Sunday Schools

It’s not easy to find out how and when Sunday Schools as we know them began. What is clear, though, is that as long ago as the mid 1700s, British innovators began to teach poor working children to read and write on their only free day, Sunday. “Robert Raikes (1735-1811) is traditionally credited as pioneering Sunday Schools … 'in fact teaching Bible reading and basic skills on a Sunday was an established activity in a number of eighteenth century Puritan and evangelical congregations'. … The idea of the Sunday School caught the imagination of a number involved in evangelical churches and groupings.” (http://www.infed.org/walking/wa-raikes.htm)

Here are some random examples from a quick internet search:

“There are places of worship in the parish for Baptists, independents, the primitive, Wesleyan, and new connexion of methodists, and the Roman Catholics - all of which have Sunday schools attached. There are, besides, a national school, and a free grammar school for a limited number of boys. [From: Pigot & Co's 1841 Directory of Staffordshire]” (http://www.thepotteries.org/church/history_burslem.htm)

“In the late nineteenth century when the Rector started to take up residence, a Sunday school was begun.” (From a history of St. .Mary’s Church, Hardwick, at http://www.hardwick-cambs.org.uk/church/history.htm)

“The first Pastor of the Chapel was the Rev. Joseph Walker, who was appointed in 1797. In 1798 he drew up rules and articles for the conduct of the Chapel and its members. In the same year Rev. Walker founded a Sunday School.” (From a history of Peppard Congregational Church, Henley-on-Thames, at http://www.alan.thomas30.btinternet.co.uk/Church_History/church_history.html)

“In 1808 the first church was built on that site and served a thriving cause until 1870. Part of the work of this fellowship was concerned with running a large and flourishing Sunday School. In those far off days it was customary for the Sunday School to organise classes in reading on other days of the week too and so it was that the church extended their grounds westward by buying a bit of land from Messrs. T. & E. Ricketts. In 1858 a schoolroom to be used for both Sunday School and day school was built.” (From a history of Eastington Methodist Church at http://www.pikelock.co.uk/emchurch/history.html)

“Mr. John Thompson started a Sunday school in his own house, in the High Street, Wetherby on Sunday 23rd August 1833 … at a later date the Sunday school was held on the Church premises … at one time as many as 230 children regularly attended the Sunday School. The Sunday school met at 9:30am and again at 2:00pm every Sunday. The morning session was usually in the form of a bible study, and then the children would proceed into Chapel for the morning service. After many years, they were permitted to leave just before the sermon.” (From a history of Wetherby Methodist Church at http://www.wetherbymethodist.org.uk/history/index.html.)

That last quotation is telling, as it shows how, over time, Sunday school evolved from rudimentary education of children to a way for churches to teach children (and adults) about the Bible and denominational beliefs through standardised lessons.

Perhaps this is speculation but …

What if, by creating separate classes for children at the same time as adult worship, the churches (unknowingly) began to create a culture that expected adults and children to be separated?

What if the creation of Sunday Schools led to children no longer being welcomed or accommodated in ‘adult’ church?

What if, as a result of the children no longer being present, adult worship evolved into something
much more cerebral and ‘wordy’ than it had been?

What if we adults have become so ‘comfortable’ with a form of worship that excludes children that we can’t imagine them worshipping with us, or us worshipping with them?

What if we all scrapped our Sunday Schools and learned to worship together?