English School answers accusers after student protest
THE ENGLISH School Parents Association said yesterday the issue of a tiny number of pupils objecting to a visit by Gideon bible distributors had been blown out of proportion.
Chairwoman Magda Nicholson told the Cyprus Mail that the association did not have any objections to the visit by the Gideon representative to the school. Gideon bibles are most famous for being placed in public places all over the world and are distributed free by a 100-year old Christian organisation, which has made it its life mission to do so.
Earlier this week when a representative visited the English School, seven Greek Orthodox pupils walked out in protest, claiming it was an attempt to ‘convert them’.
The incident was sensationalised in the local press, saying the pupils had been threatened with expulsion. The school reportedly said it had received permission from the Church but the headmaster could not be contacted yesterday.
“Seven pupils out of 900 is not a very representative number,” Nicholson told the Cyprus Mail. “What was talked about by the spokesman of these people was not in a religious context. He talked about love and how love can keep us all together and whoever would like to read the bible could have one free of charge.”
Nicholson said the Gideon representative did not speak about any particular religion during his brief talk.
“It wasn’t a bible thing and if anyone had grounds to object it should have been the Turkish Cypriots,” she said. “I had a meeting with the Turkish Cypriot parents on Tuesday night and none of them mentioned it.”
Nicholson said the English School catered for all of the different religions of its pupils, who are mainly Greek Orthodox. “There is a Greek Cypriot Religious Instruction teacher, a Turkish Cypriot teacher who teaches Islam, and also religious teachers for the Armenian pupils,” she said.
She added that the school’s student council had objected to the actions of the seven pupils and were planning to publish an announcement about it. “The kids are being punished not on the grounds of their objections to what they heard but for showing disrespect to guests at the school,” she said.
“It’s a tolerance issue. There has to be religious tolerance. The whole thing was blown out of proportion.”
According to their website the Gideons International, founded in 1899, serves as an extended missionary arm of the church and is the oldest Christian business and professional men’s association in the US.
The association has more than 236,000 members, located in 179 countries of the world. They are “united in carrying out the same program using the same methods to accomplish the one objective of winning others to Christ”.
The primary function of The Gideons is the placing and distributing Bibles and New Testaments in as many places as. “Gideons as laymen, stand shoulder to shoulder as missionaries of local churches and their pastors in going to the four corners of the world to win others for the Lord Jesus Christ,” the mission statement said.
Annually, The Gideons International is placing and distributing more than 59,000,000 scriptures worldwide. “This averages one million copies of the Word of God placed every seven days, or 112 per minute.”
