CHAPLAINCY 2022 – CONNECT!
Welcome to our Chaplaincy Program for 2022. This year it is renamed to Connect to reflect that Chaplaincy is a College-wide Program for both Penquite and Elphin Campuses.
This week we opened the school year with not only a blessing for students, teachers, parents and our community but also a blessing for the students’ school backpacks to ensure that all of their learning is given priority in their spiritual development.
Years 7-12 attended an Penquite Chapel Service in the HPEC whilst the Year 6’s participated in Scotch Oakburn’s very first Bush Chapel at the Valley Campus.
Year 6 students were engaged with reading the Biblical Genesis Creation Story so that they could hear how Christians and Jews alike made sense of their surroundings and beliefs. The surprise for the morning was Mr James Adams, Head of Education Outdoors, bringing out his guitar and assisting us all to sing ‘Kumbaya My Lord’. It was a great many years for some of us to remember the words and tune.
In each service, the Connect Program was laid out for the students so they knew what was on offer this year, not only for their development but also for their participation. To date, 16 students have expressed an interest for leadership opportunities now available to them as part of Connect.
In 2022, we have three pillars to our program:
- Self – Connecting to our souls and our own belief/values systems
- Hospitality – House Breakfasts called CafeConnect, which will start in the Junior School first semester, and in the Middle School in second semester; and
- ConnectSJ which stands for Social Justice and this year we have four programs chosen to honour the Covenant that the Uniting Church has with First Peoples through the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, which in Tasmania, is called leprena.
Grace Reynolds
Chaplain