Chapel

There are religious buildings which are so steeped in centuries of prayer and worship that they have within them a sense of the holy. As soon as you enter them you are aware of a presence which tells you, in T. S. Eliot's words, that "you are not here to verify, instruct yourself, or inform curiosity or carry report. You are here to kneel where prayer has been valid." Such buildings are, to use Philip Larkin's phrase, serious houses on serious earth.

Larkin's phrase comes from his poem Church Going. The writer stops at a church. He encounters "seats and stone and little books; sprawlings of flowers;.... some brass and stuff up at the holy end; the small neat organ; and a tense, musty unignorable silence, brewed God knows how long." At the end of his visit he reflects that "the place was not worth stopping for. Yet stop I did: in fact I often do, and always end much at a loss like this, wondering what to look for."

Larkin says of the building: "It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,

Are recognised, and robed as destinies.

And that much never can be obsolete,

Since someone will forever be surprising

A hunger in himself to be more serious,

And gravitating with it to this ground,

Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in."

Few Peterites would admit very often that it pleases them to be in chapel. But, a serious house on serious earth it is. And it is a house to grow wise in. Education must be about growth in wisdom as well as in knowledge. It must insist that know-how and cleverness, important though they are, are not in themselves the way to wisdom.

A new millennium dawns in four and a half years time. The evidence suggests that the great advances in microelectronics, in biological control and in the communications revolution, do not bring us any nearer to answering the fundamental questions about our existence: what are we, what we are to do and what we are to become; questions about our nature, our purpose and our destiny. These are the questions which the wise should reflect on and pursue. A lofty ideal it may be, but my hope is that chapel — the thrice-weekly ritual of words and music — nurtures at least a willingness to consider these fundamental questions and the implications of how they are answered.

I am grateful to all those who have this year contributed to the chapel's role of being a serious house on serious earth. We have welcomed the Reverend Simon Stanley (a local parish priest who is also involved with religious broadcasting), the Reverend David Wilbourne (the Archbishop's domestic chaplain) and Father Barry Orford (from the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, who again spent a week with us). The school's Amnesty International Group led a week's chape). David Hughes prepared us for Remembrance and the Headmaster gave the address at the Remembrance Service. Ian Lowe and Dick Hubbard responded to two provocative addresses I had given on the purpose of education. The Archbishop of York, on his last visit to St. Peter's before his retirement, presided at our Service of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. He baptised three Peterites and confirmed thirty pupils from St. Olave's and St. Peter's.

The occasional Services — Choral Evensong, Advent Carol Service and Words and Music for Lent — have been well supported. Our Christmas Carol Service was a fine and inspiring occasion — helped, as always, by its setting in the Minster. We again contributed to the Minster's Epiphany Procession. The termly School Eucharists for the whole school have continued, as have the Sunday evening Eucharists which continue to meet the needs of a faithful few. The Headmaster preached at the leavers' Service on the penultimate day of the school year, and he did me the honour of inviting me to preach at our Commemoration Service in the Minster.

John Brown, the former Director of Art, died in May and his funeral was held in the chapel. There was a large congregation, the choir sang, Keith Pemberton came back to play the organ (he and John began their careers here on the same day in 1954) and Keith Coulthard gave the address.

At the Leavers' Service a new Lectern was used for the first time. It has been given by Stephen Whalley, the retiring Head of School, and his family and I am very grateful to them for their generosity. It is a very fine piece of oak furniture, and has been made in the Mousey Thompson workshop.

Our charitable giving this year is being given to the British Red Cross, SNAPPY (Special Needs Activities and Play Provision for York) and the Eating Disorders Association (a charity for help and understanding around anorexia and bulimia).