Chaplaincy
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 10-11)
- What makes for a rounded and complete education?
- How do we ensure that as young people grow into maturity they are doing so on solid foundations?
- What does a thorough equipping for life centre on?
These questions are vital for an educational establishment, and we all know that the answers are found in deeper strata than the academic layers we are rightly building up in the classroom. It is to provide a true bedrock in this life and beyond that the Chaplaincy at King’s exists and works. Our aim is for every pupil entering the school to have a clear understanding of the character, claims and teaching of Christ by the time they leave. What each one does with this understanding is, of course, a matter to be dealt with between them and God, but our responsibility is to make sure that it is done in knowledge and understanding.
King’s School is a Christian foundation, and the Chaplaincy programme is essentially a Bible teaching programme through which the ‘Good News’ of Christ is proclaimed in relevant and challenging ways. There are plenty of opportunities and forums for doing this ranging from voluntary and informal small group studies, through to the more formal and compulsory school services. The task, though, remains the same whatever the forum.
The school meets as a whole community, staff and pupils alike, for our main service on Wednesdays where our preaching programme covers both Old Testament and New Testament books, and includes studies of books of the Bible as well as doctrinal series. On a less formal level, ‘TGI Friday’ serves as a relaxed environment on Friday afternoons where, lounging on sofas, listening to music, chewing on twiglets and supping fizz, pupils from all years come and chat, listen to a challenging Bible talk and fire all the questions they ever wanted to fire! Each meeting is carefully designed so that people feel comfortable and welcome whether or not they would call themselves Christian. The heart of each meeting is the talk, with weekly speakers mainly coming from outside the school and from backgrounds in all walks of life.
As well as this ‘flagship’ voluntary meeting there are various smaller Bible study and enquirers groups run during the week which anyone can choose to come along to.
Finally, a particular highlight of each year are the series of Lenten Addresses during the Easter term. For these we invite a team to join us consisting of a main speaker, along with a mixed group of helpers available to answer questions raised in pupils’ minds from the main evening talks. Speakers in the past have included Rev’ds. David Fletcher; Will Stileman; Nick McKinnel; Jonathan Fletcher; Anthony Bewes; and Rico Tice.
The Christian foundation of King’s remains tremendously important, but most important is God's daily work in prompting individuals to investigate and then grasp for themselves this message of ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’. We go on praying that God would graciously continue His work in this place so that Old Brutonians throughout the world live their lives on the surest of foundations with the most certain of hopes.
Chaplain
A ‘faceless Chaplaincy’ seems a rather odd idea, so I thought I’d briefly introduce myself to you.
My name is Nigel Wilson-Brown and I am ordained in the Church of England. I joined the staff at King’s in 2000, and have enjoyed many marvellous years here with my wife, Suzanna, and our three children.
You could say that living and working as a school Chaplain is my 3rd career. Having studied Physiological Psychology at London University, I joined an American company called Procter and Gamble in 1987 in their management development scheme and enjoyed 8 exciting years working mainly in Human Resources. Although based first in South London, I had the privilege of travelling with them all over the world, and ended up for my last assignment based in Frankfurt from where I worked across P&G’s newly opening subsidiaries in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Having been accepted for ordination, I left the company in 1995 to return to England and the life of a student! We moved to Oxford where I completed two years of training at Wycliffe Hall Theological College and was ordained in 1997. My 2nd career began with a move into Parish ministry. Appointed as Curate, I worked with Rev. Jonathan Fletcher at Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon, a large and flourishing church family which had been home to us before we relocated to Germany. After 3 exciting years it was time to move on, and urged by friends and colleagues I applied for the post here at King’s. The rest, as they say, is history.
Being a school Chaplain has to be the best job in the world! I have the privilege of talking with young people about their faith every day, and the challenge of living out my own faith under the healthy scrutiny of young and enquiring minds. It’s great to have ‘sport-on-tap’, and I thoroughly enjoy coaching rugby, hockey and athletics.
When you visit us, please do ask to pop into the Chaplaincy and say hello – I’d love to meet you and answer any questions you may have.
Bible Studies
Along with ‘TGI Friday’, the weekly variety of Bible studies offers pupils an excellent forum for their own investigation into the claims of Christ. This is probably the most dynamic and changeable aspect of the Chaplaincy programme as we seek to respond to the ebb and flow of interest from boarding houses and year groups.
We have 3rd, 4th and 5th Form mini-Bible studies, ‘BREAKOUT’ during morning breaks through the week and these operate alongside our mainstay Senior Bible Study Group on Tuesday evenings which meets at the Chaplain’s house after prep.
Alongside these group studies are all sorts of one-to-one discipleship meetings with both pupils and staff designed to help individuals to grow in their faith and to live out their beliefs day by day.
Preaching programme
One of the central strands of the Chaplaincy programme is the chance for the whole School to gather together for a service of the Word on Thursdays and Sundays. The Thursday service is the main School service. Its timing in the week means that all pupils, day and boarding, along with all members of staff are able to attend. The atmosphere is super and the pupils have learned through experience the sheer joy of singing with gusto!
The teaching of the Bible is the focal point of both Wednesday and Sunday services as we seek to open up God’s Word and apply it to our lives in relevant and meaningful ways. This term’s programme will serve to provide with a feel for the type of teaching we aim to deliver through these exciting moments of the School’s week.
Click here for this term’s programme
Summer camps
One key element of the Chaplaincy work is to encourage boys and girls to attend a Christian camp during the summer holiday. We have a very close working relationship with The Titus Trust which runs excellent holidays for both Prep schools and Senior schools.
Boys and girls who decide to attend not only have a fantastic holiday, they also have the chance to grow in their faith alongside people of their own age from schools similar to King’s. After their A levels, many pupils find they love camp so much they don’t want to stop going! Neither do they have to, because the organisation depends on folk like them to join the leadership team take their place serving future generations of pupils.
As well as summer camps, The Titus Trust also runs 6th Form Houseparties and Revision Camps during the Christmas and Easter holidays.
To find out more, and to see pictures of the fun and games on camp, why not visit The Titus Trust at their website through this link
TGI
At King’s we believe it is vital that pupils and staff are given plenty of opportunity to conduct their own investigations into the acts and claims of Jesus Christ. One forum for this is our weekly Christian meeting called ‘TGI Friday’, or more commonly simply called ‘TGI’.
TGI is a relaxed and informal gathering of pupils of all ages in the Chaplain’s house for an hour on Friday afternoons. Although we have a full working Saturday, TGI still manages to have that ‘Friday-afternoon-start-of-the-weekend’ feel as we chill-out eating great snacks and listening to even greater music! Each week we have a Bible talk and opportunities for questions and personal investigation. Some terms we deal with big questions regularly asked of Christians, whilst more commonly we take the opportunity to work through the basics of the Good News of Christ.
Typically we have between 30 and 40 pupils from all ages choosing to come along, and for many who are away from home, this moment of the week becomes a rather special and comfy ‘home-from-home’.
