In spite of this exclusionist policy, non-Christians opted
jointly to study Religious Knowledge (the Gospels and the
Acts of the Apostles) with Christians for two reasons.
First, it offered them an "extra" subject for the school
leaving certificate (16 + ) . The Cambridge Overseas
Syndicate Examination (16+) set the paper, and Christians,
Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Parsees successfully took
the Religious Knowledge examination in 1955. Second,
Religious Knowledge was taught by qualified teachers who
had a specific responsibility for this syllabus. These
teachers were members of Religious Orders. These Roman
Catholic orders were the Society of Jesus and the Daughters
of the Cross. Occasionally, a lay teacher also taught
Religious Knowledge.
Ethics or "Morals" as it was known, was taught to non
Christians by any teacher who was available on the
timetable. During the study of the Religious Knowledge
syllabus, an opportunity was created by the students
themselves for a dialogue and reflection not only on
Christianity but on aspects of Hinduism, Islam, Judaism,
Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.
The classroom discussions reflected a pluralistic society.
The merits of different religions were freely debated - no
religion had a monopoly of the truth. Such an assertion
would have marginalised the other religions and created an
atmosphere of mistrust. The students had a mutual respect
for one another.
There was no hidden agenda, which pressurised non
Christians to change their religion. The dialogue between
Christians and non Christians was meaningful, far-reaching
and significant. As this was the researcher's personal
experience which could be criticised as lacking
objectivity, she wished to test this during the field
research.
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