Further to my two posts on the headteacher of St John’s C of E Primary School in Royal Tunbridge Wells severing its ties with CrossTeach, James Church brings informative and thus valuable background to the discussions on Cranmer’s post.:

First, he writes: ‘This most distressing as a church that has hosted CrossTeach’s Easter Experience and as a CrossTeach volunteer I can testify to how sensitively it is led, to the dedication of the volunteers and the creativity of the program as a whole. It is most disheartening to see Wayne and others labelled as extremists and the important work they are doing trashed mainly though ignorance combined with cowardice.’

Later he adds: ‘After a conversation tonight with our CrossTeach team locally, I have discovered a number of things, 1. they have every sympathy with the Headteacher who they feel has been put in an extremely difficult position, 2. there is a lot of false information about what was or is being objected to, 3. at the root of the problem is one particular parent who largely objected to a lesson in which their child was told that heaven would be better than the best things on earth, 4. other parents have been rallied to the cause with often misleading information. It has been rumbling on for some time with the team often being misquoted or quoted out of context. In all lessons two representatives of the team are there along with a teacher.’

I responded,

‘Very helpful and thank you James, yet those ‘figures’ don’t quite add up. In view of the publicity and uproar it would be appreciated if the Head explains his actual grounds for capitulation.’

The Telegraph quotes headteacher Dan Turvey as saying “I do not believe CrossTeach has done anything wrong,” he said. “They do not deserve the tarnishing of their good name and allegations of extremism that have taken place over the last few months.”

So why couldn’t Dan ‘man-up’, perhaps because he’s not a real, practising Christian?

Also, I’d draw attention to:

• a couple of this blog’s readers’ comments on Clarifying Rebuttal from Cranmer…
• Kent Live: Vicar accuses ‘extremist’ parents of ‘hurling hand grenade’ into school
• Christian Today: Rid Church Schools of Christianity: parents campaign extends to removal of crosses, bibles and clergy
• The Telegraph: Church of England headteacher hits out at parents who forced ‘extremist’ Christian group out of school.
• Guardian: Kent school cuts ties with Christian group after parents’ complaints