Multi Faith Day Celebrated At Dickleburgh Primary Academy

June 30, 2022

Children in Reception and Year 6 at Dickleburgh Church of England Primary Academy, part of St Benet’s Multi Academy Trust, were privileged to be part of a multi-faith event hosted by All Saints Church, Dickleburgh.

The brainchild of local conservation scientist, Ben Grief, the day entitled ‘Faith in Nature’ brought together local representatives of different faiths to explore how faith and nature can work hand in hand and how local churchyards can be amazing conservation spaces.

As part of the children’s Religious Education learning in the curriculum, pupils in Reception spent the morning exploring ideas linked with creation and finding out about what different faiths teach about how to ‘Care for God’s Wonderful World’.

Year 6 came to join them for a lovely picnic lunch in the church grounds and then spent the afternoon finding out about whether science and religion can be conflicting or complementary. Their afternoon ended with them being asked to consider all the things they had heard and experienced and to vote on whether indeed they thought faith and nature can and should work together.

Moira Croskell, Executive Headteacher, said: “This was such a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn first-hand from representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Ba’Hai faiths, as well as engaging with activities run by the Christian conservation charity A Rocha UK and enjoying a scything demonstration from a gentleman from the Quaker faith.”

Mr Grief also gave a short demonstration from a scientist’s point of view and provided activities within the churchyard for the pupils to investigate how valuable churchyards are for nature and conservation.

Mrs Pippa Delaine, Assistant Headteacher, said: “We are very grateful to Revd Sarah Walsh and the Dickleburgh Church community for hosting this event and to Ben for inviting us to be part of such a valuable and unique experience. The visions for the day, shared by Ben and school, were to enable the children to consider the question “Do all religions have the same underlying threads of respect for nature, the environment and life?”, and to come to their own opinions on whether faith and science could work together to a common goal by investigating the way many faiths share the common belief that faith teaches us to care for our world and science gives us the knowhow to do it. We would like to extend our huge thanks to the faith representatives who worked with us during this day and made it such a memorable and positive experience.”



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