Dear friends around the world,
To those old friends who are new on this list, welcome! I am sorry that you were left off. Some were on the old Presby list from my former parish which is seldom used these days! This email newsletter is to keep you in touch with Robin, Sheilagh, Christopher, David and Roxanne in New Zealand. We'd love to hear from you.We are reaching our second Christmas in New Zealand, and I write this delicately balanced between two family birthdays. So a bit of news for the many new members!
We moved here at the end of March 2006 in response to various things - family enthusiasm, the desire for a new beginning and opportunities for our children, and my growing passion for working in schools which developed on the South Coast of Natal. Leaving the parish there was really hard for me. I am pleased to report that it is doing well under the leadership of Damien Williams who will be ordained soon, and Denzil Lloyd-Evans, the Session Clerk and truly one of the kindest and most supportive men I have ever worked with. All of that is a joy to me, and we still hear regularly from our friends there.
Immigration is a tumultuous and painful journey. Leaving Africa is tough in addition. We miss the warmth and vibrancy of the land and people. Looking back on the long trip here, and the journey we have taken in the last 20 months, I must say that we haven't done badly. The first winter was terrible - the summer lovely. We have winter rainfall here and long hot dry summer days - more of a Mediterranean climate. With daylight saving the sun goes down after 9.00pm so the evenings can be very nice.
My work as a school chaplain is challenging and very special. A couple of cards from boys at Christmas are always a source of energy as you realise what a difference you can make. Pastoral care of families is like that of a parish - I can do that and support those in crisis and bereavement. I love the classroom and the challenge. In addition I will have a colleague in 2008 who will teach RE with me and do some chapel work.
Sheilagh had some valuable months off after working with Smile and being a parish wife for so long. In January this year she took the plunge and went to work at Scots College where I am - in the school library. Using her considerable gifts in the book trade and her people and business skills and adding on the dreaded IT challenge, I must say that she is remarkable and I am very proud of her. She is now also selling Avon products and again networks with people and makes friends. Now that the boys know she is the Chaplain's wife, she is also a counsellor in the library! When I am away, they drift in her direction.
Our children have found this move really tough. If you want to change countries, do it when your kids are younger! But we have come through a long challenging time quite well. Chris has finished an IT diploma at the Polytech, and David has dabbled in some home studies. Dave is a master gamer (computer gamer) and usually on top of the logs in New Zealand in his field. He comes home from the competitions loaded with prizes. Roxanne turned 15 yesterday. School is going very well. She is working at the local New World to raise money for her school trip to China, and busking in the city with a friend (two guitars and lots of nice songs they sing and write). She is a great daughter and good supportive friend to others. Roxanne picked up Chinese last year, having had to catch up with her class and has done very well. All the kids have bikes and cycling in the summer is great here. Wellington is a lovely city, and we are quite settled. We will spend Christmas eve together at home this year by general agreement. On Christmas day we will meet with some of our SA friends for lunch.
The rest of the family is scattered around. Sheilagh's mum is still in Heidelberg in Gauteng and her sister Colleen is with her. Her dad and step-mum are in Durban after moving here without getting proper residence - their belongings are here and they had to go back to SA. We are not sure what their plans are. Family has to be sponsored by members who have been permanent residents here for at least three years, and there is no guarantee of getting in. Sheilagh's step sister has been here longer than us, but I think they miscalculated somewhere.
My sister Anne has had a great year in Johannesburg. She is deputy head of St Andrew's School. Her husband John is Principal of De La Salle Holy Cross College in Linden and has done really well too. Anne writes and publishes various text books, and both of them are really good at their vocations. Kerry has just graduated recently and Joanne is also a qualified teacher and married to Dene. All these good teachers. Kerry is setting up a music department at St Benedict's as well. We miss them all very much.
