From the associate minister... 

Dear friends,
The Easter holidays in school mark the end of the spring term and start of the summer term. In secondary school teachers have got to the end of teaching the GCSE and ‘A’ level syllabi, with the last few weeks focused on revision before the exam season starts. As a former RS teacher, potential exam questions floated round my head. The celebration of Easter would usually appear somewhere on a question paper.

How would you do on these past questions?

• Explain two religious reasons why Christians celebrate Easter. Refer to sacred writings or another source of Christian belief and teaching in your answer. [5 marks]
• ‘Easter is the most important Christian celebration.’ Evaluate this statement.
  • In your answer you should:
  • refer to Christian teaching
  • give reasoned arguments to support this statement 
  • give reasoned arguments to support a different point of view 
  • reach a justified conclusion. [12 marks]

The BBC’s Bitesize revision resource says that ‘Easter is the most important celebration for Christians as it celebrates Jesus’ victory over death.’ – Amen to that!

Last summer 245,019 sixteen-year-olds took GCSE RS across the UK, with almost 73% achieving a grade 4/C or above. That gives me joy and hope for our young people and our country because although numbers of children in Sunday Schools nationally are dwindling, God always makes a way for people to hear and respond to the Gospel. In this current generation of young people, GCSE RS provides them with a strong theological foundation, a building block for God to work wonders in their lives.

The Easter message is being proclaimed loud and clear in schools. We have our part to play too in seeing God move in the lives of this generation. Pray for that Easter message to germinate in the hearts of young people. Pray that they may come to faith, be welcomed in our church family, and nurtured and encouraged by all of us who have known the reality of the Easter message for many years. God is at work, let’s join in with what he is doing. 

I’m happy to mark homework, if you choose to have a go at the exam questions!

God bless, Kathryn