Issue 1 - 2024 - Swan Valley Anglican Community School

From the Chaplain

New Year Message

Greetings to all in the School community in the name of the Lord Jesus. May his grace, mercy and peace be with you all.

The start of the Australian school year coincides with three important dates in the church’s calendar, that annual cycle which, while moving us all forwards through life, gives shape and pattern for today and a connection with those who have walked the path of life before us.

On 25 January, we remember the Conversion of St Paul. He turns, almost instantly, from persecutor of Christians, to one of the greatest Christian teachers and leaders. We owe much of the New Testament of the Bible to him.

St Paul had a conversion experience. We may experience something of this as we change from school holiday mode to back-to-school mode, changing our sleeping and waking habits, mealtimes, clothing and being subject to a timetable that is not our own, but helps us to fit everything in.

Paul felt that all his knowledge and experience was worthless compared with the faith that he discovered, and with the love of God that accepted and welcomed him, for all his faults and his history. No matter what has passed, we can all be in the process of conversion, from who we are to who we could be.

At the end of January we also observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Anglican bishops from around the world have been meeting with their Roman Catholic counterparts in Rome and in Canterbury for the last week or so.

As well as Christian unity, the search for the unity of the people of the world could not be more important than at this time of rising conflict and humanitarian crises. Although part of one human family, we so readily divide and construct boundaries that exclude difference and challenge. In our school, as part of our Anglican identity, we want to be inclusive, recognizing the God-given value of each individual.

Candlemas, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, is celebrated each year on 2 February. For many Christians it is a time to pack away Nativity figures and take down Christmas trees and lights. For Christians, Christmas starts on 24 December at sunset, and lasts between 12 and 40 days.

The festival of the Presentation celebrates when Mary and Joseph, in fulfilment of the Jewish law, took the baby Jesus to the Temple 40 days after his birth. They presented their child to God, just as all Jewish families did, and prophets in the Temple spoke of his significant future.

It is a wonderful feast day to observe at the start of the school year. Parents and carers, in a sense, present their children to us as an Anglican school, and entrust us with their pastoral care and education, in its broadest sense. We look forward to what might lie in the future, laying foundations now for the roles they will play in the world. We work together as an Anglican community to encourage and support each other.

These three Christian festivals inspire us to conversion (becoming the best we can be), unity (living together in peace) and entrusting ourselves and each other to the future, by laying sound foundations.

As chaplain, I am pleased to hear from families who wish to contact me regarding any matter, whether religious or not. I offer my prayers for a blessed school year 2024.