» Chaplains' letter

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St John’s College Chapel Notes

The delegates to the “St John’s 2020 Conference” agreed unanimously that the Christian faith and Anglican heritage were central to the nature of the school and should be maintained and developed in the future. This is an important facet of the school’s life in a world where the pace of development renders much of what is taught in the classroom obsolete within a decade. In a new South Africa and shrinking world a lot of the old certainties can no longer be relied on to provide a framework for life in the future. And into this fleeting world the unchanging God of scripture speaks and provides a rock on which to build one’s life. Thus when the “floods” of the future rage about life, the house on the rock will stand firm.

 

Chapel

For this reason the centrality of the faith in the life of the school is so important, and is significantly represented by the physical centrality of the chapel on the St John’s campus. The services in the chapel also provide a pivot around which much of the daily and weekly life of the school is balanced. All the pupils in the Prep., College and Sixth Form attend Mass once a week. The College and Prep have chapel services on Monday and Friday conducted by the chaplains, members of staff and the boys themselves, with each house in the college taking turns to lead the service. Week by week the houses have excelled in what they have done. The Pre-Prep comes to the Crypt chapel every Tuesday for a short service; and there are services in the Crypt every Sunday evening for our boarders and visitors. We have a number of special services namely Solemn Evensong, Songs of Praise, and Taize Mass on Sunday evenings once each term.

 

Special Services

Every school term commences with a staff gathering in the chapel for Mass. In the first week of the year we hold a Combined Mass on the Mitchell field, attended by all pupils, where Prefects are inducted and members of Council are commissioned, asking for God’s blessing on the roles these people will play during the year. On Gaudy Day, while the Old Johannians attend Mass in the chapel, a simultaneous Combined Service is held on Mitchell field. Eagle Awards, which acknowledge a lived expression of the faith in service to the community, are presented to pupils. Life-Time Eagle Awards are presented to identified Old Johannians for outstanding service to the community. On Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning services are held for participating players from schools attending our Easter Rugby Festival. An annual Remembrance Day Service is held on 11 November at 11h00 to thank God for all those who gave their lives in service of the community. The Pre-Prep enjoy a Mothers’ and a Fathers’ service, a Christingle service and our Grade 0 boys participate in Nativity plays – all particularly special for the young boys. Christmas is celebrated with a Combined Carol Service at St. Mary’s Cathedral, the school’s ‘Mother Church’, where the unfolding story of salvation in the scriptures is read against a background of superb singing and wonderful music. A few weeks later the Pre-Prep Carols by Candlelight is held on the main rugby field where there is much earnestness and even more fun from the boys. The Matrics’ year draws to a close with a Valedictory Mass in the chapel. This is a moving service as the boys, now young men on the verge of their lives, prepare to leave St John’s after 5 or 12 or even 13 years at the school. It is a privilege of the school that this farewell takes place in the context of a church service as the school community commits them to God’s care as they leave and go into the world to continue their lives. The Preparatory school also bids farewell to the Upper 3’s, as they prepare to move on into the College or senior, with a Valedictory Mass.

 

Growing Faith

During the year, a number of boys who have come to faith are baptised, and others make public their confession of faith at Confirmation. A number of Prep boys are baptised whilst others are admitted to communion in the chapel. This growing faith is seen not only in formal services, but in the growing number of boys and girls who have joined Cell Groups and regularly meet together for fellowship, worship, prayer, study and support. Two or three times a term all the cells meet together for a fun evening of worship, teaching, prayer and games at a Cell Celebration.

 

Thanks

We are particularly thankful to God for the rich heritage of faith that is part of the fabric of the school, and also for the way He is blessing the spread of His Gospel within the school and beyond. Each boy that comes to faith – and there have been many during the course of the year – stands as a witness within the school, deepens the faith level at the school and helps us to be light and life and love, in keeping with the school’s motto Lux, Vita Caritas, in a world that desperately needs these graces.