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Somerville House celebrates spiritual life of the school

Somerville House students cut the Chapel’s birthday cake. Photo by Stephanie Grorud and courtesy of Somerville House

IN AUGUST the Somerville House community held its annual Chapel Week, a five day program of activities commemorating the commissioning of the Chapel and celebrating the spiritual life of the girls’ school which is based in South Brisbane.

This year the activities centred around the theme Friendship and included a birthday party for the Chapel, a praise celebration lead by the Chapel band and a celebration breakfast for parents, staff and students.

Key elements of friendship such as trust and communication were highlighted through a range of activities including a blind eating activity that challenged blindfolded girls to feed their partners a messy concoction of green jelly and custard.

The School’s Senior Chaplain, Chris O’Gorman, said the week’s activities had been developed to help explain and demonstrate the teachings of Jesus to the students in an engaging and relevant way, and to allow the Christian students an opportunity to share their faith at school.

“The theme Friendship was extended to look at how we can be God’s friends and what we can expect in our relationship with God,” said Ms O’Gorman.

Year 12 student and Chapel Prefect Amy Schmidt was also very positive about what Chapel Week achieved.

“It was great to see everyone so enthusiastic and open to God during the week and to see the different year levels mixing so well and having fun,” she said.

The 2009 Chapel Week also included the inaugural Chapel Week Breakfast involving more than 80 parents, students and staff coming together to share breakfast while reflecting on the role of the School in developing the spiritual life of individuals.

Somerville House Principal Dr Ness Goodwin, parent Dr Ranjeny Thomas and Year 12 student, Tasha Haran, addressed the gathering to reflect on the school’s spiritual life from different perspectives.

Ms O’Gorman explained that the breakfast was the School’s first gathering of its faith community in this way.

“Now parents and staff members can identify each other as part of the School’s faith community and maybe this will lead to further opportunities to support each other in the future.”

Student involvement also played a crucial role in the success of Chapel Week with Chapel Prefect Amy Schmidt and Chapel Convenors Katie Desoe and Monica Craswell having the important role of supporting the School’s Chaplains in promoting God’s message throughout the School.

Somerville House operates under the ownership and governance of the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Assoc-iation (PMSA) and seeks to provide the opportunity for members of the school community to engage meaningfully with the Christian gospel and nurture a sense of a relationship with God for individuals.

Photo : Somerville House students cut the Chapel’s birthday cake. Photo by Stephanie Grorud and courtesy of Somerville House