A new school run by a secretive religious ‘cult’ has opened in Heaton Mersey.

Mereside Education Trust is run by a Christian sect referred to in previous reports as a ‘cult’, which considers TV and radio evil. They have taken over the former site of St John Vianney Primary on Didsbury Road.

The private secondary school, which used to be based in Sale, is run by a group called the Exclusive Brethren.

Mereside only educates children from within the Brethren, who shun outsiders under rules dictated a century ago by radical preacher James Taylor.

Under Brethren rules, members are not allowed to watch TV, read newspapers or take out life insurance, and until recently the internet was also banned. Women must keep their hair uncut and wear blue headscarves.

And in one of their most controversial doctrines, members who leave are split from their families forever - and parents shun their own children.

But as far as its neighbours are concerned, the disturbance comes not from the way the school is run - but the school run itself.

One resident, who lives directly in front of the school gates, said: "I just wish they’d stop using the road as a car park. These people cause no offence and we don’t object to them in any way."

Richard Hill, 36, said: "I think too much is made of cults and minor religions.

"Each to their own. The parents smile when they look over, there’s no noise from the kids and I’d far rather have a school there than a housing development when the diocese sells up.

The father of two added: "That said, I wish they’d show a little more courtesy as far as the parking goes.

"They’ve opened up an in-and-out route but everyone just straddles the pavement... and there are lots of them."

Reg Haughton, a resident of four decades, said: "We don’t have much to do with them and no one is particularly bothered who they are and what they do.

"It’s live and let live as long as there’s no disturbance. But the traffic has been pretty rough on quite a few occasions."

Mereside trustee Frances Richardson told the Express that the school has had little publicity surrounding its arrival because it has no interest in recruiting new pupils.

He said: "We already have an established clientele, as it were, with the pupils that have come across from Sale.

"We’re just a small school - hardly any bigger than the one that was here before - and we’re here on a temporary basis."

Former trustee Stephen Boyt confirmed that Mereside’s ethos conforms to the teachings of James Taylor, but insisted the school provides a balanced education.

He said: "Mereside is just a normal independent school. I would say it is pretty much fully compliant with all aspects of the National Curriculum.

"The big difference is the ethos of the school - it is a very strong Christian ethos. We wouldn’t call ourselves Taylorites but we would fully support the ministry of Jim Taylor."

And he denied the claims of former members that the Brethren are a secretive ‘cult’, adding: "I would say those criticisms are completely unfounded."

Mereside was forced to move on from their former site on Parkside Road in Sale - where they had been since 1995 - after having to repeatedly gain temporary retrospective planning permission for an unauthorised extension.

It is now leasing the Didsbury Road site from the Salford Diocese, which ran St John Vianney.

Martin Lochery, Director of Education at Salford Diocese, said it could be the first time the diocese has leased land to such a group. He said: "My guess is that it may have never happened before."

Children at the school of 58 pupils take GCSEs and gain broadly above average results. It is one of 37 Exclusive Brethren schools overseen by the Coventry-based Focus Learning Trust, which reached an agreement with the Government to be the first institution in the country to inspect its own schools.

Extract:

... no targets for Labour to score easy points. Nuclear ships, a critical turning point in 2005, have gone. Iraq has gone. "Privatisation" (of state-owned enterprises) has gone. The Exclusive Brethren have been sent to purgatory. Maori-bashing is out. Climate change is in ...

Wellington - Members of New Zealand's Exclusive Brethren religious sect have been given permission to vote in this year's general election, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Seven members of the secretive religious sect caused a stir in the last election campaign in 2005, when they were revealed to have spent an estimated 1.2 million New Zealand dollars (about 925,000 US dollars) funding a leaflet campaign trying to oust the ruling Labour Party and its Green Party allies.

The move followed similar campaigns in Australia and Canada, although the church was known to have forbidden its members from voting, saying God was the only authority they recognised.

But the Weekend Herald quoted Exclusive Brethren spokesman for New Zealand and Australia, Tony McCorkell, as saying voting was "a matter of conscience" for individual members and would not be discouraged.

He told the paper there had been no directive from the sect's leader, Sydney businessman Bruce Hales, who is known as the "elect vessel", about voting or whom to vote for.

In April, McCorkell distanced the sect's leadership from the seven members after their spokesman Neville Simmons said they were considering launching another campaign this year when Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark will seek a fourth three-year term.

As well as allowing voting, the Herald said the sect had turned its back on other beliefs to permit members to use cellphones and let their children be taught using computers at school.

McCorkell said the Exclusive Brethren had 7,000 members in New Zealand but only 2,316 chose it when giving their religious affiliation in a national census in 2006.

The Exclusive Brethren leadership says its New Zealand members are free to vote in this year's general election.

The secretive religious sect has also turned its back on other beliefs, with members now using cellphones and allowing their children to be taught computers at school.

