they should exist or not. I'm usually in favour of them, especially for minority religions, having gone to one myself, but maybe it just alienated me from experiencing Christianity as anything but hostile and foreign.

<< | >>