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Good morning. It is ironic that, the more our life expectancy increases the more we feel the need to rush things. Take the proposal being discussed this week to allow people to complete a University degree in two years rather than three. On one level they make a lot of sense. It means that people can get straight on with their careers and it saves money. Perhaps a three year degree, such as the one I did, is a luxury fewer people can afford and I would be the first to admit that not every single second of my student time was spent in the library. But despite such advantages, for me these new proposals also raise questions about the purpose of education. It is tempting to think the prime purpose of the years we spend at school or College is attainment. We learn in order to the acquire qualifications that will make us economically useful. But it takes more than that to deliver fulfilled or successful people. I was with a 16 year old a few weeks ago who had just started studying A Levels. She was miserable. She attended her lessons and then she came home again; and that was it. She felt there were too few opportunities to mix with others, play or to laugh. She was being taught, but not being given the space to grow as a human being. How will she look back on her years in College. Just a means to an end, or a place where she belonged and that made her who she is? When Jesus trained up disciples, the first thing he did was to invite people to belong to each other. In St Mark’s Gospel it says Jesus called the disciples ‘to be with him and to be sent out.’ That ‘being with’ mattered because Jesus’ main aim was to form character and he knew that that happens in relationship. Jesus developed people by building close-knit communities of love. That’s why an emphasis on intentional community has been a huge feature of Christian education ever since. Of course attainment matters. But surely the thing that enables people to achieve and live fulfilling lives is not so much attainment as character. It is the capacity to relate, to empathise, to forgive, to bounce back from difficulties and sustain relationships that makes life satisfying and fulfilling. And the thing about forming character is that it requires strong and diverse networks of relationships. There are great advantages in the two year degree, but I would hate it if our education system were reduced to the utilitarian and privatised harvesting of academic awards. If it is in communities of love that we form character, discover gifts and learn our full potential then we need to remember that building that kind of community is something that can’t be rushed.