There is growing concern among Christians across Australia that a push by a minority group of people in Victoria to have Religious Education classes axed from public school curricula is gaining momentum.
"The world view presented by those who want religion out of state schools fails to recognise the desires of large numbers of parents who validly desire their children receive religious instruction classes during their time at school," says Jude Hennessy, a representative for Bishop Peter Ingham of Wollongong.
Bishop Ingham is spokesperson on Religious Education and Ethics classes for the Bishops of NSW.
Both Bishop Ingham and Mr Hennessey were at the forefront of last year's fight against the NSW Labor Government's plan to introduce ethics classes as an alternative to the 100-year-old system of weekly 30 minute classes in Special Religious Education (SRE) which were offered as optional to students, but regarded by many parents as extremely important.
Traditionally SRE classes are conducted by volunteers from different religions. These volunteers who teach the doctrine of their religion are generally from Christian denominations such as Catholics. But SRE classes are not limited to Christians and can - and do - include volunteers teachers from the Islam, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist faiths.
Bishop Ingham and Mr Hennessey, who is also Director of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) for the Diocese of Wollongong, pointed out at the time that Government schools already teach ethics and values in various subjects. They said it was surprising the Teachers' Federation did not object to the trial of ethics classes, as it would infer that Government schools are ethical vacuums.
Now there has been a new push by various small interest groups to have such classes axed in favor of a completely secular school system so that any religion is taught as an academic subject and taught across the board as "world religions" rather than focusing on one faith, or on the doctrine of that faith.
An organisation calling itself the Religions, Ethics and Education Network of Australia (REENA) is one of the main groups lobbying to have Religious Education classes removed from the Federal Government's planned national curriculum to be implemented at public primary and secondary schools across Australia within the next few years.
Among those at the forefront of REENA is Melbourne academic from Monash University, Anna Halafoff and NSW Ph.D scholar at Macquarie University, Cathy Byrne who according to the University website, is studying "what young children are learning about religion in public schools and how SRE influences the construction of their own religious identity and attitudes to religious diversity."
Interestingly, Cathy Byrne is also a member of the St James Ethics Centre which created the ethics classes introduced as alternative to SRE classes at NSW public primary schools this year.
"It would appear once again, that some elements in the media and amongst the secular atheist- humanist brigade are eager to have everyone accept that the words "secular" and "atheistic" mean the same thing. They do not," Mr Hennessy points out.
He believes this latest move against SRE classes is a follow-on from last year's battle over ethics classes and their introduction into public schools and warns that similar "lopsided reporting of the issue in main stream media" will occur again.
He also warns parents' wishes in the matter are not only likely to be misreported and yet again ignored by the NSW and other state governments.
"It was quite amazing how the debate last year surrounding ethics classes in NSW moved so rapidly to a question about the validity of the place of Religious instruction being conducted at all in government schools," he says and adds that despite the slanted coverage by the mainstream media, only five percent of schools in NSW have so far "looked to implement ethics classes, while the numbers of students doing SRE has essentially remained unchanged."
Mr Hennessy says this is because parents have obviously realised SRE teachers from various faith traditions are extremely skilled not only in providing young people with faith formation, but also at providing a framework for making sensible ethical choices.
"This despite all the hype within elements of the mainstream media that seemed to go out of their way to denigrate the place of faith in education in government schools and ignored the wonderful contribution that Religious Education makes to the common good," he says.
Under the NSW Education Act, the century-old tradition of SRE classes is seen by many parents as an important part of their child's schooling. The Archdiocese of Sydney currently has more than 1976 volunteer catechists, each of whom give weekly classes to children at public schools across the city.