From the Assistant Bishop
The Chapel Life is the
Heartbeat of our Anglican Schools
The Rt Revd Hans Christiansen Assistant Bishop
Since being consecrated Bishop in February earlier this year, I have had the wonderful privilege of visiting at least once all the Anglican schools in the Diocese, except our school in Esperance, which I am looking forward to visiting. It has been such a joy visiting our schools, engaging with students and staff and getting to know our school chaplains and principals.
While our Independent and ASC Anglican schools in Diocese of Perth vary in their emphasis, all our schools have a number of things in common. Central to all our Anglican schools is that they are all communities of faith who worship and believe in the one God as revealed in Jesus Christ. In all our schools we have chapels dedicated to the worship of the Trinitarian God. Some of our school chapels are old and traditional and some are new and modern. Some are huge and can fit entire sections of the school and some are small and only fit one year level. All our school Chapels function as islands of stillness, prayer and reflection amidst very busy educational communities governed by the school bell.
Our Anglican school chapels and our chapel life play a central and unique role in advancing the Anglican identity in our schools. Faith and worship in all our Anglican schools is invitational. It is offered to our staff and students, but it is not pushed upon anyone. We have a history of inclusion and diversity, and we are proud to be known as such. In Anglican schools we insist that faith is something that is worthy to be studied, critically engaged with and questioned, and it is something to be practiced in chapel. But it is important to note that, despite what some outside of our schools may claim, Anglican schools are not schools of indoctrination.
While we are proudly Anglican and we practise unapologetically our Christian faith throughout our schools, we also recognise that we have many members who don’t share the faith, and we respect that.
The worship in our schools is therefore open to the spirituality of each member of our community, and in many schools we offer opportunities for those who wish to become Christians through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Personally, it has been one of the great joys of my ministry as Bishop the past six months to baptise and confirm both staff and students in several of our schools this year.
While many of the students in our Anglican schools are not Christians and many describe themselves as agnostics, through our communal worship students learn to be still and reflective; and while many may not realise the importance of that reflective time while they are at school, they will no doubt reflect on its meaning and value later in life. For where else in society do young people get to have time of silence, meditation and reflection, if it were not for our Anglican school chapels?
The chapel and worship life of our Anglican schools are, or should at least be, the heartbeat of the spiritual life in our schools where students can simply be rather than always having to perform.
Anyone who has worked in an Anglican school and who has experienced, for example, a tragic death in the community, can testify how important a chapel is to the students and staff in such times. I remember so many times when I was a school chaplain when the chapels at my previous schools were flooded day after day and week after week with students wanting to come and light candles, write prayers, cry, or simply just sit in the quiet.
Our chapel and worship life - filled as it is with singing, celebration, joy, grief, tears, depth, honest sharing and listening to God in the scriptures – all bind us together. Think about it! Where else, but in our school chapels, do entire large communities come together in Australia to sing, grieve, praise and be silent and listen to ancient, sacred texts?
Some of our students and staff fall in love with Jesus Christ through the worship in our schools. Many come to deeply appreciate it, and for some it is not their thing. But all our students and staff in our schools are affected by our Anglican life of worship of God, and so it should be in an Anglican school, because our faith and our worship form the centre from which our ethos and all our teaching and learning flow.
I hope you enjoy reading about our Anglican schools in this edition of the Messenger and I conclude with congratulating Anne Ford who retired in June this year after 23 years of superb service as Principal of John Wollaston Anglican Community School.
May God bless you all.
+Hans