A new 2021 edition of the Directory of Joint Protestant-Catholic Schools has been published by NICIE, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education.
Fully titled the ‘International Directory of Joint Protestant-Roman Catholic Schools, Colleges and Universities’, it lists 45 of these schools worldwide. It provides an illustrated description, history, experience and contact details of each school. England has 32 joint Protestant-Catholic schools and colleges; Australia has 8; USA 2; and there is one each in Belize, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Most of these schools have been opened in the last half century, since the early 1970s.
Directory of Joint Protestant-Catholic Schools
NICIE’s CEO Roisin Marshall says, “We trust that it will be of interest and of practical use to the schools themselves, to the churches, to educationalists and to everyone interested in promoting reconciliation and unity in our fractured world. As part of Good Relations Week, NICIE isfacilitating the launch of this global directory. As yet there are no Jointly Managed schools in Northern Ireland and this publication represents an opportunity to further explore other models of schooling that could enable young people to be educated together”.
The Directory has introductions written by Bishop Dónal McKeown, Bishop of Derry, and by Rev. Robert Herron, Minister of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Omagh. Rev. Herron comments that, “it is a privilege to be associated with this directory of international educational establishments that have taken that courageous step to cross the age-old Protestant/Catholic divide”. Bishop McKeown says that these 45 inter-church schools and colleges, “challenge all of us to be a blessing on this generation so that God’s healing mercy in Jesus can help our young people dream the divine dream for the future”.
The original ground-breaking edition of the Directory was published in 2007 by Foyle Trust for Integrated Education to help provide information in the ongoing discussion on models of schooling.
The Directory can be downloaded free on-line at www.nicie.org/jms
