Diocese of Portsmouth advertises for youth worker to ‘launch new worshipping community’ in non-religious secondary school

The Church of England has announced a scheme to try and recruit new children into the religion at a non-religious school in Havant, near Chichester.

The Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth is advertising for a ‘Pioneer Youth Worker’ to work at Park Community School, a school of no-religious character in Havant. Humanists UK, which campaigns for an end to faith-based discrimination in the school system, has criticised the plans as an attempt to use the school environment to evangelise young people.

The ‘Pioneer Youth Worker’ will, according to the job advert, seek to ‘establish a new worshipping community with discipleship opportunities for adults and children’ within the school. Within the first year the post holder is expected to ‘launch a new worshipping community’, ‘provide a faith element to the summer holiday scheme’, and establish an ‘in-school prayer space’. 

In recent years, the Church of England has been increasingly explicit about its intent to recruit children from non-religious families as worshipping Anglicans. The new job is linked to the Diocese’s Vision and Strategy which seeks to to ‘deliberately prioritise our work with children, young people and young adults, to enable a new generation to grow in faith’. In 2024 the Church of England spent more than £7 million on projects to evangelise children and young people through state schools as part of plans to ‘double the number of children and young people who are active Christian disciples by 2030’.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Lewis Young said: 

‘The Diocese of Portsmouth’s “Pioneer Youth Worker” role is yet another example of the Church of England’s plans to evangelise young people through the state school system and grow its congregation.  

‘Schools should not be used to bolster church numbers or convert people and rather, than being subjected to evangelism, every child should receive a broad and balanced education that enables them to think critically and make their own choices about their beliefs. We call on the school and the Diocese of Portsmouth to withdraw this wholly inappropriate job advert.’