St Hilda's School - Our Culture

A Religious education program operates throughout the School as part of the core curriculum, and students are encouraged to grow in understanding of the Christian tradition. We try to ensure that relationships in the School are underpinned by Christian values. The School attempts to provide an experience for the students of living in a Christian community.

A most important aspect of being a Christian school is to connect through prayer. We encourage our Chapel Wardens, Prefects and most anyone in the school to value prayer in their lives.

Prayer can be light and joyous and song-full, yet it is not reserved for songwriters or those who do not experience hardship; it can be deep and mournful, but is never just for the weary of heart – it can be artful and beautiful in expression, but it is not reserved for the artistic...prayer, like forgiveness, is a gift – a gift that everyone has to offer.

It is for everyone – and I want to encourage you to join us as a prayerful community.

A very simple way for you to connect with the school in prayer is through a simple email address: prayers@sthildas.qld.edu.au - a confidential email address. This simple measure is both an opportunity to receive prayer, but hopefully also an opportunity for us to consciously consider our daily needs and graces, and perhaps a reminder that we should include God in our day-to-day lives.

If you have a prayer request just send me an email, and be assured of my prayer.

Who knows where a little prayer will take you: as Martin Luther King Jr said: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Maybe today is a good day to start breathing!

What it means to be an Anglican
The Scriptures and the Gospels, the Apostolic Church and the early Church Fathers, are the foundation of Anglican faith and worship. The basic tenets of being an Anglican are:

We view the Old and New Testaments 'as containing all things necessary for salvation' and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.
We understand the Apostles' creed as the baptismal symbol, and the Nicene creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
The two sacraments ordained by Christ himself - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - are administered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and the elements are ordained by him.
The historic episcopate is locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of his Church.

Anglicans trace their Christian roots back to the early Church, and their specifically Anglican identity to the post-Reformation expansion of the Church of England and other Episcopal or Anglican Churches. Historically, there were two main stages in the development and spread of the Communion. Beginning with the seventeenth century, Anglicanism was established alongside colonisation in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The second state began in the eighteenth century when missionaries worked to establish Anglican churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

As a worldwide family of churches, the Anglican Communion has more than 70 million adherents in 38 Provinces spreading across 161 countries. Located on every continent, Anglicans speak many languages and come from different races and cultures. Although the churches are autonomous, they are also uniquely unified through their history, their theology, their worship and their relationship to the ancient See of Canterbury.

Anglicans uphold the Catholic and Apostolic faith. Following the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Churches are committed to the proclamation of the good news of the Gospel to the whole creation. In practice this is based on the revelation contained in Holy Scripture and the Catholic creeds, and is interpreted in light of Christian tradition, scholarship, reason and experience.

By baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a person is made one with Christ and received into the fellowship of the Church. This sacrament of initiation is open to children as well as to adults.

Central to worship for Anglicans is the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, also called the Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper or the Mass. In this offering of prayer and praise, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are recalled through the proclamation of the word and the celebration of the sacrament. Other important rites, commonly called sacraments, include confirmation, holy orders, reconciliation, marriage and anointing of the sick.

Worship is at the very heart of Anglicanism. Its styles vary from simple to elaborate, or even a combination. The great uniting text is The Book of Common Prayer, in its various revisions throughout the Communion. The Book of Common Prayer, alongside additional liturgies gives expression to the comprehensiveness found within the Church whose principles reflect that of the via media in relation to its own and other Christian Churches.

The Book of Common Prayer (1662) is a permanent feature of the Anglican Church's worship. It is loved for its beauty of language and the services which it contains are widely used (in their entirety or in adapted form). It is also the foundation of a tradition of common prayer and is a fundamental source of Anglican doctrine.

The Lambeth Conferences of the 1950s and 1960s called for more up-to-date national liturgies and this is going on today. No matter how distinctive each is, they are all clearly of the lineage of The Book of Common Prayer.

Another distinguishing feature of the corporate nature of Anglicanism is that it is an interdependent Church, where parishes, dioceses and provinces help each other to achieve by mutual support in terms of financial assistance and the sharing of other resources.

To be an Anglican is to be on a journey of faith to God supported by a fellowship of co-believers who are dedicated to finding Him by prayer and service.