And Linnae – I’m sure that Roy will be able to give you a much fuller response (in his own unique and eloquent way) when he returns from his UK trip, and also some of the answers to your questions are probably on the Prayer Spaces in Schools website… but here’s a few thoughts from me;

Q1. What do you do if something critical comes up? What do you do with the information?
This is a really important question, and one that I could spend a long time on (happy to do so via email, if that would help Linnea?), but a summary would be – we encourage those running Prayer Spaces in Schools to work very closely with the pastoral structures and the designated ‘child protection’ staff in the school, so that *if* something is disclosed by one of the children/young people about abuse or any criminal activity, then it can be followed up. There have only been a couple of examples of this so far, as far as I am aware.

Q2. How do you address it with a variety of faiths?
Very easily, so far at least. The education system in Britain requires schools to provide opportunities for students to “learn from religion”. It also has a whole set of guidelines about social, moral, spiritual and cultural learning. Prayer Spaces in Schools fits right in with all this stuff.
We encourage local Christians (teachers, Chrstian organisations, students, church members) to host Prayer Spaces with integrity, i.e. they are not ‘multi-faith’ spaces, in the sense that they don’t equally offer an experience of prayer from various religious perspectives, but they are also not, in any way, exclusive. Prayer Spaces should be welcoming and hospitable to those of faith and no faith… which I think is very true to the way of Jesus, who welcomes all to come as we are. Most of the prayer zones that local people use/create aren’t explicitly ‘Christian’ (‘be sorry’, ‘be still’, ‘be yourself’, ‘big questions’, etc.) but they are deeply rooted in the way of Jesus, and in orthodox Christian faith. I honestly think that Christians are uniquely positioned to offer this kind of welcome… and I wonder if we’re commanded by Jesus to do so too?

Q3. What are the costs in time, money, space?
All of that depends entirely on what the local school and the local Christians decide to do together. We’ve heard about Prayer Spaces lasting just one day, and one that lasted for three weeks. Most Prayer Spaces take place in a classroom (which requires some timetable juggling), but others have taken place in hall-spaces, lobby-areas in corridors, outdoors, in buildings next-door to the school so students can come visit for their lesson-times.
And as for the cost, again, it’s as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it. If the local church offers the time of this team ‘for free’ (which i would encourage them to do), then it’s a lot cheaper than paying for a team. Most of the Prayer Spaces i’ve been involved in have spent a bit of cash on post-it notes and Christmas lights and other bits and bobs. Sometimes the school offers to pay for this, sometimes the local church does.

I hope that helps a little bit Linnea.

And I hope that your friend at Williams School can imagine it working, and gives it a go. I’m absolutely sure that the students will have an amazing experience. Probably the staff will too.

Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.

Phil.x

Lastly, what are the costs in time? Money? space? teacher time and training?

Roy,
I passed this on to the chaplain at William’s school (St. Anne’s Episcopal PK-8), and he was interested and impressed. I’d like to hear more about it when you hear more.
Linnae