SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL
FROM THE SCHOOL CHAPLAIN FATHER ANDREW ROBINSON What are the pandemic years teaching us, and how are they changing us? As 2022 draws to a close, these are the questions many of us are questioning in our minds. The year was a year of two distinct halves. The first six months were spent in the shadow of the disruption and unpredictability of the Omicron waves. Still, in the second, it started to feel like normality had returned: carnivals, in-person assemblies and chapels, and the smiles of staff and students once again lighting the corridors of the School. Some things need rebuilding: we are learning to sing together again and rediscovering the joy and fullness of gathering together, particularly as entire sections of the School can now be together in one venue, the new Snow Concert Hall. We spend much time at School discussing what life is all about. Whether in conversation with philosophers, theologians and poets in RaVE and Philosophy or in passing moments between classes, the question of what matters in life comes up in various ways. I often find myself returning to the pithy words of the Hebrew prophet Micah’s account of ‘the good life’: He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) One striking thing about this is that practising justice and mercy – not to mention humbly walking with God – can only be done in community with others. The isolation so many have experienced during the pandemic has made many of us realise how deeply we need warm and deep connections with others and how hard it is to find meaningful community.
5 | CGS | Annual Report 2022
