QUEENSWOOD MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR

On Tuesday of this week, students listened to Kalli Z (10H), Queenswood’s Musician of the Year 2023/24. Kalli played Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and such was the quality, intensity and musicality of Kalli’s performance that we could have heard a pin drop in the Chapel.

In prayer Reverend Kate gave thanks to God for music and for the way it enables us to encounter God in peace, comfort and joy.

ACT OF WORSHIP - JESUS, OUR FRIEND

For our Act of Worship, Mrs Jackson and Emily L (7W) read from the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verses 9 to 17 in which Jesus said: ‘you are my friends’ (John 15:14). In response to Jesus’ invitation to be his friend, Reverend Kate asked us to think how we might feel if someone came up to us today and said I love you and I choose you to be my friend. She thought we might think well that’s a bit weird….. until, of course, we realised that it was Jesus, the son of God who sacrificed his life for us. Reverend Kate played a video of Phil Knox’s poem We Need Friends and then asked us to think about what it is like to have Jesus as a friend.

In response to the poem and to her own question, Reverend Kate shared her experience: Jesus is the friend who loves me when I don’t feel loved or find it hard to love myself. Jesus is the friend who forgives me when those around me are screaming judgement and I cannot forgive myself. Jesus is the friend who gently guides me to heal when I feel responsible for the mess in my life and find it hard to move on.

Reverend Kate reminded us that Phil Knox, in his poem, said that ‘Jesus is the friend unfailing’ and she closed by encouraging us to accept Jesus’ friend request, the most important friend request of all time. In doing so, Reverend Kate told us, we will discover the true meaning of friendship and will learn how to be the friend that Jesus is; which isn’t actually that weird at all.

Reverend Kate prayed that we would have the strength of character to accept and know Jesus as our friend and prayed that in relationship with him, and by God’s grace, we will learn how to be the best of friends to each other. .