Editorial

Welcome Week – What a week! 

To be honest, I feel a bit flat this week. Last week was such a smorgasbord of events and opportunities to connect and indulge in what it means to be a welcoming advocate. There was a great sense of unity across the school, there was lots of laughter and fun and there was food, lots of it! From Welcome Back Morning Teas, to a Pastor’s breakfast, to Flying Woks and Zooper Doopers! Welcoming and food go hand in hand. 

But now it’s a new week and the fun and games have given way to a more structured week of learning and normality. What do we do when we’ve had a mountain top experience and then we come back to 'normal'? 

At the outset of Welcome Week, Louise Griffiths presented the staff with four options as to how our students and community might respond to the week of celebration. Firstly, our community would enjoy the week and the free food and activities. Secondly, our community might grasp that we were really trying to be 'welcoming' in a proactive way. Thirdly, our community might embrace that we were really trying to stir a warm welcome to the diverse and multi cultured community that we are a part of and that might cause them to 'do something about it'. Talk to someone new, be interested in someone’s cultural story, stand up for someone’s rights, or support them directly. Finally, the fourth option was that we would understand the great hope behind being a welcoming advocate, that we would grasp the welcome that we have in Jesus, to be a part of his family first. There is no doubt, that during our week of celebration, all options were presented and all options were chosen by our community. Ultimately though, it’s the fourth option that is the one that gives us life to the full. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship". (Galatians 4:4-5) 

As Welcome Week now becomes a really lovely memory, and we look forward to doing it again next year, may we allow the fires of welcome that burned in our hearts to be seen, shining across our community as we continue to challenge ourselves with what it means to be a Welcoming Advocate.