Importance of Chapel

Importance of Chapel

The heartbeat of the School

The importance of chapel

As you approach Cargilfield from Gamekeeper’s Road, the first building that you are likely to see is the chapel and, more than any other part of Cargilfield, it is at the heart of our life.

When it was first envisaged by the Headmaster, governors, teachers and parents of Cargilfield as a memorial to the 126 old boys who had lost their life in the Great War, the main entrance to the school was from Barnton Avenue and this might have seemed more discreetly tucked away. Nonetheless, the decision to link the chapel to the main school building, rather than as a separate entity, was inspired.

Our belief is that the chapel was first used in 1921. There were further improvements made within the first decade of its existence which have continued since – including the wonderful new curtains and other refurbishments that were given to us by the Friends of Cargilfield from their fund raising a few years ago.

Back in 1921, a Cargilfield curriculum would have looked rather different with a greater emphasis on Latin and Greek, Scripture and a more traditional approach to the study of English and Mathematics. The study of Science would have been more limited and PSHE unheard of. There were no girls, no nursery or pre prep and day pupils would have been a real exception.

At the end opposite the memorial, a reading room was built: the forerunner of our library and perhaps a place intended for quite reflection. The stage followed when the library was built in 1973 and so chapel increasingly became a place where plays were performed, reels danced, debates argued and other groups congregated.

Nonetheless, our chapel – as a place not just for plays, debates and Christmas Fairs but where the school gathers for worship, reflection and communal singing – remains at the heart of a Cargilfield education. The number of our families who will regularly attend their own local churches has inevitably declined in line with the rest of Scottish and British society. Perhaps, therefore, it is increasingly important that a school expose its children to the traditions of hymn singing, bible stories, prayer and to faith in general.

These are, of course, also the words, stories, and traditions that underpin the literature, art, music and general culture of the Western world but this is more than just teaching cultural references. Ideas that may no longer seem at the heart of daily life will often take on real significance at key moments in our lives: be they moments of joy such as weddings or the birth of children or moments of crisis such as illness or the deaths of those close to us. Experience tells me that these are the moments when our former pupils return to the well-established routines that perhaps started at school and now provide solace or reassurance.

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We delight in the fact that some of our families practise faiths other than Christianity and we must be sensitive the fact that many families may have rejected faith entirely. Nonetheless, we are all aware of the magnificent memorial at the eastern end of our chapel and, as we come together with words and music, we also remember the names written there. In learning to speak up or sing and perform with confidence and skill in front of our peers, we develop skills that will serve us well in our lives but we also do honour to those that came before us (and sat on those same pews).

Likewise, our relationship with both Cramond Kirk and Holy Cross in Davidson’s Mains through our chapel services – something that wasn’t interrupted by building our own chapel (indeed, the second headmaster of Cargilfield was instrumental in the building of Holy Cross) helps Cargilfield to stay in touch with our local community.

When I am lucky enough to visit other schools and to join their students and teachers as they gather to sing or read aloud from the Bible or other important texts, I will often judge the character of a school by the spirit that they show or the atmosphere created on those occasions. When we are able to have you join us again in chapel (and we hope that some of you will, at least, be able to help us mark the 100th anniversary of chapel on Friday 12th November this year), I hope that this will also give you an idea of the character of Cargilfield.

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