From the Chaplains
You may have heard this before: that God is love.
You may have read or heard the powerful words from the book of 1 John, chapter 4 verses 7-8, which was written in Ephesus probably between 95 – 100 CE:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Last week at school we celebrated the International Day of Peace with students making peace doves, and chapel services dedicated to inter-faith understanding and peace between all people and nations.
Reverend Manas Ghosh from St John’s Uniting Church Wahroonga came to share with Year 11 and 12 his wisdom from years of working in the Inter-Faith space from within the Uniting Church.
He spoke about the importance of us looking at each other’s faces and seeing not differences, or otherness, but our brothers and sisters.
“We are all children of God, part of the one family; humanity.”
Each year Rev. Ghosh organises an Inter-Faith prayer service, and this year it will be held at Knox Chapel on Thursday 21 September at 11.00am. Some of the Pymble Religion and Ethics students will be attending, and the Year 10 Elective Music students will be singing. All are welcome.
God is Peace. God is Love.
God is not just loving. God IS love. God’s very essence, or nature, is love.
Although our limited human minds cannot really ever hope to grasp this, we can get a snippet of understanding of the depths of God’s love when we look at the mystery of the Trinity.
The three persons of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.
Three in one and one in three.
They are not people – for they are not human. Not human at all. But they are each distinct. One will, but distinct. Different, but the same.
So, for want of a better English word, we’ll call them persons.
We have another English word that we can use to describe the union of these three – the ‘Godhead’. Or, we can just call them ‘God’.
Together, these three persons are perfect. Whole. Complete. God does not need anything additional to Godself to make God complete. Not us. Not anything.
Now imagine these three persons are united in a kind of eternal, dynamic, ever-moving, ever-present dance. A kind of fluid, never-still, never-static, ever-flowing movement of relationship. It’s an eternal movement of perfect self-giving, self-giving, self-giving – and mutual receiving, receiving, receiving – between the three of them.
In other words, a movement or relationship of perfect love. And this blissful, self-giving love is not just their combined action, it is their very identity. Together, they ARE love.
So here at Pymble, we chaplains try to let our students know that they are loved by a God who IS love.
And that we as a community need to try to life in a way that is self-giving (and receiving) – welcoming in the other, inviting in the stranger, celebrating that which is different or distinct from ourselves. This is love.
Inclusion, not exclusion.
Acceptance, not judgement.
Invitation, not banishment.
In the spirit of non-judgemental inclusion, acceptance, invitation and love, Pymble Secondary students enjoyed a ‘Wear it Purple’ mufti day last Friday, with the gold coin donations going to the Wear it Purple organisation, which provides mental health and other support for the LGBTQIA+ community.
I am proud to be part of a Uniting Church community, in which we celebrate peace, inter-faith understanding and unity in diversity – a community which fosters a love for the other.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Blessings on your week.
Edwina O’Brien
Assistant Chaplain