One of the focuses for the Anglican Church this year has been hope. Hope25 is a campaign that has encouraged us to put our message of hope to the fore with our communities from Easter to Pentecost. A number of Anglican schools have picked up on this theme and have done creative things to engage students and staff with the message of hope that is at the heart of the gospel.
Recent world events had me feeling like having a season focusing on hope would not only be good for my school community but good for me personally. So hope became the theme of our school Easter Services this year. It was interesting to see how this message was so well received by students and staff. It seemed to strike a real chord as we all felt like we could use a shot of hope.
Anglican schools feel like they are naturally communities of hope. One of the great blessings of working with young people is that they are, on the whole, pretty positive about the future.
I was reminded of this last year. I had a tough year personally on a number of fronts. Generally, we can cope with the demands of working in an Anglican school when things are going well with life outside of school. However when life outside of school gets challenging then school can feel like a very demanding context. One of the things that kept me going last year was coming to work. I like to get to work early. My office is located in the middle of a busy corridor. I left my door open, being gently blessed by the sound of my school coming to life as students arrived full of hope filled conversations about the school day ahead.
In my preparations for our Easter Services, I came across a term that was a new one for me – hopepunk. Hopepunk was coined by fantasy author, Alexandra Rowland. She was wanting to offer a counter to what she perceived as the prevailing trend of fantasy novels termed grimdark. Grimdark books, like the Game of Thrones series, made their focus the worst of human nature. In contrast, hopepunk is a celebration of hopeful rebellion against a prevailing attitude of despair. While it passed me by at the time hopepunk was one of the Collins English Dictionary words of the year for 2019.
Religion can be a challenging word to define but one definition that I really warm to is provided by British art historian Neil MacGregor. He says ‘religion offers architecture of meaning in which people may find shelter and hope.’
A book I read recently by Alan Hillard was titled ‘Chaplains: Ministers of Hope.’ This title well sums up the type of ministry that we enjoy in our work as chaplains with the young people in our schools. We minister to young people in the message that we proclaim but they in turn minister to us with their innate sense of hope for the future.
At my school our Year 12 students’ year ends with a Valedictory Chapel held at St Paul’s Cathedral. At the end of this service the students process out of the cathedral into the heart of the city, symbolising their readiness to take on the world. It is an incredibly hopeful moment. A moment that is guaranteed to get parents a bit teary, staff feeling full of pride, and the chaplain grateful to God for the privilege of working with young people who are bringing a bit of hope into a hope deprived world.
So, what worked for you in your school community as you celebrated Hope 25?
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