Chapel Matters

The Season of Lent begins with the two special days we have had this week – Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. With the cyclone in the North Island causing destruction and loss of life, as well as livelihoods, we have been reminded of the fragility of life. 

Hukarere School is an Anglican Māori Girls’ boarding school, situated in the Eskdale Valley and they have lost everything in the floods that ripped through, leaving a metre of silt through the school – their altar, candles, sports equipment, musical instruments, textbooks, archives – these (and more) have all gone. The boarders were evacuated with only minutes to spare and could only take what they could fit into a small bag. Matrons who live on site lost almost all of their possessions too.

As a “sister” school, we are going to do what we can to help them. At the moment we are waiting on advice from Te Hui Amorangi ki te Tairāwhiti and their School Chaplain, Erice Fairbrother (who used to be the Chaplain at St Hilda’s in the 1990s!), as to what that might be.

The season of Lent and the lead up to Easter are traditions that have been part of the church calendar for 100s of years. Life has its seasons - its ups and downs, its joys and sorrows, its Shrove Tuesdays and Ash Wednesdays - and God is with us is all of it, from sunny days to cyclones.