A row has broken out in Somerset over the role the county council should play in how schoolchildren are taught about religion.

The standing advisory council on religious education (SACRE) comprises representatives of Somerset County Council and numerous religious groups, and is responsible for setting out and monitoring how religious education is delivered in Somerset schools.

Michael Strange, who represents the 'independent churches' group on SACRE (i.e. Christians who are not Anglican, Roman Catholic or Pentecostal), has accused the council to forcibly removing committee members in a bid to "manipulate meetings" and force through its own vision of the curriculum.

The council has responded that it is happy to accept new members onto SACRE and that the present RE syllabus would not be changed without detailed public consultation.

As of December 2021, SACRE includes representatives from multiple Christian denominations (including the Diocese of Bath and Wells within the Church of England), along with representatives of the Muslim and Jewish community, the council and the National Education Union (NEU).

Mr Strange raised the issue when the full council met in Bridgwater on Wednesday morning (November 23), alleging that the council had blocked the Muslim community's new representative on SACRE after a new proposal about "shared religious sensitivities" had been presented.

He said: "Evangelical Christian and Muslim SACRE faith representatives presented you with a joint document advising about shared religious sensitivities, which was rejected.

"You subsequently blocked the SACRE membership of the Muslim community's representative that helped to write that document.

"In its new draft SACRE constitution, you state your intention to remove SACRE membership from the other authors – the Baptist, independent evangelical and Pentecostal church representatives. These are all of the SACRE Evangelical Christian representatives."

Mr Strange went on to claim that the council had "imposed" online meetings on SACRE, rather than granting "repeated requests" for the committee to meet in person, and that this decision "allowed the council to prevent debate and manipulate meetings" so that its "sham" constitution could be forced through.

He added: "When the evangelical Christian faith communities wrote a great many letters to councillors expressing their concerns about these matters, the leader of the council wrote a long reply that avoided addressing those concerns.

"Somerset County Council evidently thinks that treating Somerset SACRE members and faith communities with contempt in this way will produce a religious education syllabus that will not be robustly rejected.

"They are mistaken. Producing it will be a waste of taxpayers' money."

SACRE currently has four county councillors from the ruling Liberal Democrat administration sitting on it – Caroline Ellis (who represents the Bishop's Hull and Taunton West division), Hazel Prior-Sankey (Taunton South), Tim Kerley (Somerton) and Tessa Munt (Wells)

Ms Munt, the portfolio holder for children's services, said the council had not received the document to which Mr Strange referred – and questioned other elements of his account.

He said: "The document received informally expresses views that makes no requests of this council – this neither the document itself nor any requests could be rejected.

"The request for the membership was not received through the proper channels. We will be contacting the relevant organisations shortly. I would be willing for anyone to put themselves forward to joint SACRE.

"This is a draft constitution and it does not seek to remove anyone. It simply acknowledges that there should be term limits on appointments.

"We will take a full academic year to consult on this. We do and will take an overview of the agenda for SACRE meetings, because it is a council committee whose sole purpose is to provide advice. It cannot serve that function unless the council sets the agenda.

"We are not currently reviewing the RE syllabus, so there are no proposals on which to consult and any concerns are premature. When it is reviewed, this will be open and transparent."

SACRE is due to hold its next meeting virtually on Wednesday afternoon (November 30) at 1pm.