RE Northern Ireland

Among a number of infamous comments that Belfast-based Pastor, James McConnell, made about Muslims in a sermon at his Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle last month, was the statement: 'People say there may be some good Muslims in Britain - that may be so - but I don't trust them!' Subsequently, the Pastor was given support by the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson, who said he wouldn't trust Muslims who fully supported Sharia law; neither would he trust them for spiritual guidance, but he would 'trust them to go down to the shops' for him. Following wide-spread condemnation of his comments as inflammatory and irresponsible, the First Minister has apologised to local Muslim representatives, but across social media a good deal of others have sprung to the defence of Peter Robinson and Pastor McConnell trumpeting their right of free speech and the right of individuals to make religious truth-claims in public fora. Certainly, there is a need to main...

Stranmillis University College was delighted to play host to teachers and student teachers over two days for training in the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) Face to Faith programme. Student teachers from all teacher education providers of RE were present for the student teacher event: St Mary's University College, University of Ulster, Queen's University Belfast and Stranmillis University College.  This in itself was a tremendous opportunity for students to meet and network with other RE specialists as well as a chance to feel part of the wider Religious Education community in Northern Ireland.  The TBFF trainers, Helen Harrison and Jo Malone, illustrated the work of the Face to Faith programme and gave participants the chance to engage in inter-faith dialogue techniques and to see the potential of video-conferencing in the RE classroom. From left: Marian Curran (St Mary's University College),  Victoria Harrison (Saintfield HS), Nathan McCon...

Teachers from eight schools across Northern Ireland had the rare opportunity to chat with Tony Blair during a video conference at Stranmillis University College. The teachers were participating in a one-day training event for the ‘Face to Faith’ programme run by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) which aims to facilitate inter-faith dialogue through video conferencing and online collaboration. During the session Mr Blair told the teachers: ‘Young people have an enormous appetite to learn about others who are different from them’ and he emphasised the positive value of enabling pupils to dialogue about faith issues and beliefs. Jo Malone, UK Coordinator of TBFF, introduced teachers to the basics of video-conferencing as well as the learning materials and cooperative learning techniques at the heart of the programme. During the day there were also international contributions from experienced inter-faith facilitators in India and Lebanon who stressed the benefits of Face to Faith ...