Faith and Worship
Culford is a Methodist school and our identity as a Christian school is felt in all we do. We value the whole child – mind, body and spirit and nurture their sense of wonder at God’s creation. We also encourage them to value each other as part of that creation.
As Chaplain I take a weekly service at the Pre-Prep. We use a simple format with some opening prayers, a song and then a talk, which often revolves around the antics of my scruffy, dysfunctional Patterdale terrier “Rupert”. He gets into all sorts of scrapes as he plays with his friends or travels the world and these stories illustrate some simple pieces of Jesus’ teaching. We also hear from “Sylvester the Seagull” who it seems was present at most of Jesus’ miracles and reports them with his own unique interpretation. At festivals like Harvest, Christmas and Easter we have a service in St Mary’s church with lots of pupil participation.
I help children learn a spiritual vocabulary with prayers and then nurture their growing understanding of who God is with Bible stories. This helps them explore their own identity and see faith as a normal part of life. Sometimes this normality feels routine but the children most clearly display their growing spirituality when things go wrong in the world. Their prayers after the Haiti disaster were beautiful and when another child has a problem the concern is shared in prayer. Perhaps the most poignant time was when we had an act of Remembrance for the first time; their perfect stillness during the silence and their suggestions for prayers for soldier families revealed a simple but heartfelt faith and trust in God.
Rev. Simon Battersby, School Chaplain