Last week I had the privilege of attending a combined Christian Education National (CEN) and Christian Schools Australia (CSA) Principals Conference. CEN is part of the community of schools to which we belong as a school, and CSA is another group of Christian schools that is broader based (Northern Beaches Christian School and Oxford Falls Grammar School belong to this group of schools). Dr Ross Clifford, Principal of Morling Theological College, Sydney, gave the keynote address. In the address he suggested that churches need to consider the emphasis it places on the Cross of Christ. His view is that our focus is too much on the suffering and death of Christ, at the expense of the resurrection. According to Dr Clifford, a repositioning of the resurrection as the culmination of the work of Christ in the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension Gospel event is worth considering. Dr Clifford asserted that it is the resurrection that is most confronting and demanding of a response.

One of the implications of the risen Christ is found in Galatians 3:28—“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” He explored this in the context of schooling (and churches) where Paul states that we cannot allow ourselves to see anyone as ‘non persons’. In the context of school, this can mean treating anyone as more or less worthy than anyone else. In an institution such as a school, we can often fall into the trap of doing so. Our task is to ensure that we work hard at trying to ensure all in our community have a sense of being loved and valued.

Last week I had the great pleasure of being in the Year 9 IST class when Mr David Youl informed them that they won an Australia-wide competition with state based prizes. This was a highly contested competition, and the prize that the students won on behalf of the school was $40,000 of equipment from Dell and Intel. What a great effort (and prize)!

I am delighted to inform you that Mrs Anna Harding is expecting twins in the new year and that she hopes to go on maternity leave at the end of Term 1.

Ms Kate Rose (secondary Music) has submitted her resignation and will not be returning to Covenant Christian School as she intends to pursue further studies. As a school community, we wish her well in this new direction of ministry opportunities.

I am also delighted to announce that Mrs Jenn Dykstra has been affirmed in her position as Infants Coordinator after serving in that position in a temporary capacity in 2009. She has done a great job in 2009 and we look forward to her leadership of that part of the school in the future.

Mrs Heather Allan is joining us in 2010 as a part time Maths teacher. She comes to us as a highly skilled and experienced Maths teacher having spent some years at Oxford Falls Grammar School. She will be a wonderful addition to our school.

Mrs Kate Lowry is also joining our school for 2010 as a part time aide in the Transition class. Kate works part time as a speech therapist and is looking forward to working with the children in that part of our school.

Please continue to pray for wisdom and energy for the Board and staff who are involved in the interviewing process.

Mr Bill Rusin
Principal
Covenant Christian School Sydney

Welcome back for the last term of 2009. I hope that this term brings excitement, challenge and growth to you and your children.
The following is an article written by Paul Arundell, Principal at Blue Mountains Christian School, Blackheath. I commend it to you.

“Teach your children the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it.” Proverbs 22:6

“As I read this verse from the book of Proverbs, I am struck by the challenge that it poses today. We live in a time where the common wisdom is that there is no right path, just different paths. Parents often tell me that they want their children to be happy and to be able to choose the right path. They will not, therefore, direct them in their choices and instead opt to let them know that there are many options and they simply need to choose the one that seems best to them. This appears to be enlightened, fair and wise because we live in a relativistic culture where choice is prized above all and claims of an absolute or right path are angrily rejected. Yet this is exactly why confusion reins supreme and every week we despair about social ills like glassing, pack rape, teenage driving deaths and alcohol abuse, or the ice epidemic that is overwhelming hospital emergency departments.

Take the furore over Matthew Johns these past few months. He had the choice of many paths on that fateful night but as we know, chose the wrong one. With hindsight and in view of the consequences, I’m sure he wishes that he had behaved differently.

No doubt alcohol played a part, but that was a choice (though it would take a big person not to go along with the culture of drinking in football). He had promised to be faithful to his wife yet obviously the team culture of group sex was stronger on the night. My point is not to judge the man but more importantly, ask the bigger question. How did he get himself into such a predicament? Could it have been avoided?

Can I suggest that the issue is actually about integrity? When who we say we are is not consistent in both our public and private lives, then people will get angry at our hypocrisy (lack of integrity). Whether it is a policeman sexually assaulting a woman while helping out in Victoria after the Black Saturday fires, or the multitude of politicians in Britain who have been exposed as rorting the system by claiming bogus benefits like mortgage interest that they never actually paid – we rightly get outraged by such inconsistency and the lack of integrity in all such cases.

Yet unless we give our children a moral compass and model integrity for them, then they will be just as tossed around as Matthew Johns. When integrity counts (and we never know when that might be), peer pressure, greed, desire or anger will overwhelm them and perhaps leave them with the awful consequences of not knowing the importance of choosing the right path.

How blessed we are that God has highlighted the right path for us in his word, the Bible. How tragic that we often value it so little, struggle to find time to read it or even fear that it will limit our freedom. Matthew Johns thought he had freedom on that night when in fact it was a shiny path that lead to terrible and irreversible consequences.

Teach your children well – teach them truth and not just options. It is why we are passionate about Christian Education.”

Mr Bill Rusin
Principal
Covenant Christian School Sydney