Doreen Sunman, a lay preacher originally from the UK and now based in Auckland, reflects on the Methodist influence in education for children and how it can be adapted for today’s multi-cultural society.

As we recall Charles and John Wesley’s conversion experiences, we are reminded that their faith showed itself in action, not just words and talk. The social Gospel has always been very important to the people called Methodists. In the 18th and 19th centuries educating children was an important part of that.

I have a small book that was awarded to my great-grandmother for good conduct, in January 1866. She was 12 years old. She was attending Sunday School at Mt Zion Church, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. I’ve always understood this to be a Methodist Church, but have not been able to confirm that. 100 years later I was a teenager attending Ebenezer Methodist Church, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. The booklet published for Ebenezer’s bi-centenary in 2000 records that, for the year 1821, there were 322 pupils receiving instruction from 58 “gratuitous” Sunday School teachers.

Although Robert Raikes, an Anglican layman, is credited with starting the Sunday School movement, Methodists adopted the idea both for religious instruction and also to educate children who would spend six days a week working in mills, factories and coal mines. In the case of my home town, many would be working in the pottery industry. Their lessons may have been supplemented with evening classes. During the Industrial Revolution, thousands of children in England learned to read and write as a result of the commitment and dedication of Methodists – and others – who gave of their time and abilities to help raise children out of poverty through education. In John Ward’s history, The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent (published in 1842), there is a table recording 4,516 pupils receiving tuition at Sunday Schools – many of them Methodist. Education was not free and not compulsory until the passing of the Education Act of 1870.

Our churches still have Sunday Schools, but today we often use the term “Christian Education”. Many fewer children attend than did in 19th century England and the focus now is on religious instruction and Bible stories, fun and fellowship. Perhaps some Sunday Schools still supplement children’s school learning but there is another area where our Christian Education programme can be of great value. In Auckland, where there are approximately 200 different ethnic groups, children are educated using one or more of New Zealand’s official languages – Maori, English or NZ Sign.

Language is a key component of culture. Our Sunday Schools today have an opportunity to form language nests where those different cultures can be affirmed by providing religious instruction to the children in the language of their home and thus help to keep their culture alive within them. We are a long way from the Industrial Revolution but Methodists can adapt that same Sunday School model to provide for the children of Aotearoa/New Zealand today.