Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marks and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be doing all about Christianity and relationships of the 21st century, because today we're living in a modern world and Christianity is a modern religion which helps to support families in different settings.

So let's find out how.

So by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain different Christian views on supporting families and on non-religious marriages and cohabitation.

So let's start with our key terms. Civil.

Non-religious or secular.

Cohabitation.

Living together as partners and having sexual relationship without being married.

And marriage.

The legally and religiously recognised union of two people as partners in a personal relationship.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, "Christianity and families" and "Non-religious weddings and cohabitation".

So let's start with our first section, "Christianity and families".

Why might religious groups want to support families? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Lucas, Izzy, and Alex are sharing their ideas with us now, too.

Lucas says, "To help the children learn about the religion." Izzy says, "To support families in difficult times." And Alex says, "To celebrate important times in life." So religious groups of all different religions are going to want to support families.

And today we're going to think about why Christianity might support families, and some examples of how.

So let's ask Jason, who's a Roman Catholic priest.

Lucas asks him, "As a Roman Catholic priest, Jason, can you tell me why your church supports families?" And Jason says, "I believe the family is the foundation for society, and the most important place to raise children with love and good guidance.

Jesus himself said the little children should come to him, so my church has many activities for children and young people to support them as they grow as Christians." And I wonder if you can think of some of those activities, then.

Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

And what about in the Anglican Church, or the Church of England? Izzy is asking Fiona.

"As an Anglican Christian, Fiona, can you tell me why your church supports families?" And Fiona says, "The church could be a support for all the people at its local community, not just those who come for services.

So my church has activities that everyone is welcome to come to.

This means we can help spread the message of Christianity to others and encourage them to consider becoming Christian themselves." Why might it be important for a Christian like Fiona to spread the message of Christianity to others? Can you link that to any other Christian teachings you might know of? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check.

Is this true or false? Christian churches will only run activities for children of the families at that church.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Often Christian churches will have activities for children that are open to everyone.

It's a way of welcoming new people into the religion.

Well done.

Now, there are lots of ways that churches may support families in the 21st century.

We've looked at reasons why.

So now let's think about the ways that they might support them.

So pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, let's look at these ideas.

We've got parent and baby groups, often, or it might be called parent and toddler groups where people who aren't yet in school can come and spend time at the church and spend time together and have some socialising time.

We could have youth groups, where young people, perhaps on a Friday evening or over the weekend can come together and spend time together in the church, doing activities together, and form good friendships and bonds.

We could have marriage counselling.

So literally supporting the marriage that's there, that's part of that family.

Supporting them as a couple as they're part of the family together.

There could be Sunday school, or catechism classes, where the young people go to learn about the religion, to learn about the faith.

There could be different styles or types of services.

So some churches will have services more geared towards families or more geared towards different age groups.

And there could be involvement in schools.

So it could be supporting schools, could be even running schools, working with young people in schools and going in to give talks in schools as well.

So there's lots of different ways that churches may support families in the 21st century.

So Kateryna is gonna explain how she supports her church Sunday school.

And Kateryna says, "I help with the Sunday school at my church.

Sometimes we have family services where the community stays together.

But most weeks there's a period of time when the children and young adults go to have a session more suited to them.

This is usually during the sermon," which is a talk.

"We teach the Bible stories and important principles of Christianity to the children in groups based on their age." So the children would go through the different bits according to their age so that they can learn about it in an age-appropriate way.

Thank you, Kateryna.

And Noah explains how he supports the young people in his church.

Noah says, "I'm a youth pastor, which means I'm employed by the church to help guide the young people in the religion.

I run a youth club at the church each Friday, where we have games and film nights, and talks about being a young person and a Christian in today's world.

I also play the guitar in a worship band.

And the young people really enjoy that kind of worship and often get involved too.

Each summer we have a trip away, and this year we went camping in Iona," which is a beautiful island off of the west coast of Scotland where many Christians take a pilgrimage there.

So why might Noah have this focus on working with the youth then? Why might his church have a youth pastor? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Thank you, Noah.

So we've seen there are many ways that churches can support families in the 21st century.

So let's together give one of two ways that churches may support families in the 21st century.

Hmm.

I think running children's and youth groups.

So over to you, then.

Give a second of two ways that churches may support families in the 21st century.

Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

We could have had marriage counselling for couples.

Well done.

So time for a practise task to see what we've learned, then.

Here is a full evaluation question.

"Supporting families in the 21st century is the most important role of a church." And you're going to discuss this statement, showing you've considered more than one point of view, and you must refer to religion and belief in your answer.

That's if you're doing the full evaluation question.

But you are just going to write one paragraph agreeing with this statement.

So pause the video, have a think about what we've covered so far already, and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some great thinking there.

So the statement was, "Supporting families in the 21st century is the most important role of a church." And you had to write a paragraph agreeing with the statement.

And you may have written, "Supporting families in the 21st century is the most important role of a church as this can help everyone feel welcomed and supported in the church.

