Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 1999

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What @ wonde@t, I privilege it I'ds to be present at the inspiring Easter celebration in St John 's Cathedral lust evening. Easter is the greates 1313!iv@I of the Christian year. ftprovides us @" with the OPPo, twinity to rel7ec! upon that it o"r end is our beginning dad out ofde@th comes life. Die evening w@s a in^"telo the tragedy of twenty years ago in whic/, nineteen sinde"ts dadjb"r adults were involved d", ing a camping weeke, ul to visit the site of the Sri"son Air Crash near Ch, ismms Creek The orcident occurred ,he dry dyer the 1979 Easter Celebration which many of those, including one of o"r stq@: John Stainjbrd and hi^ wife @tte, Ichd. I thank at the stq8; swig"ts andp@rents who helped to nuke this year's service so relv@rdi"g @"d so mentor@ble. lit Assembly on Wednesday I miked to the girls about the enormous import that the tr@gedy had "porn the School and on @11 of those who were in the School at the time. I then read to them

senti, "e, ,! rimt .. these incidents (rimt she reco"nts in the letter) seem fairly trivial in the gyeater scheme of things, but they are memories that I have held onto, particularly in the years since the accident. As Saran approaches Year 8 at BGGS I feel sad that she win not be one of Mr Stainford's students. He made a geat impression on us and we loved han. O"r Mentori@! Owldoor Edwc@tio" Centre mow slamds as a peruu"a, t dad positive men, on@! not only to John Slamjbrd and h, ^ wilt! IC"e!Ie, biff also to Hate" Gah@it and It"jar, Skai"co who lost their lives on that tragic dry as well as providing @Jilting trib"te to the courage and detemi"@!ion of @11 those w1,0 $"rvived. Ukewise o"r Mentori@! Garden outside the Auditorium IArtBlock whichjb@mres @ giant rockfiom Chrisim@s Creek provides @ q"jet place to reflect upon ,he lives of@" those dyerted by this Ir@gedy.

The Principal acknowledged the 20th An Iversary of the bus accident in the BGGS News dated Friday I6 April 1999 w th the following article

a lefter th@t l had received from a Ibmier shade"t of the School, Pain Greatorex (Stem) Ivho in 1975, had

signjj7c@"t atect on her ichile she w@s

at school, TVhich in itseyis an

e"or"tows t, tb"te to the "ian. Such Mr St@,,!ford as her Biology teacher. inbutes also recognise the e"on, ,0"s in it she reflects upon the dyect th@I ingj7"e"ce however, that @ school and the tragedy and in p@, tic"Jar the death teachers in it con have o, , "s a"

of Mr Stainjbrd had on her. She Feeo""ted how e had had such a

She conel"ded expressing the

Inb ' Memorial O"tdoor Education Ce", re

On the evening before, Thursday 15 April. at St Johns Cathedral the Reverend A1an Dale spoke to the audience and reljved some Which begin every funeral service , ,, I am of the memories at that time. His presentation is included here ''co'"; On An e ' e, says e for you. His message clearly defined the nature of the universal t hall h it d h h Sign of resurrection. behaves in me, shall never die. " From

There are some events and experiences in life which change decisively, profoundly, dramatically and penmanPnUy everything which comes after them. Exactty twenty years ago, one of those events occurred in the life of lisbane Girls Gram^ School On 21 April, 1979, just the day after or

Easter celebration for that year, John Stoatord, a member of our Science staff was pne of q first outdoor education adventuses to Chisimas Creek. The road gave way, the bus rolled. John and his wife, JaneUe and two students Halen Caban and ' Jinian Shames were med and a number of other and students were seriously injured or some, the loss and tragedy seemed like the end of the imie : the lime girls left without parents; the devastated fadlies and friends; the uncertain flintes of the injured. This would be the end of outdoor education. Perhaps the end of all bold innovation at Granimar altogether. But it was not like that. John Stoatord had been an outstanding teacher and a remarkable man. He had died tragically, mexplicably, urinecessadly but his spirit and vision for education in general and for outdoor education at BGGS in particular, did not die with him. indeed it took new life with even geater detennination in the hearts and minds of those he left behind, to see that his work went forward and with it his life and his inspiration. Chi, ham Creek Baster 1979, was not the end but the beginning of something which is still amVC and vital and POWing and an integal part of that ethos and experience which we call Girls Groinmar Spirit And so tonight 20 years later we remember and we give thanks. We pay tribute to those who died but whose lives are win with us. We pay tribute to the courage and the ongoing, indically changed lives of those who survived. We celebrate life out of death, victory out of defeat, hope out of despair, courage Dun of disappointinent, joy out of sorrow, beginntngs out of endings One of my lasting memories of being in England on study leave some years ago, was walking tinugli a church yard one early spring morning and near the church door was a farmly gave with masses of daffodils growing out of it and the inscription on the tombstone, the faint"ar words from St Johns Gospel

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From the beginimg, birth and deadi have been the frames and 00uses of the most basic concerns of human life. The sense of holy mystery sumounding the visible origins and end of life, has generated, across time, the most pervasive motifs of religious belief and practice. Fertility rituals and death cults dominated the religion of the ancient world, just as the symbols of birth and death are fundamental to the living faiths of the contemporary world. Humankind has always looked for renewed life out of the experience of death and has seen in the cycles of nature the universal sign of RESURXECTION - rife out of death, good out of evil, the assiarance that the good action never dies The fertility cults of the Ancient Fertile Crescent. were based on the certainty that in death is the way to new and richer life. The whole cultrue of ancient Egypt focused on the hope of new and funer life beyond the present. and the eternal principle that life is always stronger than death. The timidess sping festivals of the northern hemisphere celebrated the release and legenemtion of life from the cold clutch of winter's death. in the late Roman empire, the pattern took another fuertion. Easter, the Clinchan festival of the Resurrection, relates specifically to the profound historical event-expertenc on which the faith of the chumh is founded. But it also holds in common with the ancient Jewish festival of salvation, Passover, and the European spring festivals in which it gew up. the faith in the ultimate victory of life and goodness, the freeing and redemption of our human nature. 111 the death and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate sign of the universal theme "For now is Cadst risen from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. As by man came death, by man has come also the resumection of the dead. For as in Adam an die, even so in Christ shall an be made alive "

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kin Gard"n was establisheJ by The adjers Group an , M"mad"I to th. re wig an a ,hid*nt, wk, I. "t tl, "i" lire. in an ,.. id"n at Ckn, tm, , C"". I. on Ik* 21" Apti1 1979 H. Ian G, I, "n Jini, n Skim*, John Sham{orJ anale Stafford (nee Wheny We give thanks for the courage and saneaBness Blown by an thOBe who Burvived The Memorial G@rde" and 1118 insertp!io, , which appears on the PIaq, ,e on tile rock Photo: John Rowe"

GRAMMAR GAZETTE Amyl999 - Page 8