Collective Worship and Assembly - Are they the Same?

It is still customary in the majority of schools for teachers and pupils alike to use the term "assembly" when they are referring to the "act of collective worship". This accepted shorthand should not be allowed to blind us to the differences between the two activities. Schools frequently assemble for a common purpose. There may be a visiting theatre company in school, or the need to give out important notices or deal with matters of common concern; not every assembly is an act of collective worship.

In essence the purpose of most school assemblies is to gather the school for collective worship followed by the sharing of notices. In this scenario, pupils withdrawn from collective worship should rejoin the rest of the school for the assembly notices.

There are many elements which worship and assembly have in common, such as helping children to develop common standards and values, or to develop an awareness of, and a concern for, the needs of others. However, the presence of these common elements alone does not turn an assembly into an act of collective worship. It is a mistake to assume that, for example, inviting a charity worker to address the school during the "collective worship slot" is collective worship. In each and every act of collective worship some of the elements of worship (ie of "giving worth to God") must be present.

An Assembly may include Collective Worship. Not every Assembly is Collective Worship.

Contents

1. What is worship?
2. Collective Worship and the law
3. The Anglican Tradition
4. The Aims of Collective Worship
5. The Policy
6. Ways of planning and recording
7. Planning Issues
8. Collective worship ideas and support on the world wide web
9. Asking Visitors to lead worship
10. Guidelines to be given to Visitors to lead worship
11. Are Assembly and Collective worship the same thing?
12. Themes and schemes for planning collective worship
13. Bible stories for use with collective worship themes
14. Involving pupils in Collective worship

Document Downloads

• Collective Worship in Church Schools