Exclusive Brethren spokesman Tony McCorkell told the Weekend Herald voting was "a matter of conscience" for individual members and would not be discouraged.

"You will have to ring the 7000 New Zealand members individually and ask what their intentions are," he said.

Mr McCorkell said there was no "directive" from the sect's leader, Sydney businessman Bruce Hales, to vote or who to vote for.

Exclusive Brethren members were behind a secret smear campaign on Labour and the Greens before the last election. Those members publicly stated they did not vote.

Mr McCorkell said there was no change in policy, but that the Exclusive Brethren's position on voting had been misunderstood. He also confirmed computers were once banned but were now being used in the Exclusive Brethren network of Westmount schools throughout New Zealand.

He said the ban was initially in place because computers could not restrict the transfer of "morally questionable material".

Mr McCorkell said computers had been used in Exclusive Brethren businesses and leaders were now satisfied appropriate "filters" could be placed on them. internet access was allowed.

"As time has gone by and technology has developed to a point where the Brethren can have their convictions and have the technology," he said.

Mr McCorkell said cellphones could be used for business and church work but were not for "the youth" or "personal pleasure". He denied there had been a "directive" from Mr Hales allowing computers and cellphones.

Peter Lineham, associate professor of history at Massey University who has studied the Exclusive Brethren, said its beliefs were clearly changing.

Mr Lineham said such changes would not be made without the sanction of Mr Hales, who the sect call the "Elect Vessel".

A former Exclusive Brethren member, who did not want to be named, said voting, like computers, had previously been a "complete no-no".

The former member said the Exclusive Brethren had always been contradictory.

Exclusive Brethren spokesman Tony McCorkell says members won't be discouraged from voting Exclusive Brethren spokesman Tony McCorkell says members won't be discouraged from voting

Members of the Exclusive Brethren have been told voting in this year's general election was "a matter of conscience'' and would not be discouraged.

Exclusive Brethren spokesman Tony McCorkell told the Weekend Herald there was no "directive" from the sect's leader, Sydney businessman Bruce Hales, to vote or who to vote for.

The Brethren has 7000 members in New Zealand.

Exclusive Brethren members were behind a secret smear campaign on Labour and the Greens before the last election. Those members publicly stated they did not vote.

Mr McCorkell said there was no change in policy, but that the Exclusive Brethren's position on voting had been misunderstood.

A former Exclusive Brethren member, who did not want to be named, said voting had previously been a "complete no-no".

Mr McCorkell also confirmed computers were once banned but were now being used in the Exclusive Brethren network of schools throughout New Zealand.

He said computers had been used in Exclusive Brethren businesses and leaders were now satisfied appropriate "filters" could be placed on them. Internet access was allowed.

He said cellphones could be used for business and church work but were not for "the youth" or "personal pleasure".

Peter Lineham, associate professor of history at Massey University who has studied the Exclusive Brethren, said its beliefs were clearly changing.

Mr Lineham said such changes would not be made without the sanction of Mr Hales, who the sect calls the "Elect Vessel".

With any change of government there will be legacies the new government would rather not have inherited.

The Howard government's flirtation with some extreme religious groups is a case in point.

Now the ghosts of this legacy are creeping back to haunt Kevin Rudd.

It may prove to be one of the first policy challenges the new government must face.

The government of John Howard saw fit to fund certain faith-based schools around Australia under the auspices of religious freedom in a democratic country.

In theory, that's fine, but in the case of the Exclusive Brethren, there are deeper questions about how it may indoctrinate children.

Yet under just released school funding figures, this controversial and secretive religious sect will receive $10 million in taxpayer money to run its schools this year.

This will increase to $50 million in taxpayer subsidies because Prime Minister Rudd pledged to continue the Howard government's controversial private school funding scheme for the next four years.

Money is also being provided under the previous government's Investing in Our Schools program.

The Exclusive Brethren schools, which refuse to teach students who are not sect members, include Melbourne campuses in Glenroy, Lilydale and Melton.

There are also campuses in NSW, Tasmania and South Australia.

Private or religious schools have an exemption from school licensing authorities and can choose which students can attend their schools.

In the case of the Exclusive Brethren, it seems the more we know about them the more cause for alarm we should feel.

While the Brethren does not allow its members to vote, the Howard government's interest may have been elsewhere. The Brethren supported the Howard election campaign in 2004 and funded pro-Howard advertisements.

During the last federal election campaign, Kevin Rudd described the organisation as an "extreme religious sect".

The Labor Party questioned the Brethren's approach to the internet and computers during the election campaign when Labor promised a rollout of computers to schools.

But despite having been vocal in his criticism of the sect in Opposition, Prime Minister Rudd now casts himself as a political hypocrite.

Why will the funding continue beyond the next federal election?

