After a private meeting last month, Archbishop Peter Jensen says Premier Kristina Keneally has assured him there will be a full independent assessment of the trial of ethics classes in NSW schools.
A secular group, the St James Ethics Centre, has been allowed to conduct classes in 10 primary schools across the state, although the syllabus has not been made public.
Two heavyweights of Labor's socialist left faction "” NSW education minister Verity Firth and former premier Nathan Rees "” overruled existing guidelines to allow the trial in term two of this year. The Left has long championed secularist policies.
Dr Jensen met Premier Keneally "” a Roman Catholic and member of Labor's Right faction "” early last month to express his concerns.
"She has promised the trial will be fully evaluated and that we and other SRE providers will have the opportunity to discuss important matters of principle," he says.
Roman Catholic educators have indicated they have received similar promises from the Labor Government.
Catholic spokesman Robert Haddad, the Director of the Archdiocese of Sydney's Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, met with ministerial officials and discussed, among other things, the concern that class numbers in SRE courses will drop as a result of the ethics classes.
"The way ethics courses are being presented makes them sound new, sophisticated and exciting, but what they are in fact offering is already being taught as part of the school's general syllabus," Mr Haddad says.
Since his meeting with the Premier, Dr Jensen says he has received "disturbing reports about how the trial is being implemented. There seems to be a shifting agenda and faith leaders are rightly worried about the whole idea".
The Archbishop says Christians concerned about the future of SRE should contact local MPs to make sure their concerns are heard.
In his SC column, Archbishop Jensen lists 10 reasons Christians should oppose the introduction of ethics classes in SRE time.
He lists a number of objections, including the recent revelation that although the trial was supposed to be only for children in non-SRE classes, it is now being offered to all.
In what appears to be misleading promotion it is described as a "complement' to SRE.
Dr Jensen says this is dangerous because, as the centre is committed to secularism, ethics will be taught without any reference to God.
"That this is being offered as an alternative to children already in Christian SRE classes is well outside the definition of the trial. It is like [giving Christians] a place for their child in Islamic scripture."
