|TOP|Preparations are underway for next month’s Education Sunday which will take place Feb. 12th, with organisers across Christian groups in England and Wales hoping for the biggest response from local churches and schools to date.

This year’s day of prayer and celebration for all those involved in the education sector will run under the theme of St. Paul’s encouraging words, “to strive for prizes that will last”.

The theme, chosen by the Ecumenical Steering Group, is particularly fitting for 2006, an important year for sport, with the World Cup, Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games all taking place this year.

Education Sunday aims to shift the focus of education from short-term success, better league table results and improved examination results, to a new idea about education as about becoming fit spiritually, mentally and physically.

|QUOTE|Exeter, Truro, Coventry and Salisbury are just some of the country’s major cathedrals hosting large-scale events with local school and college staff and students. At Canterbury Cathedral, the Bishop of Dover will give a talk on a sporting theme before a team of students pass an Olympic-style torch around the nave.

Graham Russell, Education Secretary of the Methodist Church and Chair of the Ecumenical Steering Group, said: "Sometimes education seems like a sporting event, with new targets to aim for, new rules, and new trophies to claim. But we believe that education is about becoming spiritually, physically and mentally fit, developing healthy attitudes to others and to ourselves.

“Education Sunday is a fantastic opportunity to engage in that discussion and to celebrate all that is good in education”.

One of the lectionary readings is 1 Corinthians 9:24 – 27: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training” and it is sure to come into good use this year as everyone looks forward to this year’s major sporting events.

|AD|Mr Russell said earlier: “Sport has been very much in the headlines recently, with London’s successful Olympic bid and the excitement over England’s recapturing of the Ashes in cricket. Sometimes education seems like a sporting event. There are new targets to aim for, new rules, and new trophies to claim.

“But education is not just about being the best: it has wider purposes that need to be valued for their own sake – the development of individual potential and the pursuit of knowledge and truth. St Paul says we should not run aimlessly, but be like athletes – with purpose: listening for God’s word, which fits us for life and prepares us for the ultimate prize.”

Free resources are also available from a number of organisations and churches. See National Society for Promoting Religious Education website or the website of the Methodist Church.

Education Sunday has been taking place each year since 1878, after being established to offer to God the work of education, in schools of all kinds, colleges, and universities, and in the church, as well as to celebrate its achievements and pray for the challenges and all those involved in education.