St Gregory’s Chapel

It is hard to believe that we are only a few weeks away for the Dedication service for the Chapel of St Gregory. The Chapel will be Dedicated by Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy AO on the 26th July; Peter Moyes Day. The completion of the Chapel is also the completion of Stage 10, the final stage of the Peter Moyes Anglican Community School (PMACS) Master Building Plan.

This is a hugely exciting chapter in the life of PMACS. I am aware that for some in our community, having a dedicated Chapel at the School will be ‘breaking new ground.’ They may not be au fait with the significance of having a dedicated Chapel, or indeed, with some of the nuances of the terminology that surrounds it. I therefore thought that it would be helpful to visit some of these points in this article.

So, what is it that makes a building a sacred and holy place?

The liturgical act of Dedication of a building ‘makes the ordinary, extraordinary.’ A chapel is then not so much a building as ‘a space’; a space that has been withdrawn from the sphere of the ordinary and dedicated to the Glory of God.

In the service of Dedication, St Gregory’s Chapel will be set aside for a sacred purpose. It will be a place where we praise God, intercede for others and offer thanks to God for the abundance of blessings in our lives and in our School. It will be a place to sing hymns and songs of praise. It will be a place to cry with those who mourn, and a place where through the presence of God and of his Holy Spirit, broken lives will be made whole, the outcast will find a place of welcome, the hopeless will find hope, and the lowly lifted up.

St Gregory’s will be a place where extraordinary things occur. Babies will be baptised as we welcome them into the family of God. Couples will become spouses through marriage. It will be a place where funerals are held; a ‘space’ where family and friends begin to come to terms with the loss of their loved one and where we commend the spirit of the deceased person into God’s care. In the Eucharistic feast, bread and wine will be shared as we celebrate with thankful hearts all that Jesus has done for us. When the Gospel (‘good news’) is preached, we will share in the here and now, the Lord’s ministry of reconciliation and his mission to the ends of the earth. As an Anglican community, we will dedicate ourselves afresh to live this vision through our mission and ministry in this place as we turn again to Christ - the Way, the Truth, and the Life

As we begin this new journey of faith in St Gregory’s Chapel, we are mindful of the fact that it will be a shared place of worship with the Anglican Parish of Quinns-Butler. We are very excited to have this opportunity to journey together with them as a Christian community.

Ultimately, we must be mindful of the fact that St Gregory’s is not the bricks and mortar from which it has been built. The ‘Church’ is made up of ‘living stones’ – the people of faith who worship God in the Chapel.

May we all faithfully walk this new journey of mission, ministry and faith in the power of God and for the benefit of everyone in this community.

God bless!

Rev Dave