Is he no longer concerned that Aussie kids are being subjected to an extreme, faith-based education that will surely leave them ill-equipped to negotiate their way in a modern world?

Is this part of Kevin Rudd's much vaunted education revolution?

James Norman is a Melbourne journalist and author

The secretive Exclusive Brethren religious sect is to receive more than $10 million from the Federal Government this year, despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd having described it as an extremist cult that breaks up families.

The money will be paid to five schools run by the Brethren. The largest, in the north-western Sydney suburb of Meadowbank, known as M.E.T. Meadowbank, will receive $4.3 million. Over the next four years, the schools, which operate across many campuses, will collect almost $50 million in subsidies.

An additional $502,000 was secured by the Brethren under the previous government's now defunct Investing in our Schools program, which allowed grants for projects costing less than $75,000. These grants faced only cursory scrutiny. Mr Rudd and Education Minister Julia Gillard have said Labor would retain the Howard government's controversial private school funding scheme for at least the next four years.

The SES (socioeconomic status) scheme transfers money to all non-government schools based on the relative wealth of the area where parents of students at each school live. The scheme does not take into account what facilities a school has or what fees are charged.

The Brethren schools are Melbourne's Glenvale, with campuses at Glenroy, Lilydale and Melton; Oakwood at Glenorchy in Tasmania; Woodthorpe Drive Secondary School in the West Australian town of Willeton; Agnew school at Norman Park, Queensland; and Melrose Park School at St Marys in South Australia.

There is also a "super-campus" at M.E.T. at Meadowbank, which is the head office for NSW campuses at Armidale, Campbelltown, Cardiff South, Cowra, Goulburn, Kellyville, Leeton, Orange, Ryde, Tamworth, Condobolin, Katoomba, Darkes Forest, Albury, Young and Wagga Wagga.

NSW Greens MP John Kaye, a critic of the private school funding system, said the Rudd Government was caught by its promise not to change the former government's subsidies formula.

"Funding of the Brethren schools is growing at a massive rate," Dr Kaye said. "Our analysis shows that from $7.4 million in 2005, (funding) is on track to blow out to $10.1 million in 2008.

"Sooner or later someone in government has to have the honesty to say that there is something deeply wrong with public funding of schools that refuse to enrol children who are not members of the sect."

Last week The Age finally received, after 14 months of attempts under freedom-of-information laws, access to letters of support that the Brethren sent to former prime minister John Howard. The sect is under investigation in Australia and New Zealand for election funding irregularities. This includes the transfer of $370,000 into the Howard government's election campaign in 2004.

Private or religious schools have an exemption from school licensing authorities for various religious practices and can choose which students will attend a school.

In the case of the Exclusive Brethren, only the children of Brethren members may attend such schools.

During the election campaign, Labor raised questions about the Brethren's approach to computers and the internet, which the sect regards with deep suspicion.

A mass rollout of computers in schools was a central plank of Labor's education policy.

But a spokesman for the Brethren, Tony McCorkell, said yesterday the group wrote to Mr Rudd during the campaign, advising him that although the organisation was wary of "morally unacceptable material" being available on the internet, it did not ban the use of computers by students.

Mr McCorkell said the religion's schools were funded on the same basis as other independent schools and had to meet the same curriculum and financial probity requirements of each state to qualify for funding.

The Exclusive Brethren is poised to receive more than $10 million in Federal Government funds this year.

The secret religious sect will obtain the funds for five schools around Australia which are being run by the Brethren.

It comes several months after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the sect as an extremist cult that breaks up families.

The largest Brethren school at Meadowbank in Sydney's north will receive $4.3 million this year, Fairfax reports.

The schools, which operate over many campuses, will collect almost $50 million in taxpayer subsidies over the next four years.

An additional $502,000 was secured by the Bretheren under the federal Investing in our Schools program.

Mr Rudd and Education Minister Julia Gillard have said Labor will retain the Howard Government's controversial private school funding scheme for at least the next four years.

Correspondence between the Exclusive Brethren and John Howard reveals the religious sect had a warm relationship with the former prime minister, offering regular political advice.

The Age has obtained four letters in which unidentified sect leaders offer Mr Howard hearty congratulations for the Iraq war, advice about Medicare policy, and recommend massive water projects funded by the sale of Telstra.

The letters show Mr Howard met two Brethren leaders in his Phillip Street office in Sydney on the same day that New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark referred sect members to the police because they hired private detectives to tail her and her husband, and spread rumours he was gay.

The Age obtained the documents 14 months after a freedom-of-information request, which Mr Howard's office stalled on at each step. Each letter is warm in tone and offers "continual" prayers for Mr Howard, his wife and family.

In the first letter, sent in April 2003, sect leaders congratulated Mr Howard on being invited to George Bush's Texas ranch in the same week the US leader declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq.