Sheilagh's youngest sister Diane is married to Noel and they live in Brisbane. They are very happy there with Kelvin and Briggie who are great kids who are a delight to have around and excelling in their lives. Diane works really hard at work and at home and is the best mum to her family. Noel works long hard hours, but they all love the place and the lifestyle. Brett lives on the Gold Coast not far from them and is also doing extremely well in his career.We were fortunate enough to visit in April. Robin attended a conference and Roxanne and Sheilagh had a lovely time exploring Brisbane, going on the ferry and being thoroughly spoilt. Noel returned from the Philippines on the w/e and we shot off to the Gold Coast a place were SAs can feel very at home.The sand is a squeaky clean white.
So all in all our families are in good heart this Christmas. We trust that you are all well and that Christmas is going to be a blessing and good time together. May 2008 be even better for you all. We look forward to hearing from you. Apologies to those friends we have neglected.
Blessings and love
Robin, Sheilagh, Christopher, David and Roxanne.
Wednesday 12 December 2007
Saturday 8 December 2007
Great Stories - from THE QUAD
From the Chaplain’s Pen. “GREAT STORIES”
As you read this you will no doubt be facing the pressures of the Christmas season. Families and friends will gather together, holidays will be planned, and there will be much to celebrate. Most of us will be glad to have a real break after a demanding and challenging year at Scots.
Not all that we experience at school is of a happy nature, however. There are tough lessons to be learned. Academic and sporting successes and failures we cope with - there are always opportunities to try again. It is in the area of emotional and social literacy that many of our students and families often struggle. Our high-tech children are sometimes low-tech in terms of their ability to co-exist with people of other backgrounds, cultures, religions, and points of view. Much time needs to be spent in working on conflict resolution, changing unkind behaviour, and dealing with experiences that score very low on the achievement scale of decency. And of course our children have to live with themselves as they journey towards an adult understanding of their meaning and purpose in life.
Schools have to spend more and more time and energy today on building social and emotional health. Students today have high levels of stress, and need good ways of processing this.
A simple solution? Perhaps create more time to talk, share, and listen together as families and as a school community. Those little boys at the gates of school are suddenly gone, and parents and teachers easily miss most important opportunities of sharing our life stories.
The Christmas story, like other significant stories, brings back memories of the warmth and joy of our own childhoods. It also tells of a God-event in which the Divine meets us in the very ordinary. In this story God affirms our world with its human dramas.
Our national, cultural, and personal stories all matter. Our children’s stories are also so different from ours. We need to hear each other.
My prayer is this: whatever challenges we face, may the outcomes of our life-stories be worthy of honour and retelling. May our students’ stories at school and at home have the very best of endings.
As you read this you will no doubt be facing the pressures of the Christmas season. Families and friends will gather together, holidays will be planned, and there will be much to celebrate. Most of us will be glad to have a real break after a demanding and challenging year at Scots.
Not all that we experience at school is of a happy nature, however. There are tough lessons to be learned. Academic and sporting successes and failures we cope with - there are always opportunities to try again. It is in the area of emotional and social literacy that many of our students and families often struggle. Our high-tech children are sometimes low-tech in terms of their ability to co-exist with people of other backgrounds, cultures, religions, and points of view. Much time needs to be spent in working on conflict resolution, changing unkind behaviour, and dealing with experiences that score very low on the achievement scale of decency. And of course our children have to live with themselves as they journey towards an adult understanding of their meaning and purpose in life.
Schools have to spend more and more time and energy today on building social and emotional health. Students today have high levels of stress, and need good ways of processing this.
A simple solution? Perhaps create more time to talk, share, and listen together as families and as a school community. Those little boys at the gates of school are suddenly gone, and parents and teachers easily miss most important opportunities of sharing our life stories.
The Christmas story, like other significant stories, brings back memories of the warmth and joy of our own childhoods. It also tells of a God-event in which the Divine meets us in the very ordinary. In this story God affirms our world with its human dramas.
Our national, cultural, and personal stories all matter. Our children’s stories are also so different from ours. We need to hear each other.
My prayer is this: whatever challenges we face, may the outcomes of our life-stories be worthy of honour and retelling. May our students’ stories at school and at home have the very best of endings.
