From the Principal

Dear Friends,

Congratulations to all families and staff for such a wonderful term that has ended so well. I hope most families will get a good break and celebrate the Easter weekend with a deep level of gratitude for all it holds. We look forward to students returning on Monday 15 April in anticipation of further great times for learning and our exciting cocurricular activities. In particular, I draw attention to our Dawn Service commemorating the ANZACs on Wednesday 24 April, and to our Open Day on Saturday 4 May. We look forward to welcoming families to these events.

The Christian calendar presents again an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the events and meaning of Easter. This can be a deeply personal experience or indeed, one of gratitude with the church universal as biblical authors speak of it. Nonetheless, I love how the apostle Paul captures this message writing to the church in Colossae, where he highlights the actions of the Christ as ending the hostility between God and humanity. His brutal death and subsequent resurrection, makes friendship with God possible. It is the only means by which we may safely encounter God, either in this life or the next. The Easter holiday provides opportunity for an undistracted time to investigate and study such a powerful message.

As I have noted in many editorials, Oxley remains very open about its Christian foundation and purposes. We continue to reflect on the motivation for a Christian approach to education that is embedded in God’s exuberance and abundance in making the creation, that we exist because He loves to create and loves His creation. Such a creation is not merely about usefulness or practicality, but it is more about flourishing and beauty, about delight and being known by God. As such, the events of the first Easter are not just about fixing our brokenness, but also making us into a new people. This combination of restoring us, but of also the generative newness in Christ makes us more valuable to God than before the first Easter. The cost of the new creation is somehow embedded in our new worth.

This editorial provides me the forum to wish everyone in the Oxley community a safe and refreshing term break. As I do that, may the blessings of Easter linger with us as we dive into the journeys of the new term and carry the essence of divine renewal and blessing with us.

Warm regards

Dr Douglas Peck