On Monday 19 February, we celebrated the installation of Mrs Seipati Shiakallis as headmistress of St Mary’s Senior School. The installation allowed us to experience joy in the midst of a penitential season. The installation is a public act of worship that serves as

• A witness to unchanged faith (scripture)

• A witness to unbroken tradition (tradition)

• Accommodation to new conditions (reason)

St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12 best describe how invaluable this occasion was for the whole school:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it (1 Corinthians 12: 12,14,17-19).

We are immensely thankful to both God and the St Mary’s community for this day of celebration and the opportunity to fully appreciate St Paul’s vision of the one body with many members in 1 Corinthians 12.

REVD RAKGADI KHOBO
CHAPLAIN