This can help teach younger Christians about the religion and help them manage the challenges of being a Christian in the 21st century.

Jesus said that little children were welcome to come to him, and many churches can support all of the families in the local area, not just those who come to church, but also as a form of spreading the message of the religion to others." So it's a really important role here for families to be supported by the church in the 21st century.

Not only in terms of the families and the marriage, but also in terms of spreading the religion and helping it be relevant to people for the 21st century.

Well done.

So onto our second section then.

"Non-religious weddings and cohabitation".

Why might people have a non-religious wedding? So when people get married, there are two sort of types of marriages.

You can have the legal, civil marriage, and then you can have religious marriages.

If someone only has a religious marriage without the civil marriage, you do not have the same legal civil rights.

But some people choose to have both, so they will have a civil wedding and a religious wedding as well.

Sometimes that happens in the same building at the same time, for example, in the Church of England.

But some people choose to just have the civil wedding, and nothing religious at all.

Why might they choose to do that? Pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, there's many reasons why.

Let's have a think.

It could be there's a wider variety of places to get married, because more places than those churches or religious buildings have that licence and are able to hold the wedding there.

It could be that couples can shape it more to how they want it.

They can choose and write their own vows, their own songs, and they can shape the whole ceremony around how they want to have it, how it reflects them as a couple.

It could be that it's seen as more welcoming of people of all and no faiths.

So you could have a civil non-religious wedding because there's people of lots of different religions coming to your wedding, so everyone feels equally welcomed.

Or it could be that then it welcomes people who've got no faith at all as well.

Interfaith couples might prefer this.

So if the couple, one person's from one religion, and one person's from another, they might choose to do a civil wedding so that they're not doing one over the other, and they're not kind of combining the two religions.

They do a civil wedding, and then they can keep their religion separate from that.

Some people might choose to do this because they're not religious themselves, but they still want to have that commitment and that wedding ceremony, but they don't want it to have any religious element because they're not religious themselves.

And finally, it may be that they want to have that financial stability.

So the commitment, but also that stability, and the financial kind of union of the two people through having a wedding, but they don't want to do it for religious reasons, so they choose to do it in a civil setting.

So they choose to do it as a civil wedding.

Well, let's have a look at some examples then.

Here's Diane, who's humanist, and Izzy asks, "Why did you have a non-religious wedding and ceremony as a humanist, Diane?" And Diane says, "My husband Alan and I believe marriage is an important way to share a life of love.

We had a civil ceremony first, and then we had a humanist ceremony with a humanist celebrant.

We made vows to each other in front of our family and friends.

It was important to us that the wedding was not religious, but it reflected our values and beliefs as humanists." And I wonder how this differs or is the same to any religious weddings and marriages we already know about? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you and talk to me.

Well, we can see here that we've still got that idea of vows being made in front of family and friends, it being an important commitment, and it being that legal binding of the two people.

So for Diane, as a humanist, she doesn't believe in God, so they're not going to have the aspects of, you know, "In the presence of God, I make these vows." So now, Beth and Frank are both Christians, and they're going to share their views on non-religious weddings.

And Frank says, "I'm a Methodist Christian, and my church welcomes couples who've made a commitment to one another.

This could be formal or informal, and religious or not.

What is important is that the couple love and support one another." So in Frank's church, they welcome everybody in, even if they haven't had a religious wedding or even a civil wedding.

They are committed to each other, and they love and support each other, then they're welcome.

Beth goes to a free church and she says, "I agree that commitment and love is important in a couple, but in my church, we encourage couples to have a religious ceremony so they're also married in the presence of God and with the body of Christ, the church, as witnesses." So for Beth, they would encourage people in their church who are living together, perhaps cohabiting, or had had a civil wedding, to still have that religious wedding as they're part of that church family.

So we could see here within Christianity we can have different attitudes and views towards non-religious weddings and cohabitation.

And now we have a couple, Mark and Simon, and they are a same-sex couple.

Mark is not a Christian, he's agnostic, but Simon is, and they had a civil wedding, and Simon's going to explain why.

Simon says, "I'm a Christian, and I would love to have had a religious wedding, but when Mark and I got married, this wasn't an option.

So we had a civil wedding, with a blessing afterwards in the church.

My church community are very supportive of my marriage, and one day we hope to renew our vows in the church in front of them." So with our reasons as to why some may have had a civil rather than a religious wedding, we could have included there that same-sex couples may have had to have a civil wedding rather than a religious one if their religious denomination has not allowed it.

Why might Marcus and Simon still have chosen to have a civil wedding? And why do you think they chose to have a blessing in the church afterwards? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check.

Is this true or false? "Only non-religious people choose to have a non-religious wedding." Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Religious people may choose to have a non-religious wedding for a variety of reasons.

We said earlier, could be that they are from two different religions, or it could be that they want to choose more how the wedding happens or where it is.

It could be that they're in a same-sex couple.

