SACRE Meeting in Lewes

On Monday I went to Lewes for the East Sussex SACRE Meeting at County Hall. I was there as a Humanist observer. Any member of the public who has a sufficiently high threshhold of boredom can attend as an observer! I've made a formal request to be appointed as a Humanist Representative on Group A of the SACRE. This will now be considered at the next SACRE meeting in February, it may require revising the constitution.

Unlike the meeting last February in Uckfield this meeting was well attended, with 16 people in all round the table, although the Council personnel running it have now changed. A draft version of the East Sussex Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (86 pages) was distributed, although it contains a lot of extra material, in blue, added by the new Local Authority Adviser to SACRE, Lilian Weatherley. The Foreword by Councillor Matthew Lock, does mention the need for "considering other secular beliefs such as humanism and atheism" though I have not yet examined the text in detail for its references to Humanism.

There is a meeting in London at Conway Hall on Saturday for SACRE Representatives which I propose to attend, to get further experience in this field.

There is a BHA Group Representatives Annual Meeting on 27th November, but this year it is being held in Birmingham. I attended the GRAM last year in London but will not be able to get to Birmingham. If any member (or two members) of our Hastings Group would like to attend please let me know and I will give you the necessary details. It runs from about 10 am to 4 pm. It would probably be best to travel the day before and stay overnight. We may be able to cover the cost of the rail fare (if booked in advance), but not the overnight accommodation. You might be able to fit in a visit to the CBSO at Symphony Hall, or other attractions.