Letter: At troubled times like these we need God in our classrooms

From Mr Mark Birchall Sir: Paul Vallely ("Keeping faith in the system" 7 January) does not fully represent the Evangelical Alliance's view. We are committed to authentic school worship but also to the rule of law. Legislation that is widely flouted must either be made to work or modified. The alternative is anarchy.

Because we recognise that anarchy is the logical outcome of the contemporary fashion for moral relativism, we are not willing to acquiesce in the current fudge on the school worship provisions.The Evangelical Alliance's goal is not to force a reduction in the frequency of school worship where it is happening on a genuine basis. On the contrary, we are delighted with those schools that fulfil the requirements of the 1988 Act. But what should be done about those that do not?

Our concerned response is to mobilise the resources of our 5,000 churches and 700 Christian member societies to help these schools. The statement of the Prime Minister and Gillian Shephard's reiteration of government policy is something that we would wish to support. But the law must be enforced. That is why we are offering resources from the churches in order to prevent the law on school worship tumbling into disrepute through non-compliance.

Yours faithfully, MARK BIRCHALL Vice Chairman Evangelical Alliance UK London, SE11