New report reveals growth in church-school relations
The first “church school service” started in 1992. Now 80 % of the country is covered by the initiative.
For more than 200 years Denmark has had a public school system. For the same period of time the public school and the public church (Folkekirken, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark) have been closely linked.
In 1975, however, a new school law meant that the teaching on Christianity in school could not be evangelising anymore. As a result, school and church slid apart. Teachers were still obliged to teach Christianity but as a neutral course. Some teachers found it against their conviction to teach the course and others were uncomfortable as it was unclear to them how to teach Christianity when evangelisation was not part of it. The Church was also not prepared for this move and it is fair to say that a couple of generations of Danes have very little knowledge of Christianity, religion as such and the impact it has on culture, etc. due to this change.
1992 saw an initiative to set up a church-based school service. The initiative was taken chiefly by the rural deans Erik Balslev-Clausen and Hanne Hjørlund. The concept was to provide the schools with helpful materials about church and Christianity. Materials that would fit in the framework of the school, ready made for the teachers to use in class.
In December 2015 a report was released from the Centre for Pastoral Education and Research of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, looking at the current relations between church and school. The report shows that more than 40 “school services” have been set up all over the country, usually by the local rural deanery, and that they all experience more and more demand for their services from teachers. Geographically, 80% of the country is covered.
Peter Green Sørensen is a professor at the Metropolitan University College in Copenhagen and one of the people behind the report. He says to the Christian Daily: “It will not be long before the school services will cover the entire country.” He believes that teachers see it as an asset to their work. “Whether it is the church, the zoo or Arla Foods, it is always good to have someone to draw on when you are going to communicate a theme. Teachers are under a massive pressure these years when it comes to preparation of classes and to documentation. The school services could make the aim of the school course more transparent, so that it will help the teachers reach the targets set for the pupils,” he says.
The report named “Even if you believe in something else, you can be a nice person: An empirical study of the cooperation between the public school and the church with a special focus on an evaluation of the use and significance of the church school services” is available in Danish for free download here.
"Selvom man tror på noget andet, kan man godt være et sødt menneske"
Irene Larsen & Peter Green Sørensen
Institut for Skole og Læring, Professionshøjskolen Metropol
Folkekirkens Uddannelses- og Videnscenter
December 2015
By Rebekka Højmark Svenningsen
