Does Christianity hold the key to the crisis of morale in the teaching profession in Britain? That's what a unique web site and conference in Bristol, England, sets out to discover this month.

A joint venture between the Bristol Diocesan Board of Education and the Faculty of education at The University of the West of England (UWE), 'Too Much Awe and Wonder' is a searching investigation into how spiritual ill health may be making the lives of teachers a misery.

While the secular univeristy sees spirituality in far broader terms that religious faith, other organisers are convinced that Christianity does hold the key to reviving spiritual and moral values in society.

"It will be argued that the current culture of accountability, league tables, targets, naming and shaming and endless [school] inspections is evidence that at the highest levels of education there is a vacuum of meaning," says Dr Martin Ashley of the UWE, one of the organisers. "In the absence of any sense of higher ideal, eductaion is being driven by a set of inhumane values which lack and ultimate purpose. the health and quality of life of teachers, children and futre citizens are suffering as a result."

Canon John Hall and David Hay are two keynote speakers at the conference who will attack that view that spiritual and moral education can be left to the fringes of the curriculum, and that spirituality is based on an individual's feel-good factor.

Research has shown that most people act on an inner belief system closely linked to a need for meaning. For teachers, the web site argues, contentment with teaching as a vocation, a sense of purpose, and feeling that you are valued, all help form a healthy spirituality.

"Children taught by such spiritually healthy teachers are more likely to grow up similarly healthy and content," said Dr Ashley. "We have produced a hard-hitting web site aimed at generating some lively electronic debate."