Chaplains’ Chat

Last week our Year 11 students participated in their Step Up Camp. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to reflect on their own lives and where they have come thus far, the people that have influenced them and the virtues that they think are important in their lives as well as those that they want to develop and grow into their future. One of the key aspects of the Camp was seeing the deep importance and need for growing relationships. Not only with their peers but with family and those around them. It is certainly a vital component of life for all of us.

This Term in Chapel we are looking at the question of who we are as people. If we were to ask the people of Sydney we would no doubt get many and varied responses to the question. One of the foundational parts of the Bible in describing who we are as people is seven words found in Genesis 1:26, whereby God says: “Let us make mankind in our image.” It is a wonderful reminder of not only our dependence upon God as our Maker, but also the inherent value we all have as humans. While many have tried to reflect on what these words mean, there are certainly key aspects of human existence that reflect our being made in God’s image. As humans, we are relational, we are rational, we are meant to rule God’s world (under him), we are moral and we are spiritual. Perhaps the first thing most people would say about ourselves is the importance of relationships. This is what we are made for! Of course, the wonderful news of the Bible is that we can have a loving relationship with our Creator God. May we continue to cultivate loving relationships with all of those around us.

Rev Anthony Benn
Chaplain