Nicholas Kennedy’s article (The Tablet, 17 May) about the handing over of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic school in Blackburn to the pastoral care of the Church of England in the Diocese of Blackburn, because of a majority Muslim presence, is a wake up call to us all.
Catholic Church attendance in Blackburn is in decline. Even in schools where the majority is Catholic the faith is not being effectively passed on to our young people. But more significantly it has not been handed on to their parents either, who belong to a growing section of the Church who have been baptised but not evangelised. The Church of England fares no better.
The purpose of Church schools and evangelisation in a rapidly changing and cosmopolitan society is an important question, to which there are no easy answers. But for the two major faiths, Christianity and Islam in a town like Blackburn, not to be involved in education together is a lack of vision which will eventually cost us all dearly.
Fr John Hanvey, Blackburn, Lancashire
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