Well done.

So we can look at how patterns have changed in terms of non-religious weddings, cohabitation, and marriages, by looking at the office of National Statistics data.

And it shows us how these things have changed over time.

And we've got different categories here that the statistics can measure.

A married couple in the family.

Now that is going to be a civil marriage.

It may also be a religious marriage, too, but this is going to be a civil marriage 'cause that's recorded in these official statistics.

A civil partner couple, which has the same rights as a married couple, but it hasn't been a legal marriage.

Opposite sex cohabiting couple, same sex cohabiting couple, and a lone parent family.

So here we've got statistics showing these different types of family, and the different kind of couples here in the 21st century, particularly from 2006 onwards.

What trend does it show of the number of cohabiting couples then? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, the number of cohabiting couples has increased.

We've got the number of same-sex cohabiting couples increasing, as well as opposite sex.

These have increased over time.

And the number of married couples has stayed fairly consistent.

Lone parent families has increased too.

So we can see that the rate of people who are cohabiting has been increasing.

But why might people choose to cohabit? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, we could have reasons such as weddings can be very expensive.

Commitment can be shown in other ways.

Doesn't have to be through marriage, it can be through other ways, like buying a house together, for example.

Getting to know each other before marriage can be important for some couples.

So just because they're cohabiting now doesn't mean they're going to cohabit forever.

It can be a step towards marriage.

So it's a way of getting to know each other and making that step towards perhaps, once they're engaged, they start to cohabit and they're moving that step towards getting married.

It can be cheaper than living separately.

So on quite a practical level, choosing to live together can mean there's only one house and one set of bills rather than two separate houses.

So it can be a financial choice to live together.

And if it's a blended family, it might allow children time to adjust.

So a blended family would be if there were children from previous marriages or relationships, so perhaps a couple want to get married and they've each got children from previous relationships.

It can allow the children time to get to know each other before having the big ceremony and the marriage ceremony, so it can allow and ease that transition into marriage.

Well Izzy's asking Zoe, who's an atheist, "Why have you decided to cohabit with your partner and not get married, Zoe?" And Zoe says, "I cohabit with my partner without needing marriage.

We're committed in other ways.

We just bought a house together.

We don't feel like we need to go through a wedding to show that commitment." So for Zoe and her partner, they have that commitment already.

They bought a house.

That's a big financial commitment they've made with each other.

And then also, they've got other ways to show that commitment.

So Zoe doesn't feel the need to show that commitment through a wedding.

She's happy cohabiting with her partner.

Thank you, Zoe.

How could a Christian respond to Zoe, then? We had some ideas earlier from different Christian perspectives on this.

How could a Christian respond to this? So pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well here, Beth and Frank are going to share their views on cohabitation in the 21st century, then.

Frank says, "I don't see cohabitation as immoral or wrong, as long as the couple are committed and not being promiscuous, having many sexual partners without commitment.

The Bible emphasises love, and this can be shown when cohabiting." And Beth says, "I think couples should wait until after they are married to live together and have sex.

This not only gives them protection, but is also shown in the Bible to be important." And both Frank and Beth here are using the Bible as a source of authority to support their views.

I wonder which of them you might agree with more, and why? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check.

"All Christians believe that cohabitation is immoral and wrong." Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Well, some Christians may disagree with cohabitation, but others, for example Christians who may be Methodist, may not view it as immoral and wrong.

Well done.

So let's do another practise task to see what we've learned.

You're going to complete the table below with two different Christian views on each area.

Non-religious marriages and cohabitation.

Use the views showed by Beth and Frank in this lesson.

So, we've got here, views on non-religious weddings and views on cohabitation, and Beth's Christian view, Free Church, is, "I would encourage people to have a religious wedding because," and "I do not believe couple should cohabit because." And Frank's Christian view as a Methodist is, "I accept non-religious marriages because," and "I do not believe cohabitation is wrong because." So you're going to complete it with a reason for each of those, for Beth and Frank, on non-religious weddings and cohabitation.

Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some great thinking there.

So I asked you to complete the table with two different Christian views on each area.

Non-religious marriages and cohabitation.

And you might have said, "When Beth, who was Free church said, 'I would encourage people to have a religious wedding because,' she says then they're married in the eyes of God and in the presence of the church." And, "Beth's view cohabitation was, 'I do not believe couples should cohabit because,' she said sex should be saved for after marriage." And Frank, who's a Methodist says, "I accept non-religious marriages because they're still a sign of love and commitment," and he doesn't believe cohabitation is wrong because the Bible says God is love.

So well done for your hard work there.

Let's summarise everything we've learned today.

Christianity and relationships in the 21st century.

There are many reasons why Christians and churches support families in the 21st century.

Examples of the support they give include Sunday school, youth groups, marriage counselling.

There are different views within Christianity on non-religious or civil marriages.

And there are different views within Christianity on cohabitation.

So well done for your hard work today, and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye!.