Chaplain's Corner September 12th and 19th

This week has been another week when I have valued the privilege I have working across the school, from Nursery to Sixth Form.

In Reception class this week we sang ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’, replacing ‘the whole world’ with the name of each pupil in the class in turn. I explained that in the bible God said, through the prophet Isaiah, ‘I have carved you on the palm of my hand.’ We know that God is holding us because God has told us that he is. ‘I can’t feel God holding me,’ one of the pupils said. Just as we don’t notice that we are breathing in air but would soon notice it if we weren’t, we don’t notice or feel God holding us because he always is. We would soon notice it if we were to fall out of God’s hand.

On Thursday we had a lovely Reflection Day with Year 12. The theme of the day was ‘New Beginnings / Embracing New Opportunities.’ We planted some spring-flowering bulbs, symbolising new beginnings that just like the Year 12 students will be nurtured and will grow and flourish over the next few months. We thought about new opportunities that arise as a result of being in sixth form and about some of the reasons why people do, or do not, take advantage of such opportunities. All this was framed under the words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

On Friday it was Year 7’s turn for a Reflection Day, with a focus on friendship. Like Year 12, these students are at an exciting and new stage in their lives. While examining friendship and strengthening friendship we were reminded that Jesus said, ‘I do not call you servants any longer, I call you friends.’ During the day the Year 12 students joined the Year 7s for an hour, ‘Big Sisters’ joining their ‘Little Sisters’. Friendship extends throughout the school, not just within individual year groups.

How wonderful to have been reminded within the context of the relationships that we have with one another that God holds us in the closest possible relationship with himself. Jesus is our friend, with us always. God the Father holds us in the palm of his hand.

Mr George

Mr George, School Chaplain

Season of Creation

In our Senior School assemblies over the past two weeks we have reflected on the fact that in the eyes of the Catholic Church and many other Christian communities we are currently in the Season of Creation (1 September – 4 October). The theme of this year’s Season of Creation is ‘Peace with creation.’

Recently I read a review of an exhibition currently on in Edinburgh of work by the environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. Everything in the exhibition is sculpted or produced from material that the artist has gathered in the countryside: fallen tree branches, leaves, clay, slate, pebbles, thorns. The exhibition encourages the visitor to revel in the beauty of the natural world and also to appreciate our dependence on that world. One exhibit, for example, named ‘Oak Passage’, consists of many many oak tree branches, blown from trees in high winds, arranged as an inviting border lining a path along which to walk. The floor of the room housing the exhibit is an oak floor; the exhibit is a reminder that the wood of the floor being walked on has come from what was once a living tree.

Finding out more about the exhibition there was another exhibit that particularly provoked my thought. It is called ‘Fence’ and from a distance it looks as though it is constructed from reeds, or perhaps thin twigs, carefully woven together. Closer examination though shows that ‘Fence’ is made of barbed wire. It symbolises that whilst we think of the countryside as being all about beauty and open space, there are elements of the countryside that are less pleasant, that produce challenges, and sometimes barriers to be overcome.

Andy Goldsworthy’s exhibition comprises entirely of material found in the countryside environment. The branches, leaves, clay, slate, pebbles and thorns are all gifts from God. The one ‘uglier’ material in the exhibit is the one part that has not come directly from God – the barbed wire is the one thing made by people. The ‘Fence’ is not God’s, but is human’s.

Perhaps this is a reminder of our responsibility to protect creation and to keep it beautiful. It may also be a reminder that just as the fixing of barbed wire changes the environment in which it is placed, each of us changes the world, just by being in the world. We can change the world for the better not with sharp edges or by putting up barriers but with warmth and with love.