The Anglican Education Commission (AEC) has launched a new initiative, known as the Agora, which it hopes will help teachers, whether Christian or non-Christian, to relate faith to education in a constructive and authentic way.

The first of the Agora events, held at The Illawarra Grammar School (TIGS) on the 14th of March, brought Christian teachers and others with an interest in education face to face, to discuss issues such as culture making and mentoring new teachers.

However, the Agora, derived from the ancient Greek concept of forums, will not be limited to fae to face discussion. Instead, a large part of its operation will take place online, as a kind of “Facebook of Anglican education”, according to Dr Bryan Cowling, head of the AEC.

“We’ve had some young blokes come in and create this online space in such a way that it’ll be cutting edge sort of stuff for a few years. It’ll have a forum capacity, but we’ll also be able to publish the provocative stuff that people will be able to discuss and engage around.”

Dr Cowling also says it will be a way for teachers, particularly younger ones, to get to grips with the new Australian curriculum, and the ideas that underpin it.

“Rather than just publishing booklets or whatever, and circulating that, we’ll use this website to attract the debate,” he says.

While the website component was yet to go live at the Agora event at TIGS, Dr Cowling says that it will launched within a few weeks, with minor tweaks based on feedback from the event.

The Agora live meetings will continue on a monthly basis, with Christians from all denominations and non-Christians in education invited to be involved.