CHAPEL CENTENARY
a grand
celebration
In any year, Lady Day, the Feast of the
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is
one of the most significant days in the life
of the School. On that day, 25 March, in
1914 the School was privileged to consecrate
its beautiful and awe inspiring Chapel of
St Mary and St George, a building which
gave physical expression to the Rev’d Percy
Henn’s vision of an Anglican School, to Cecil
Oliverson’s generosity, to Walter Tapper’s
architectural creativity and expertise, and to
the dedication and hard work of Michael
Tapper and his team of skilled and unskilled
workers who built the Chapel.
2014, being the 100th anniversary of that
consecration, invited a celebration that
would be particularly special. Taking into
account the special place the land upon
which the Chapel and School is placed has
in the long history of the Wajuk people, and
its close proximity to where on 6 September,
1836 Governor Stirling laid the foundation
stone of a Church for missionary purposes
amongst Aboriginal people on land granted
to the Rev’d Louis Giustiniani, the School
commissioned a setting of the “Ordinary”
of the Eucharist by internationally acclaimed
composer Gerard Brophy. Mr Brophy sought
to produce “a worshipful celebration of the
Chapel’s centenary as well as a gesture of
recognition of, and reconciliation towards the
original inhabitants of its location. As such it
will be a confluence of the two great spiritual
traditions”.
4
Archbishop Roger Herft, Visitor to the School,
presided, and the Very Rev’d Dr Andreas
Loewe, Dean of Melbourne, preached. In
the evening it was performed in concert form
and recorded for later broadcast by ABC FM
on Saturday, 10 May at 8.00pm.
Brought to life and exquisite beauty, under
the direction of Roland Peelman with his
world renown six voice ensemble The Song
Company from Sydney, the didgeridoo
playing of internationally recognised
William Barton, organist Daniel TrocmeLatter, Director, Homerton College Charter
Choir, Cambridge, the School’s own Chapel
Choirs directed by David Gething and Anita
Fuhrmann, and the occasional sound of
Himalayan Singing Bowls stroked skilfully by
Kieran Hurley, Director of Music, the Latin
setting of the Kyrie, Gloria, Alleluia, Credo,
Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus