Qui diligit Deum

Qui diligit Deum Reference has already been made to the virus and its effects on Chapel life at the end of the article I wrote here last term. Thanks and plaudits were given to all who have given of themselves to the life of the Chapel over this academic year. There is no need to repeat them here.

So instead there is a different litany of thanks to those who have ‘logged on’ week after week to attend Chapel services remotely over Microsoft Teams: Sundays at 10.30am; Fridays for Benediction at 8.50pm and most particularly Wednesday-by-Wednesday for the School Eucharist at 8.30am. Over the course of the term, by praying for a different House at each School Eucharist, we have prayed by name for each and every one of our pupils.

Under certain circumstances, it has been possible for just a few of those on site to attend worship. It has been rather wonderful to see, at different times, Angela Brennan, Andrew Bishop, Andrew Betts, Nick Baldock, Kevin Perrault and Catherine Reeve, amongst others, cautiously, carefully and gingerly find their place in Chapel. Goodness, we have missed the Verger, on furlough, but M Perrault has taken his place behind the camera as we have recorded the 12 episodes of Faith with Father Richard, with Mr Mason at the organ console. These have, in a sense, taken the place of the actual Chapel service for all and they have been sent out every week for pupils, parents and OLs to watch. They are now gathered in one place at vimeo.com/channels/fwfr and I do hope you will look at them. Each is about five minutes and takes as a starting point a particular place in Chapel as inspiration for a short talk, Bible passage, prayer and a verse from a hymn. For example, the painting of The Agony in the Garden by John Linnell in the North Aisle, given by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, was used in this way. I have much enjoyed making these videos and it has been encouraging to see them appreciated, to the extent that our local MP asked to put them on his website.

In all that has been lost let us not forget the privilege of belonging to a community of mutual encouragement in which each has played their own role. This has been my experience of our school this term and it has been humbling for me to play my part and to support this with prayer, reflection, meditation and the offering of the Eucharist. Part of that has not just been the weekly worship but also preparing special services for Founder’s Day and the Leavers’ Service, also to be found at vimeo.com/channels/fwfr

In that last service I used these words by T S Eliot from the poem East Coker from the Four Quartets to guide our Leavers on their way.

‘ … Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter. Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter. We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For a further union, a deeper communion Through the dark cold and the empty desolation, The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.’

Fr Richard