The Athabasca United Church is taking issue with how religious education is being done at Aspen View Public Schools, where they are excluded in part due to a historical split with other Athabascan churches.
Aspen View Public Schools offers religious education in Grades K-6 within Athabasca, according to superintendent Neil O’Shea.
That education, offered in Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations, is run by the Athabasca Ministerial Association, whose members teach programming within Whispering Hills Primary School and Landing Trail Intermediate School.
But United Church Rev. Monica Rosborough questions whether such education should be in the public school system and said she also takes issue with a Protestant perspective being taught that excludes the interpretation of the United Church denomination.
“If this is Protestant education, one would think that they would explore education that includes the Protestant opinions of a variety of folks and not just one small group,” Rosborough said in an interview.
O’Shea said in program studies at the K-9 level, there is an allowance for optional courses or complementary studies, which can include religious education. Tradition and interest have maintained religious education in Aspen View, O’Shea said.
“Part of it is it’s always been done that way. I think the courses, there are still plenty of interest in them because kids are attending them,” O’Shea said. “Parents are still enrolling their kids.”
Parents in Athabasca have the option to have their kids taught in Roman Catholic, Protestant or neither, O’Shea said. In the latter case, students would be given alternative instruction in another subject or an extra library block, varying by teacher, he added.
He also said the instruction is only available in Athabasca because the interest has not been there to start it elsewhere in the division.
O’Shea said he has tried to open up a dialogue with the United Church to understand the issues in religious education better.
“My goal would be to understand the issues better and by doing that, I would need to hear feedback from lots of people. My goal would be to learn more about what’s going on with our religious ed program,” he said.
Historical divide
The Athabasca United Church is not part of the Athabasca Ministerial Association, made up of the Athabasca Reformed Congregation, Living Water Anglican Fellowship, the Athabasca Missionary Church and the Anglican Church of Athabasca.
Being outside the Athabasca Ministerial Association has kept the Athabasca United Church outside when it comes to religious education at Aspen View, Rosborough said.
The split dates back to 1991, three years after the 1988 United Church of Canada decision to allow for gay ministers.
“At that point it caused a lot of turmoil in the United Church across Canada,” Rosborough said.
In 1991, the Athabasca Reformed Congregation was formed after a group split from the United Church, according to the congregation’s website. Approximately three-fourths of the United Church membership followed to join the congregation, the website said.
Although other churches have since been able to come together in the Athabasca Ministerial Association, the United Church has remained outside it. Rosborough said she tried to approach the Ministerial Association in 2013 when she became reverend to see about joining.
“The United Church attempted to join the ministerial so that we could be a part of this again. As you can tell, that did not go well,” Rosborough said.
Rosborough said she was told at that point she would have to agree to the five tenets of Christian fundamentalism. Rosborough said the fundamentalist statement, including the infallibility of Biblical scripture, was not something United Church could agree to.
“One of the things that they believe is the Bible is infallible and that they take the Bible literally, which means that they believe the Earth was created in six days and is only 6,000 years old,” Rosborough said, adding she believes other creation stories of other faiths need to be shared. “Our official statement on scripture is that it is a signpost for our journey.”
However, Athabasca Reformed Congregation Pastor Al Plat said there are two requirements to join the ministerial association: a police check and signing onto a statement of faith that does not include fundamentalist tenets.
“It’s ‘salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.’ That’s what unites the four or five churches in the Ministerial Association,” Plat said, adding any church or pastor who agrees to the statement of faith is welcome to join the association.
Plat said the history of the split between the United Church and the Ministerial Association is before his time, but Rosborough has not approached the ministerial association wanting to sign the statement during his tenure.
“I don’t want to make a judgment. I’m here to love people,” he said.
Rosborough said that salvation statement was not indicated to her as the requirement when she explored joining in 2013, and nobody has since reached out to her about the requirement.
But she added many ministerial associations and interfaith organizations are open to anyone who is on a faith journey. Requiring people to sign onto a statement of faith to join is a problematic hoop in general, Rosborough said.
“Most ministerials don’t expect that.”
Plat said Rosborough has not approached the ministerial about joining during his time in Athabasca and her frustrations stem from before his his time here.
Education going forward
Plat said the religious education runs from October to April for a half hour each week, with Athabasca Ministerial Association leaders and members taking students from Grades 1-6 through the stories of the Bible.
“We’re going to talk about creation and then original sin, and in the Garden of Eden,” Plat said, adding the lessons then move to Noah to Abraham to Exodus to the birth of Jesus, followed by miracles.
A course outline is provided to school principals for approval, O’Shea said. A certified teacher is also in the room when the religious education goes on.
The required course outline is quite detailed, Plat said. He added if a fundamentalist religious instructor did start “spewing hatred,” a teacher would step in.
“The teacher would say, ‘you can’t teach that here,’” Plat said.
That would include anything oppositional to homosexuality, Plat added.
“I know there’s been a fear in the past that we’re going to preach anti-homosexual,” Plat said “That is isn’t the case, and it couldn’t be.”
Plat further said the discussion on religion and homosexuality is for families to have.
“The school doesn’t give them Jesus, and that’s what we’re supposed to give them,” Plat said. “If you know anything about Christ, a hate mandate is not really what he’s about.”
O’Shea said in his four years in the division as an assistant superintendent, there had not been any cases where the division had to intervene in religious education. But the division reviews course material regularly, he added.
“We’re in a constant state of relooking, renewing, reviewing and we would treat all of our programs that way,” O’Shea said.
Questioning its place
Rosborough said Aspen View should carefully consider how religious education is working in its school system.
“How do we have a respectful conversation about a difficult topic? How do we make sure that religious education — if that is what the majority of parents want — is done in a way that’s promoting tolerance and respect for everyone and not promoting one opinion or one style of Protestantism over another?” Rosborough said.
Aspen View board chair Dennis MacNeil said Aspen View’s religious program aims to accommodate everyone and welcome any religious group that wants to use that designated instructional time.
“This is the best fit possible in that is is truly inclusive of any religious denomination that wants to step up and teach to that particular group of children,” MacNeil said.
He added he does not personally think religious beliefs should be taught in schools, but it accommodates the wishes of parents.
“It’s up to parents to teach kids their religious beliefs and pass them on. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the school to do that,” MacNeil said. “We do it in the case of Landing Trail and in Athabasca provide that time because it accommodates everybody ... There shouldn’t be anything offered in schools that excludes one group of people over another.”
Rosborough said ultimately, she does not think religious education belongs in the public school system.
“I’m not interested in being involved in religious education in Aspen View schools, because I do not think it is at all appropriate. I think they should be done by churches on church programs,” Rosborough said, adding the instructional time would be better spent on programs dealing with issues like bullying and tolerance.
“The faith questions should be taught in faith communities.”