Monday 3 December 2007
Christmas reflection from the Chaplain - to staff at school
Dear colleagues and friends,
A short reflection on Christmas is appropriate at the end of the term. While some may delete this email before reading it, the special character of our school - in terms of the founding fathers who were committed Christians and Presbyterians - requires that the story be told even if it falls on deaf ears. No self-respecting minister would fail to tell this story again.
Christmas is a family celebration about a birth. A new beginning in almost impossible situations. A family on a journey because of a political decree. A busy town with "no vacancy" at every gate. A dodgy and unsuitable place for a child to be born. Implications in the lives of the poor (shepherds) the educated (high priests and magi from a foreign land), and political instability (the murder of the infants). A little family takes on refugee status. And in the midst of the turmoil angelic hosts are heard singing.
The modern Christmas shopper probably thinks little of all of that. It is in the distant past, relegated to the place of myth and legend. Overwhelmed and indeed challenged by a hundred Christmas brochures and lovely leaflets, and armed with considerable wads of plastic, s/he hits the streets and malls, harassed by greedy-eyed offspring who have already heard at school what manner of gifts their peers will get, and how they long for better greater brighter loads - heaps of hi-tech and glitzy stuff.
For those of us who have a chapel spirituality and are somewhat relieved when exam desks end our weekly contemplations here at school, the idea of Christmas in church may well be quite foreign and removed from the family pressures of obligatory gatherings and generous doses of other breads and wines.
For some, a visit to St Christopher's or some other sanctuary presents the true bright light of the season. A midnight service - a quiet song or stillness - the taste of holy things at mass or Eucharist - the Lord's table - and Christmas shapes hearts of gratitude and praise.
May you have some stillness at Christmas. May you reflect on your life - your heritage and your future - with new sense of gratitude for all that is good and fine, worthy of the investment of time and energy. May you have hope - so central in this story - hope which is so needed in the lives of those who have found this year a painful and difficult journey. May you be refreshed and renewed, and know the fullness of love that underpins this long tradition of Christmas. It is the love of God for us that is at the heart of the matter.
A blessed Christmas to you and your loved ones.
Robin
Rev Robin Palmer
Chaplain
A short reflection on Christmas is appropriate at the end of the term. While some may delete this email before reading it, the special character of our school - in terms of the founding fathers who were committed Christians and Presbyterians - requires that the story be told even if it falls on deaf ears. No self-respecting minister would fail to tell this story again.
Christmas is a family celebration about a birth. A new beginning in almost impossible situations. A family on a journey because of a political decree. A busy town with "no vacancy" at every gate. A dodgy and unsuitable place for a child to be born. Implications in the lives of the poor (shepherds) the educated (high priests and magi from a foreign land), and political instability (the murder of the infants). A little family takes on refugee status. And in the midst of the turmoil angelic hosts are heard singing.
The modern Christmas shopper probably thinks little of all of that. It is in the distant past, relegated to the place of myth and legend. Overwhelmed and indeed challenged by a hundred Christmas brochures and lovely leaflets, and armed with considerable wads of plastic, s/he hits the streets and malls, harassed by greedy-eyed offspring who have already heard at school what manner of gifts their peers will get, and how they long for better greater brighter loads - heaps of hi-tech and glitzy stuff.
For those of us who have a chapel spirituality and are somewhat relieved when exam desks end our weekly contemplations here at school, the idea of Christmas in church may well be quite foreign and removed from the family pressures of obligatory gatherings and generous doses of other breads and wines.
For some, a visit to St Christopher's or some other sanctuary presents the true bright light of the season. A midnight service - a quiet song or stillness - the taste of holy things at mass or Eucharist - the Lord's table - and Christmas shapes hearts of gratitude and praise.
May you have some stillness at Christmas. May you reflect on your life - your heritage and your future - with new sense of gratitude for all that is good and fine, worthy of the investment of time and energy. May you have hope - so central in this story - hope which is so needed in the lives of those who have found this year a painful and difficult journey. May you be refreshed and renewed, and know the fullness of love that underpins this long tradition of Christmas. It is the love of God for us that is at the heart of the matter.
A blessed Christmas to you and your loved ones.
Robin
Rev Robin Palmer
Chaplain
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