Our Upper and Middle School Term ended with our Carol Service. In my final address of the year, I asked your children to reflect on the plethora of adverts that they will see over the festive season as companies sell us short term ‘pleasures’ and tell us what we need in our lives. However, there was an advert that surprised me and I described the attached link below, parents, pay attention to the punchline at the end…!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ3ePGr8Q7k
I went on to talk about the difference between ‘Pleasure’ and ‘Happiness’ and asked Eesha Chandarana in 3K to simply light a candle as we focused our prayers at the end of the service. The singing was extraordinary and quite mesmerising as the Junior Choir, the Orley Singers and the Chamber Choir reminded us what ‘spiritual moments’ can be.
I have watched the news over the past months and been quite despondent at times, as we see how people are treating each other and our planet. I hear ignorant comments that suggest that religion is a cause, no, people are the only cause.
So coming together in this collective service that had young and old followers of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism gave me a much needed moment of hope, love and light. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our community a time of wonder over the break. I hope that the coming weeks are filled with so much more than simply pleasure, a fleeting emotion, but rather joy and deep happiness.
Tim Calvey