30 July 2024
Jenny Sonneman
On Thursday, St Paul’s Cathedral was filled with 600 or so students from our 29 Victorian Anglican schools. They were not just skipping classes for the afternoon; these students had volunteered to attend the biannual Combined Anglican Schools Service. The students were the special guests, and they lead much of the service. We heard our students play, sing and speak, from the processional, with a Year 11 student playing the organ, and throughout the service, including an extended Call to Worship, dramatic Bible readings, a testimony from a recently graduated student, and prayers, and a sung blessing at the completion. Dotted throughout the service were two string orchestras and choirs from various schools.
The theme of the service was pilgrimage, and all who attended were encouraged to seek God and to experience his leading and his love. At the very centre of the Service was a reading and sermon on Jesus’ journey with his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Archbishop Philip Freier wonderfully explained the text and helped us all to seek Jesus and to share the blessings of knowing Jesus with our communities. He spoke warmly about the project in Kenya that our Anglican schools are engaging in with Anglican Overseas Aid.
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For many of our students, this was their first time in the cathedral, and they were struck by the grandeur of the building, the music that sounded so heavenly and by the attention paid to God’s words in the Bible. We hope and pray that they were inspired to seek and follow the Lord Jesus who was honoured. We long for our students to go back to their schools and have more chats with their chaplains and one another about this amazing God who is with us every step of our life.
At the completion of the service, there was a very special presentation to Dr Freier and Mrs Joy Freier. They were extensively thanked for their years of encouragement and support to Anglican Schools and the principals in particular. They were fittingly presented with gifts of a pilgrim staff and pilgrim purse. The staff was made by a student and the purse was made from images of the land where each of the schools is situated. They were asked to keep our schools and students in their hearts as they continue their pilgrimages beyond 2025. May God continue to bless our schools, their leadership and students for many years to come.
Jenny Sonneman is chaplain at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar.
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