Founders Day 2024
Happy birthday, Cranbrook! Cranbrook’s first day of school was 22 July 1918. This week we celebrate our foundation, both physical and spiritual.
This year in Chapel we have been looking at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ sermon has been about the attitudes and actions of an upside-down kingdom where the exalted are the meek, the mourning, the persecuted, the pure and the peacemakers.
It ends with these words:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24)
What did he want people to do with his words? Build.
Jesus wasn’t interested in creating a merely intellectual philosophy, he was interested in changing lives. To put his words into action. To build our lives upon their foundation.
Now, Jesus knew a thing or two about building. He was raised by a builder (Joseph) and had likely been a builder for most of his life.
He knew good buildings need solid foundations, that good builders choose solid foundations.
We meet in the Vicars Centenary Building, which is so fitting for today, a day when we think about our foundations as a school.
Firstly, because a member of the Vicars family was a foundation member of the school, and then later Will Vicars, his ancestor, continued that spirit of philanthropy in contributing to the development of this facility.
Secondly, because the impetus to redevelop this site was in part because the previous building did not have a solid foundation and had begun to subside down the hill.
Any two buildings may look identical from outside, but time will tell if one hasn’t been built on a solid foundation.
The Founders established Cranbrook on the spiritual foundation of Jesus’ teaching. They chose a Reverend, F.T. Perkins, to be the first Headmaster. The one who established Cranbrook on the rock of Jesus’ teaching.
For him, and our founders, that was the foundation that would stand the test of time, the vagaries and storms of life, and be the best place to begin the task of building a school whose legacy of forming future generations would bear fruit whatever lay ahead.
And there were certainly challenges ahead. Think about when Cranbrook was started, during a World War. In its first year it faced a global pandemic, the Spanish Flu. Ten years later would be the Great Depression and two decades after its founding Cranbrookians would be fighting in another World War, including our second Headmaster Sir Iven Mackay who became the commander of the Australian 2nd Army as a Lieutenant General.
Starting a school to weather these unprecedented early decades was a risky venture and certainly wasn’t for their personal gain.
It was a courageous and generous decision to invest in the future of students they would never see or know, because that is what their teacher, Jesus, calls his students to do.
Your life, and mine, has been impacted by their choice, and the ongoing choice of countless others to commit to this institution their time and treasure so that we might be where we are today.
Founders’ Day is a day for gratitude, for inspiration, for an appreciation of our spiritual foundation and for a rededication to build, not on sinking sand, but upon the solid rock of Jesus’ words made manifest,
So, build. Build for others. Build to last.
‘Building’ for us may not be about starting a school, but it can be about the choices we make each day. To strengthen a friendship rather than break a promise, to give a kind word rather than crush someone’s spirit, to value humility rather than reward celebrity, to care more about our character than our reputation, to enjoy lifting others up rather than envying success. To build, rather than break.
The foundation has been set for us in Jesus’ example and teaching, may we be blessed when we build on such sure footing. Amen.
Rod Farraway
Chaplain