A Legacy that Lasts
The Sunday School Society of Ireland’s Enduring Impact
During the summer, on a sunny day in Rathmines, a group of us met to honour the Sunday School Society of Ireland’s final meeting.
We, the Board for Ministry with Children and Families, exist because of the amazing legacy of their work. It was not a fancy meeting – no fireworks, no grand speeches – just a quiet gathering with cake, but each person there understood the magnitude of the impact the Society has had on children and families across the Church of Ireland over many decades, for which there was immense gratitude.
The first recorded Sunday School in the Church of Ireland was attached to the parish of Bright in Co.Down, started by Rev. Dr Kennedy, who was incumbent at the time. Apparently, he was “pained” to see children on Sundays playing sports and “profaning the Sabbath”, and so he gathered as many as he could before the services and taught them to sing some of the Psalms and then added in Bible lessons later. In 1786 he heard about the Sunday School movement in England started by Robert Raikes and so the Sunday School in Bright was inaugurated into this same system. By 1860, the number of Sunday Schools across the Church of Ireland had grown to 2686, reaching 230,668 children!
Last year, along with CIYD, we celebrated 250 years of Children’s and Youth ministry in the Church of Ireland, and in preparation for the service of celebration I had the chance to read many accounts of the early Sunday Schools.
What started out as a quest for photos to use in the service sheet led swiftly into a captivating journey into the dedication, devotion and determination of ordinary people with a passion to share God’s love with the next generation.
Numerous Sunday School reports have been gathered and stored with great care by the wonderful Church of Ireland Library staff, and I must admit I lost several hours absorbed reading them.
There was so much I gleaned from the historical documents, but one thing I found particularly fascinating was that these reports, which come from right across the Church of Ireland, spoke of teachers who were passionate about sharing the love of God and the beauty and power of the scriptures, with the whole family.
They sought not only to teach the children but to meet the needs of their local communities too. The open door of connection created by the Sunday School allowed for this valuable sharing of faith not just in the classroom but also in the home.
In a booklet produced to guide those looking to start a Sunday School (Hints for conducting Sunday schools, also useful for day schools, 1811) teachers were instructed to prepare thoroughly for their lessons and to “seek God in prayer so that their own understanding may be enriched.” More than this, they were encouraged to nurture good relationships with the child and their family through home visits.
In one report from the Sunday School in Youghall, the secretary spoke about how, if a child was missing on Sunday, the leaders would call up to the family house to see if all was well. It is a challenge indeed for our churches today to endeavour to show the same sense of Christian community with families who haven’t attended in a while.
Another humbling challenge that sprang from the pages of the reports was the sacrifices made by teachers who in some cases were just as poor as the children they were reaching out to. Accounts of parishes who didn’t have rooms to use instead clearing out the cowshed each Saturday night ready to welcome the children on a Sunday. Another Sunday School was held in the chicken shed when the numbers of children attending became too big for the teacher’s house.
“…pitying the little ones who came who came without shoes or stockings in the frost and snow, he used to desire them to pull the hay until it reached their knees and so to keep themselves warm.” (taken from a report in “To school without shoes” by H.Clayton).
Never again will I accept the excuse that “we can’t do ministry with children because we don’t have a church hall!” 😉
There is so much that we owe to those dedicated teachers whose time, prayers and passion for sharing God’s love with children and families paved the way for so much of the ministry that happens across the Church of Ireland today.
And so it is with an immensely grateful heart that we, as a Board, say thank you to all who, over the generations, have served faithfully in their parishes, and we continue to pray for all of you who today continue that legacy into future generations. Remember that what you do DOES have an impact; your care, your time, your prayers, and your joy reach into the lives of families in ways you may never know.