Welcome back liturgy heralds the start of the new academic year at St Mary’s.

At the start of every academic year, it is customary at St Mary’s for staff to be invited to a liturgy. The word stems from the Greek leitourgio, which translates as ‘work of the people’ or a ‘public service’ and takes the form of a public ritual of worship.

While the School proudly upholds the Catholic tradition and all that it celebrates, the liturgy is an extension of the School’s inclusive, embracing nature and all are warmly welcomed, regardless of belief. 

Our Director of Christian Life, Daniel Bennett, led this term’s liturgy and invited both prayer and quiet reflection as befitting the individual. 

Our promise of duty, whether to God, or ourselves, our colleagues and our students, was sincerely given. Thanks to God was given through prayer and song, and the reading of passages from the Holy Gospel.

And the St Mary’s values of love, truth, freedom, justice and joy, which are based in Christian values, and which shape the everyday life of all at St Mary’s, were celebrated with all the vigor that the new term brings.