Church of England Status
The Department for Education and Skills is currently considering the school's legal status receiving notification from the Diocese of Liverpool that the Liverpool Blue Coat School is a Church of England school. The Diocese took action when it discovered that a 2000 agreement between the school and the Charity Commission had committed the school to teaching the doctrines of the Church of England, in line with its founders' intentions.
Church of England status would give the Diocese the right to conduct inspections. If these identified a problem, the school would be required to find a solution, although not necessarily the solution proposed by the Diocese. It is likely that the Church of England would find the appointment of a non-Christian headteacher to be such a problem.
The school authorities and the parent-teacher association have stated that they are opposed to Church of England status, arguing that the school has both a Christian and multicultural ethos, and that designated Church of England status would inevitably change its character. They point out that one recent headmaster was a notable Welsh Presbyterian.
The Diocese has stated that under the Education Act 1998, any school that teaches Anglican doctrines automatically receives Church of England status, so neither the Diocese nor the school has any choice in the matter. They claim that the Diocese's policies on selection and multiculturalism are essentially identical with the school's. They also point out that the Bishop of Liverpool and the Dean of Liverpool have ceremonial roles in the school's governing body, that the school has had an Anglican chaplain for at least 40 years, and that the school's Founders' Day service has long been held in the city's Anglican cathedral.
Read more about this topic: Liverpool Blue Coat School
Famous quotes containing the words church of, church, england and/or status:
“Now folks, I hereby declare the first church of Tombstone, which ain’t got no name yet or no preacher either, officially dedicated. Now I don’t pretend to be no preacher, but I’ve read the Good Book from cover to cover and back again, and I nary found one word agin dancin’. So we’ll commence by havin’ a dad blasted good dance.”
—Samuel G. Engel (1904–1984)
“I believe with all my heart that the Church of Jesus Christ should be a Church of blurred edges.”
—George Carey (b. 1935)
“The Canadians of those days, at least, possessed a roving spirit of adventure which carried them further, in exposure to hardship and danger, than ever the New England colonist went, and led them, though not to clear and colonize the wilderness, yet to range over it as coureurs de bois, or runners of the woods, or, as Hontan prefers to call them, coureurs de risques, runners of risks; to say nothing of their enterprising priesthood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)