1984 School Magazine

Liberal education demands searching for and discriminating among the things that are real and eternal and true. "Creat is truth and mighty above all things". "The truth shall make you free". So we are directed to focus above and beyond ourselves and the three dimensional limits of our material existence and to enter into relationship with the infinite. Only th us can we be set f ree from the arrogance and self - centredness which leads to despair, and be set free to Iove our neighbour as ourselves. It is only when we are able to share in the unlimited breadth of the divine mind and bottomless compassion of the divine heart that we can begin to enter into relationship with those around us which is tolerant and compassionate. This is what St. Paul had in mind when he wrote to his disciples. "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus". The Cospel f or today, the story of the Good Samaritan is familiar, but its full impact is often lost. When the good law abiding citizen is mugged, it is not the religious or even the respectable or dutifully charitable who comes to his aid. lnstead, it is the Samaritan, - the total outsider, the socially, politically and religiously unacceptable one . . . It is one thing to legislate for liberal education and to end discrimination on grounds of sex, colour, class, race and cre:ed. lt is another and more difficult task to cultivate the ethos in which it happens. One of the sad things about the history of the Christian tradition, including its present, is that its essence has been obscured or perverted by dogma, intolerance, sanctimonious self-righteousness, exclusiveness and lack of compassion. But the true Christian Community embodies those values which St. Paul enumerates in 1 Corinthians 13. lt does not seek to impose its doctrines and values on others, but it does seek to communicate and commend them. lt maintains its integrity without setting up barriers. lt opens its heart and mind to the beliefs and values of others without compromising its own deposit of f aith. lt actively promotes the expression and discussion of other beliefs and value systems. It maintains the tension of individual rights and comrnunity responsibility. lt sets its heart on goodness. As the nineteenth century Jesuit Frederick William Faber summed it up. But we make his love too narrow By false limits of our own And we magnify His strictures With a zeal He will not own. For the love of Cod is broader Than the measure of man's mind And the heart of the Eternal ls most wonderfully kind. t ln the name of Cod, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen. t

abandoning one's own foundations nor in neutralizing the enriching strengths of varying traditions in a bland and innocuous uniformity. lt is achieved in the cultivation of tolerance and appreciation gained through enquiry and understanding. Only thus is community strengthened and the individual spiritually and intellectually enriched. But all that is a preface to my main concern on this occasion and that concern is focused on the character of the Christian Community. As already observed, we do not and never did live in a Christian Society and yet most of us have been strongly influenced by the Christian tradition. Nevertheless, as T.S. Eliot insisted, the Christian Community is not necessarily one whose members all hold and practise that faith, let alone one dominated by ecclesiastical institutions imposing uniform dogma. ln fact those societies which have in the past most closely approximated to that situation have as often as not been anything but Christian in their outlook and operations. Consequently we need to be wary of those who in our own time are anxious to impose on society in general their own particular moral and intellectual strictures in the name of "Christianity". A Christian society is one which operates on certain principles and assurrlptions which depend neither on institutions nor on systematic theologies, valid and important as these may be in their places. On my shelves, I have a little book called'Set Your Heart on Coodness' - an approach to the great living religions. I would hope that one thing we all do have in common is just that - that we all do set out hearts on goodness, on fullness, on completeness as human beings. So firstly, the Christian Community is one that sets its heart on goodness. Secondly in that sense B.G.C.S. has always been both a Christian Community and a school ahead of its time. From its foundation, the school set its face against that spirit of sectarian rivalry that bedeviled the educational history of nineteenth century Australia. Furthermore it broke with narrow classical curricula and insisted on a broad based, liberal education for girls, putting them on an equal footing with their brothers. And so we had established our educational community reflecting the often obscured essence of the Christian faith. To achieve its fullness, the Christian Community needs and has only one rule and that is the rule of entry into and growth in positive relationship. "What must I do to have eternal life?" The answer our Lord gives is not a lecture on doctrine or ecclesiastical authority. He is not even speaking as a Christian to Christians or even as a Jew to Jews, but to one person who had got life sewn up to another who hadn't. "You shall love . . ." - love in two ways: Upward and outward. "You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbou r as yourself." "lf you want fullness of life (and note it is an offer and not a command) you must totally involve yourself with that which is not only above and beyond you, but that which is of ultimate importance.

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