They’re closing down the hangouts
The air is turning cool
They’re shutting down the super slide
The kids are back in school.

The tourist traps are empty
Vacancy abounds
Almost like it used to be
Before the circus came to town.
– Jimmy Buffet (When the Coast is Clear, 1986)

Parents across Victoria are getting ready for “back to school”, but for a small but dedicated group of religious activists who see our schools as “mission fields”, this means it is back to work.  This group, enjoys amazing “access” to our children, and operates a state funded ParaChurch Ministry called “ACCESS Ministry” because it has amazing access to your children!  The situation is so unbelievable, most parents don’t believe that there are church run ministry groups operating INSIDE their primary school, and that these groups want to evangelise and indoctrinate children.

FIRIS believes that families are able to attend to the religious formation of their children – and that the only people served by the SRI policy are groups seeking access to children. We also think parents are not given the full story about this.

FIRIS has found that this confusion stems from the way parents are enrolled in SRI (via the school signup form and misleading information designed to promote SRI as part of the expected activity of the curriculum) and that most parents are confused about what SRI is, who is running it and why!

In order to help people understand what Special Religious Instruction (and so called “Christian Religious Education”) is and is not – FIRIS is running the above ad in the “Back to School” edition of “Melbourne’s Child” – the ad is soul-ly the work of our parent grassroots team – and paid for by the support of our many parent supporters.  Thank you!

Welcome back to school – we are sorry that the situation FIRIS set out to remedy (the use of our schools for religious indoctrination) is ongoing – but we remain determined to change this policy – with your help!

****If you would like to explore the option of putting this advertisement in your own school newsletter, please email us at religionsinschool@gmail.com***