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Worship at St Aidan’s
The Reverend Gillian Moses, Chaplain St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School, QLD The worship life of St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School is a treasure entrusted to us by the Society of the Sacred Advent, the Anglican religious order who founded the school in 1929. As the Sisters’ days were formed by the daily offices, they brought much of that shape and structure to the school. And even as we have modernised and reimagined much of our worship, the central and formative role of worship remains.
The twin objectives of worship at school are to create space where students, staff and the wider school community may encounter God, and to do all we can to ensure the encounter is a positive one. Our context, as with many schools, is an increasingly secular and multifaith community, so worship must also be invitational and inclusive, while remaining authentically Anglican. Whether we achieve this is a question for others to judge. Part of being authentically Anglican is following the lectionary as closely as possible. Often major feasts like Easter and Christmas are celebrated slightly out of time, in order to include them in the school term, but the lectionary also invites us to remember the lives of the saints, or ‘friends of Jesus’ as I often call them. Year 3 might celebrate St Patrick’s Day by making trinity shamrocks and listening to Patrick’s story, while Prep and Year 1 celebrate the Annunciation by being in the garden with Mary, thinking about what angels are like and making flowers for Mary. St Julian offers hazelnuts and images of a mothering God, while Mary Magdalene reminds us of how highly Jesus regarded the ministry and friendship of women. Although Covid offered significant challenges over the past two-and-a-bit years, the Eucharist holds a central place in the community as a communifying action. There is power in
eating together as a way of belonging together, and all are invited forward to participate in the Eucharist or to receive a blessing. The power of Eucharist to create community was brought home to me last week on one of our Year 7 Quiet Days. Each of these days ends with a celebration of the Eucharist and it was so heartening to pronounce God’s blessing on a student who, all day, had been fasting as part of her observance of Ramadan. My goal is not to convert her (or anyone) to Christianity, but to honour and support her own faith commitment, even as I express the belief that the same God blesses and calls us all.
In our Junior School, Messy Church has become the chief way in which we celebrate our Christian festivals with K-Year 4 students. Messy Church offers a hands-on, experiential encounter with God’s story as we explore Easter, Pentecost, St Aidan’s Day and Christmas. In keeping with the intergenerational theme of Messy Church, parents, grandparents and younger siblings are invited along to join in the fun. There is singing, storytelling, messy activities which help students to engage with the story, and prayers written and led by the students themselves, right down to Prep. All this in an hour, with the help of some wonderful Junior School teachers and aides!
The sacraments of initiation also play an important part in the life of the school. All Year 5 students participate in preparation for Admission to Communion, and each year about a third of the cohort make their first Communion at a special service, with some of those students also first being baptised. This has been an effective missional tool, as families of these students express their own interest and curiosity about what their daughter is doing, and often decide they too would like to explore their own faith life more intentionally. This may lead to confirmation, or reception into the Anglican Church. Each year we ‘book the bishop’ long before we know if we will have candidates for confirmation, and each year those candidates emerge!
Finally, worship bookends students’, staff’s and families’ time at St Aidan’s. We begin each year with a Commencement Service, we celebrate student leadership in the Senior and Junior schools, and we conclude the student journey with a Transition Service for Year 6 and a Valedictory Service for Year 12. Staff also begin and end their year with corporate worship. The message is that our time here is begun and ended, and held all the while, within the love of God. It is God who calls us, God who inspires us, and God’s family to which we all belong.
At a time when people feel ever more divided, isolated and unvalued, the worship life of our school reminds them that they have a community to which they will always belong, and a God who loves them. It is the message the Sisters proclaimed in starting St Aidan’s and a message we continue to proclaim through word and sacrament, and in our being together. Congratulations to Mr Alan Dawson who was recently formally commissioned as the second Principal of Richard Johnson Anglican School (RJ). It was a significant service led by The Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel, the Archbishop of Sydney. We were delighted to welcome fellow Anglican Schools Corporation Principals and Board Members, amongst other distinguished guests, friends and family, to the school on this important day.
Alan Dawson said: “To lead a school such as RJ, is a tremendous honour and privilege. It’s difficult to put into words how I am feeling about today because it’s not every day you realise one of your dreams - something you’ve hoped for, worked hard for and dreamed the day would one day transpire.”
This year RJ celebrates 25 years of Christian education in Western Sydney. Much has happened in the intervening years, none more so than the growth in student numbers from 26 excited Kindergarten to Year 4 students in 1997 to over 1250 students being educated on two campuses in 2022.
RJ looks to continue growing courageous learners, connecting hearts and building community under the leadership of Principal Alan Dawson so that the school is the place to belong, to serve and at which to succeed.
Mrs Stephanie Ghali, Head of Enterprise & Culture Richard Johnson Anglican School, NSW
