Let’s go to the Chapel again!
I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’ Psalm 122:1
The last few weeks have been a time of rejoicing. Rejoicing for me, the Chaplaincy team and other staff leaders in the College. Rejoicing because the Chapel rejuvenation project has been completed. Regular Chapel services for students and staff will occur next week back in the Chapel building. After over a year, five terms, we have not been able to use, what this psalm calls “the house of the Lord”. Our Chapel building, the spiritual centre of our College campus has received considerable tender loving care to bring the facility back to full health. On the exterior, there has been a new roof installed, insulation, gutters, waterproofing, drainage, clearing of vegetation and trees around the outside of the building. We can better appreciate the beauty of the building as we walk by the sides and back. Thanks to the hard work of the project team, College leadership, heritage architects, consultants, contractors, and our College’s grounds and facilities staff we have the space back again. Ready to use for worship.
When you enter the Chapel for the first time, you might not notice many visible changes. On the inside, the three big changes are the change of carpet and colour, crisp white ceiling and improved audio-visual system. When you look at the front of the Chapel, what’s called the sanctuary area, you get the intent of the architect, Karl Langer. Langer intends to focus our attention on the cross of Christ. The cross emerges from that white backdrop and ceiling which in turn merges with the altar floor. God coming down to earth, heaven touching earth behind the altar which holds the word of God and the sacrament of Holy Communion. The altar whose earthen colour of stone matches the wood in the candle holders, bible stand and clergy chairs. The intent is for the person who walks into this space to know immediately by looking at this focal point in the sanctuary, that they are in a sacred space, dedicated for Christian worship.
This Chapel, this house of the Lord is the spiritual centre of our St Peters community. As a community of faith within a Lutheran school, students gather with staff weekly for Chapel services. We sing together, we pray, and we hear God’s word spoken and proclaimed. In the middle of the school timetable, we come to this house of the Lord to be still, to reflect, to listen, and to be fed spiritually with the other members of our College community. Not only is the Chapel close to the centre of the College campus but when the Campus Heart development is finished, it pairs with the Langer Library as two ends of the centre of the College. The Chapel is the place of worship at one end and the Library is the place of books and learning at the other end. There will be double rejoicing when the Campus Heart development is finished and we can walk between these two iconic buildings
As the Indooroopilly campus and Sub-Schools transition back into the worship space of our College Chapel, I pray that we will all reengage with the worship life of our College. Through compulsory times of worship and voluntary times of prayer, meditation and Holy Communion which will be offered in the comes months, may our College community continue to be centred on the triune God who comes to us in Christ.
Tim Jarick
College Pastor
