A Uniting Church coeducational independent day and boarding school on Kaurna Country, Adelaide, South Australia
Early Learning to Year 12
A New Year. For students, new teachers and new subjects. For teachers, new students and classes. For Westminster school, new buildings. For families, even new routines.
Does the new year offer a new start? I heard so many people amidst various challenges of last year say, “I can’t wait until 2018 is over”. As if the passage of time, the mere turning of pages to a new calendar would re-direct fate.
In some ways a new year does bring hopes of a fresh start (although it is already the second month of the ‘new’ year). Maybe some things will be different. Perhaps the changes that 2019 rings do offer beginnings; for parents and students a never before encountered year level, different faces amongst the staff, opportunities that didn’t exist before.
Rather than relying on the clock or the calendar, I like to think that each and every day is the offer of a new start. Faith is as timely as the sunrise. Waking each morning breathes a gift. Forgiveness leaves what was behind and opens what is to come, even forgiveness of one’s own missed opportunities.
Not just a new year. A new day. A new moment.
Rev Phil Hoffmann
School Chaplain