"God has clearly supported and vindicated the initiative taken [in Iraq], and we are assured He will continue to do so as there is dependence on Him for guidance," the elders wrote.

In May 2004 the Brethren wrote that they were "deeply concerned" about the media's success in its "campaign to destabilise your government".

"The attention of the public needs to be diverted from matters such as the Iraq war, the supposed ill treatment of Iraq prisoners and other contentious issues," they said, and suggested a massive project to transport water via aqueducts, using funding from the sale of Telstra.

The Brethren run a lucrative network of pump supplies companies, but a spokesman, Tony McCorkell, said yesterday that this was irrelevant to the water question.

Later in 2004 the Brethren, who do not vote, were urged by their Sydney-based world leader Bruce Hales to get behind Mr Howard in the campaign against Mark Latham. As a result, $370,000 of Brethren funding went into pro-Howard advertising - a transaction now under investigation by the federal police.

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Funding - 2

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The shadowy Exclusive Brethren religious sect has been guaranteed another $10 million in taxpayer funding for its school campuses, despite being branded an “extremist cult” which “breaks up families” by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd before the election.

In a stunning turnaround which could spark a rift inside Government ranks, Labor will continue bankrolling dozens of Brethren schools, even though it launched several blistering attacks on the group and demanded a review of its campus funding arrangements while in opposition.

According to budget estimate figures obtained by Livenews.com.au, more than $35 million dollars has been set aside for the sect’s 31 schools since 2005.

In New South Wales there are 17 campuses, organised under the centralised Meadowbank Education Trust (MET), which received more than $4 million last year.

The figure is expected to rise by $300,000 under Labor while, nationally, Brethren schools will receive an estimated $10,106,948 in 2008.

The PM has been backed into a corner over the issue after vowing to maintain funding levels for all non-government schools in a bid to win office.

However, Kevin Rudd has raised serious concerns about the Exclusive Brethren in the past and slammed their teaching ideologies as counter-productive for students.
"I have real reservations having federal taxpayers' money going into those sorts of schools," Mr Rudd said in 2006.

"Based on my advice, [they] actively discourage children from using information technology [and] from learning how to use computers properly because they will provide avenues of contact with the outside world.”

The decision is also likely to anger Left faction leader Anthony Albanese who’s known for his bitter campaigns against the conservative sect.

Brethren students are discouraged from using computers and the Internet to minimise their contact with the outside world.

Critics say the funding decision flies in the face of Labor’s “Education Revolution”, which is centred around modern technology like computers.

Brethren officials say the technology is an integral part of their teaching agenda.

But Greens senator Christine Milne says it’s just a ploy to receive more taxpayer-funded handouts, which are only provided if schools meet strict curriculum guidelines.

Extract:

National has distanced itself from a group planning an anti-Government pamphlet campaign, fearing a public backlash similar to that involving the Exclusive Brethren at the last election.

Deputy leader Bill English said yesterday the party would not endorse any third-party campaigns this election year.

The move follows East Coast MP and senior National whip Anne Tolley receiving an e-mail from a group called Give NZ a Fair Go.

The bill was tabled after it was revealed the Exclusive Brethren had spent more than $1 million on material attacking Labour and its allies in 2005.

The National Party says that from now until election-day it won't have anything to do with any anti-government campaigns except its own.

"We want to be judged by the public on the basis of our policies, not what third parties may have to say about the Labour Party," deputy leader Bill English said today.

"National will not be endorsing any such campaigns."

During the 2005 election campaign National was damaged by the initially covert campaign run by the Exclusive Brethren against Labour and the Greens.

It caused uproar, and the Government accused National of being directly involved with the sect. Some National MPs said it cost their party the election.

The Brethren's campaign provoked the Government into drafting the Electoral Finance bill, passed by Parliament in December.

It controls the activities of third parties -- organisations which are not political parties -- by putting a $120,000 cap on the amount they can spend and restricts what they can say.

National strongly opposed the bill, saying it was an assault on democracy, but today Mr English said everyone should comply with the law.

"Our focus will be on running the most effective party vote campaign we can within the provisions of the new law," he said.

"Other political parties will of course have the same objective -- and that's as it should be in our democracy."

Mr English said he was issuing his statement because National MPs were receiving emails from third parties telling them about planned anti-government campaigns.

He released one of them, from an organisation calling itself the Give NZ A Fair Go Campaign, which gave notice of a "hard-hitting pamphlet" aimed at tipping Labour out of office.

"We know the Exclusive Brethren Church have been praying very hard for a change of government," the email said.

Mr English said there was increasing speculation that third parties would run anti-government campaigns.

"Our advice to third parties has always been consistent -- they should seek advice and operate within the law," he said.

"The strongest possible signal is to be sent throughout the National Party organisation that third parties will not be authorised or endorsed by National in election year."