Spiritual Development in Schools

Alan Brown, the Director of the National Society’s London RE Centre (Church 0f England) and a Deputy Director of the Society, approached us in 1995. He wanted to use an extract from Jane’s diary to preface his new book Spiritual Development in Schools.

We knew Alan through my work in Religious Education: I had led guided meditation courses for teachers on behalf of the Society and had shared my MA research into adolescent spirituality (Distinction, Surrey University, 1993) with a group of 200 Anglican RE Inspectors. The conference had been jointly planned with Alison Seaman, a fellow MA graduate, and was well-received. I remember seasoned inspectors sharing how certain films they had seen throughout their lives had strengthened and informed their spirituality. I think it was Alison who had shown Alan the diary extract.

We agreed at once. The book was published by the National Society in 1996.

The slim volume is a still useful guide for teachers covering all aspects of spirituality as it might be found or emerge in a school setting, in the curriculum and in personal experience. Being a Church of England publication, the book gives both the Anglican and the Catholic views on spirituality but situates this within a much broader spectrum, far-seeing for its time. What is interesting is the view that spirituality needs to be acknowledged as a whole school matter, not compartmentalised within religious education lessons.

I sense that Jane’s extract fitted well into that concept, combining as it does, in its heartfelt, authentic manner, a natural spirituality with the distinctly religious. It was heartening to find Jane’s writing keeping company with extracts from Brian Keenan (An Evil Cradling) and respected spiritual theorists John Hull (Touching the Rock) and Edward Robinson (The Original Vision).

Alan Brown and Joan Furlong, Spiritual Development in Schools  (London: The National Society [C of E], 1996)