New South Wales Education Minister Verity Firth says ethics classes will not replace scripture if they go ahead in the state’s public schools next year.

The Saint James Ethics Centre will help fund and train volunteers to run the classes in schools that want to take part.

That a secular ethics course would be named after a Saint would have wrapped the needle around the stop of most irony meters, but not blown the fuse.

The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney Robert Forsyth says he does not have a problem with a high-quality ethics course but they should not be run at the same time at special religious education.

“It’s the kind of course which is not an alternative to a religious course it’s a different kind of course and in fact that’s the whole point,” he said.

“Christians…could do very well to go to the ethics course.”

*BOOOOOM*

That was 8.9 on the Richter Irony Scale!