A Christian was asked to step down from his role on a school governing body after leading an Easter assembly where parents subsequently complained about the Christian content of what was said.
Nigel Hoad had previously spoken at the new non-faith school’s Christmas Fayre. The invitation from the school to speak at the Easter assembly was warmly received. He had been asked to speak about the real meaning of Easter, not about Easter bunnies or chocolate eggs, to children aged 4 to 7. Around 50 parents also attended the assembly.
Opening the eggs
Using a visual aid of some openable plastic eggs with the appropriate symbols, he spent five minutes retelling the Easter story and then the next five minutes answering the questions ‘Why should a good man die?’ and ‘Why should he come to life again?’
The children seemed to be thoroughly engaged throughout, singing some secular but also some Bible-based songs.
But, later that morning, Nigel found out that some parents had spoken to the Principal during the break in the assembly and would continue to speak to her during the morning, and began a very heated expression of anger at what had been said. They didn’t like that there had a been a Christian talk; didn’t like that crucifixion and sin had been spoken about; and disliked that Jesus had died and risen to set people free from sin’s consequences.
The parents had apparently expressed anger about the talk on the school Facebook page. Nigel had been involved in a few conversations about the appropriateness of talking about Christ’s death with such young children. Some expressed gratitude that he had explained what Easter is about. Nigel said: ‘The conversations did cause me to think through what I had said and the words used for the age range of the children present… but there was no visual evidence that the children were concerned or frightened.’ Nigel said he was ‘happy to apologise if I had used too graphic language’.
Stepping down the only way
A few weeks after the Easter holiday, he met with the Principal and Deputy CEO and it was clear that the parent’s response had not died down. The idea of stepping down as a governor was seen as the only way to appease the parents and so allow the school to move on.
Nigel wasn’t given the opportunity to meet with the parents, but is unsure if this would have helped. He sees the response as being a spiritual issue, not about his use of language. He felt it was of little benefit to protest the decision and decided to ‘leave this in the Lord’s sovereign hands’.
Nigel believes that the school should have included in their publicity that there would be a Christian talk. He said: ‘Being involved as Christians in schools is a brilliant gospel opportunity and should be taken, but in these days we must remain faithful to God and his Word, and there will be a cost to pay.’
