Sunday 11 September 2016

It's Education Sunday

For well over a hundred years there has been an annual recognition of Education Sunday in England and Wales. It is a national day of prayer and celebration for everyone in the world of education. The theme is devised by an ecumenical steering group representing different Christian denominations and organisations.
For some years it has been celebrated on the ninth Sunday before Easter. However, from 2016, after extensive consultation, it has moved to coincide with the start of the school year. From this year onwards, Education Sunday will be the second Sunday in September. In 2016 this will be today - Sunday 11 September. The theme is 'all are welcome'
You can watch the video from Praying for Schools. 





Or read this prayer written by friends at Bloomsbury Baptist Church
God of freedom and life,
We praise you for the gifts of education, and for those who labour to teach others.
For school teachers and university lecturers, for those who work in toddler groups and nurseries, for parents and grandparents, for Sunday school teachers, and for those who radiate wisdom without realizing, we thank you.
And we ask you that they might be encouraged in their work, and valued for the role they play.
Wherever children are brought up by those with a lust for terror, or by the impersonal face of the television or computer screen, we pray that you would bring true freedom.
Wherever market forces or nationalism or greed produce adults who have never grown up, we pray that you would bring true freedom.
Wherever people are programmed instead of taught, brainwashed instead of enlightened, manipulated instead of educated, we pray that you would bring freedom.
Teach us to recognize our own role in education, help us to encourage those who have committed their lives to this task, and make us all to heralds of the truth that sets people free.



2 comments:

  1. Our church didn't realise the change of date and did it last week and told us the change this weekx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll be working in the education sector for well night a quarter of this century sometime soon, I think. And I haven't regretted a minute of it. We don't have this here in NI.

    ReplyDelete

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