Christian Institute founder John Burns dies
Nicola Laver, Christian Institute
Christian Institute (CI) founder John Burn has died aged 86 following a long illness. His death on 25 October comes eight months after the sudden death of CI director Colin Hart in March.
Originally a science teacher, John’s work in improving standards in schools brought him an OBE for services to education. While a lay reader in the Diocese of Newcastle at Jesmond Parish Church, John was invited to be a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas.
Paraguay sex ed curriculum welcomed
Iain Taylor
Evangelicals and other Christians are expressing strong support for Paraguay’s first national sex education curriculum, to be rolled out in 2025.
The initiative is a response to the crisis by which the country has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America, surpassed only by Venezuela. Paraguayan government figures show that, in 2023, 10,697 adolescents aged 15–19, and 405 girls aged 10–14 gave birth in the country, which has a population of under 7 million.
The case of JR87: Faith in education?
The role and place of religion in the education system in Northern Ireland is currently under scrutiny in light of a case currently being considered by the UK Supreme Court – the case of JR87.
The case centres on a child who attended a primary school in Northern Ireland with a Christian ethos. When the child in question started repeating a prayer at home before eating, one that she had learnt at school, and began asking questions about God and religion, her parents voiced their concerns to the school, namely that the education that their daughter was receiving did not conform with their own religious or philosophical convictions.