Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of Dublin City University, will launch materials for infant classes. Pupils from the school will put some of the material into action. An outstanding educationalist and a noted ecumenist Dr. von Prondzynski is particularly interested in children's spiritual development.

The new programme is being resourced by the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian and the Methodist Churches with considerable assistance from the Roman Catholic Episcopal Commission on Catechetics and its publishing arm, Veritas. Much of the material is based on Alive-O, the Roman Catholic programme for primary schools.

Amongst the attendance will be Archbishops Robin Eames and Walton Empey from the Church of Ireland, Revd. Kenneth Todd, President of the Methodist Church and Revd James McAllister, representing the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church. The Very Revd Fr Dermot Lane of the Episcopal Commission and Ms Maura Hyland of Veritas will also be present.

The new programme had been produced in response to a 1998 survey of all teachers in Protestant Primary Schools. This found that 95% of respondents agreed that RE should be taught at primary school and were willing to teach it.

The Committee overseeing the new programme is chaired by the Bishop of Meath & Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke. The editor and co-ordinator is former primary teacher Jacqui Wilkinson.