Maybe There Won't Always Be An England, Part 7

St Peter's Church of England Primary School is in Chorley, a Lancashire town northwest of Manchester. As the name indicates, the school is affiliated with the Church of England (St Peter's in the same town). The school's website boasts:

We aim to nurture children within a Christian context so that they may develop into caring and responsible adults who understand their role in an ever changing world.

Apparently, the world's changing faster than ever, as evidenced in last week's Daily Mail:

A school told a child to remove a Christian cross she was wearing even though it lets Sikh children wear bangles as part of their religion.

Lauren Grimshaw-Brown was told to take off a necklace with a cross on it because of health and safety fears.

But the eight-year-old's furious mother has accused the school of double standards because they allow children following other faiths to wear jewellery on religious grounds.

The mother-of-two says Lauren and brother Callan, five, have always worn crosses at St Peter's CE School in Chorley, Lancashire.

"We're a Christian family and my children wear the necklaces underneath their tops," she said.

"On Thursday Lauren was told by a teacher to take it off because apparently they're not allowed to wear jewellery.

"I could understand it if it was a fashion accessory or a High School Musical necklace, but it's part of our faith."

Mrs Grimshaw-Brown complained directly to the headteacher, Helen Wright, who referred the matter to the school's chairman of governors, Father Atherton. He upheld the ban.

Mrs Grimshaw-Brown added: "I received a letter in my child's reading folder. It said that if she had been a Sikh child she would be allowed to wear bangles because it's part of their religion."

The school's "prospectus" states "Jewellery is not permitted unless it has religious significance."

The C of E's leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has long seemed neither religious nor British. Indeed, he was initiated as a druid in 2002. No wonder a C of E school headmaster and chairman can't recognize a cross as religious.

(via Don Surber)