Foundation Day 2024 Address

A warm welcome to all of you on our day of celebration to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the re-founding of the school in 1942. It is especially wonderful to see everyone in the Cathedral together and to be able to invite special guests to commemorate the anniversary with us.

The bible reading you have just heard we heard is the story of Jacob’s Ladder. It paints a clear picture of Jacob setting down for the night in a chosen place and seeing in his dreams a ladder from earth to heaven, with many angels going up and down. He then sees the Lord who says that he and all peoples shall be blessed. The Lord also promises that he will always be with Jacob and will deliver him home. When he wakes Jacob is struck with the realisation that the place that he has chosen to set down and rest is exactly the place where he was meant to be, a holy place, or as he puts it ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven’.

Jacob’s vision has great relevance to us today, not least because it was meant to teach him, and is meant to teach us, the nearness of God, and how easily we can communicate with him. Indeed, we are doing so each time we sit and pray – something we do regularly as part of school life both here in Cathedral and in our class and year group assemblies and Chapel services.

I want you to consider something else from the story – the landscape where Jacob sets down does not seem special in any way and does not suggest the presence of God. It is night time, he is using a stone as a pillow and yet something fabulous happens. He realises that this place, this barren, rocky, nondescript place, is very special indeed. So, let’s think about this place where you sit today - Once upon a time there was no cathedral here, once upon a time, there was no Cathedral School here either, and yet here we are celebrating a significant anniversary in its existence. The School and the Cathedral are both special places. They are, like Jacob’s resting place, places where prayer is given up and God’s blessings rain down. We too have found our spiritual home – there is a rightness to our being here to learn and worship.

Like Jacob felt thankful, we too have in school so much to be thankful for – our friends, the learning and wisdom given to us every day, our shared experiences, sense of community and opportunity to be true to ourselves – to do what is right because we know it to be so – to be a rich community of vibrant individuals with potential brimming over in all directions, to be welcomed regularly here in this Cathedral, this blessed place. As we celebrate 82 years of our current school, we need to be aware that we also are at the foot of the ladder Jacob saw – we too have angels around us and many blessings and the opportunity to raise to God our prayers of thanks and need, not just for ourselves but for others.

The image of a ladder is an easy one to comprehend. It conjures up visions of climbing upwards and reaching higher and better things. The analogy to school life is obvious. Everyday you come to school you are learning and developing a little bit more. You are climbing your own ladders and getting nearer to your dreams goals and aspirations. The school is climbing its own ladder too. For many centuries, the school remained the same - teaching just the boy choristers of Lichfield Cathedral. Over the last 82 years it has evolved from a school for choristers that started with 18 founder pupils who are very special to us, to the 575 pupils we have now; it has invited girls to join the school (and join the choir!); expanded to provide education from 2 year olds to 18 year olds; had outstanding inspection reports; and we have many successful former-pupils whose stories we love to follow.

Of all these things, we are extremely proud. But the real reason we climb our ladder is two-fold. Firstly, we have built our house in the right place – here as part of this wonderful Cathedral Close and all it stands for, and secondly because each and every one of you brings your own special talent and efforts, your kindness, compassion, your sense of fair play and good natured competition, put simply your glorious individuality, to all you do. It is the combination of all this and the magic it creates that leads us upward and onward. Lichfield Cathedral School is the most precious of places – we are lucky to play our part in its history.

Inservi Deo et Laetare