Monthly Archives: October 2016

Being Angry

This week began with World Mental Health Day and we’ve been following this theme in Senior School Chapel. The following piece is informed by some conversations this week:

Being angry is not a sin,

to those sinned against

by neglect, addiction or abuse.

Being angry is not weird

when you see how unfair the world is

and feel powerless to change it.

 

I’d punch a wall,

rip the curtains,

shout and scream

if my head was full

of red, red anger.

 

You wrote a story about New York;

people dead in the streets.

You wrote another about your life

but you told no one.

 

Some people tell you

don’t make excuses,

but I’ll tell you now

You’re doing better:

talking, exercising,

trying Tai-Chi.

 

Being angry is a thing,

a response, a state.

It’s real and it’s happening now,

and you can change the world:

you do have the power.

Chapel+BFG=Fun!

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We had a return visit from the BFG today. One pupil in year 5 said I thought the BFG would be bigger than that, which is fair enough, although if he was much bigger we might have had trouble fitting him in.

Since his last visit we have all been trying to find him a country in which to live since he doesn’t want to live in Giantland anymore. Each class was assigned a country to research and had to present their findings to the BFG so he could choose a new country. I just wish it was as easy of that for children looking for a new country today.

After all the countries were allocated, Scotland was left over, so I got Scotland which was fine with me because I love Scotland and think it would be a great place for the BFG to live. After all, Scotland was created by the female Giant, Beira, who according to legend created the mountains and lochs and stirs up the whirlpool of Corryvreckan. Scotland has been home to many giants and some still live there, including the Giant Pandas of Edinburgh Zoo and Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.

Scotland is a place of early memories for me: the rain in Ullapool, the beware of the Adders sign in the Cairngorms. Most of all Scotland is a place of deep spirituality, a cradle for Christianity in Britain at Whithorn and Iona. These have been described as thin places: places where the distance between heaven and earth is narrow and the spiritual domain palpable.

Actually when you have the BFG in your Chapel then it feels like that there too as we had fun together. Not that Chapel is just about fun but on World Mental Health Day it is an important dimension of life worth celebrating for all young people, and a time to remember those still looking for a country to call home.

It’s hard to believe

There are many conversations happen at the Chapel Door. This reflection, which you are welcome to use, is based on a few conversations in the last few days.

It’s hard to believe

God looks down on Haiti

With the same love;

Hurricane’s come and go,

And the twenty-four seven news moves on:

Remember children in Haiti.

It’s hard to believe

God looks down on Aleppo

With the same love;

Bombs come crashing down,

And the twenty-four seven news moves on:

Remember children in Aleppo.

It’s hard to believe

God looks down on Bradford

With the same love;

When bullying gets you down

And the twenty-four seven news moves on:

Remember children in Bradford.

It’s hard to believe.

Is God looking down?

Or is God in Haiti now,

Shoveling through mud,

Or in Aleppo now,

Digging through rubble,

Or in Bradford now,

Standing up to bullying.

Because if it’s hard to believe

The best thing you can do,

Is to do the unbelievable:

We take a stand with Haiti, Aleppo and Bradford.

 My God,

at time you’re hard to believe in,

when hell comes closest

and hope seems to trickle into the ground.

At times like this,

May the smallest spark of love,

Seen in the out stretched hand,

Keep us alive to your presence in us all,

And may that give us the will to believe.

 

Chapel outdoors

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Beyond the chapel door there are lots of places to choose for an outdoor chapel opportunity. There’s the playground, where we once danced ‘Lord of the dance’ and a piece of grass where we once did ‘The Enormous Turnip ‘.
This school year I was determined to hold chapel outdoors sometimes after reading about The Forest Church Movement. I love to worship in the open air myself so I really wanted to introduce this option more regularly. I also wanted to emphasise that we don’t just do chapel in chapel.
So far this term (currently it’s week 5) we’ve had Preschool Chapel Storytime outside, in their own playground. We did a circle story about a boat in a stormy sea making the wind and waves together followed by some songs.
We also had years 1 and 2 chapel outside when we did the Jesus life line string game. I have described this activity before: you need a long bit of string and some pegs. We put pegs on the string together as we remember things from Jesus’ life.
Today we had chapel for years 3 to 6 outside on the grass tennis court (no tennis happening at the time). It was a bit last minute as I had only discovered the chapel was not available 10 minutes before we were due to start.
We did a rather bigger circle activity with about 60 children in the circle. As we sang the song ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands ‘ We passed a world around the circle. It was quite windy but nothing like Haiti so we spent a moment thinking of children there and in other parts if the Caribbean experiencing extreme weather conditions today. Then we threw the ball to each other as we prayed for people and places we are concerned about: our families, our school, children in other countries including Syria and Pakistan and homeless people were some if them.
It was about 10 minutes altogether but enough to mark the end if the school day.

On our school and on our working
The help of God