The Chaplaincy
Religious Education and Collective Worship
Malvern College is registered as a school of Religious Character.
The College is a Christian foundation and the Chapel plays an important part in the life of the College. The founders of the College envisaged a school with a Christian focus, thus the College Chapel was established in the Anglican tradition. The College Chaplains are Anglican priests and the Diocesan Bishop is President of the College. The Services are organised by the Chaplain, the Reverend Andrew Law. All pupils in the Foundation Year and Remove receive Religious Education. The vast majority sit the GCSE at the end of the Remove. The RS A level is offered in the Sixth Form. Those doing the IB must all follow the Theory of Knowledge component which has important spiritual and ethical dimensions.
Weekdays
There is an Assembly every Monday and every Thursday at 8.25 am, which all members of Common Room are expected to attend. On Tuesdays there is a Sixth Form Chapel at 8.25 am, which tutors should attend. On Wednesdays, there is a Lower School Chapel at 8.25 am, which tutors should attend. There is a Full College Chapel on Thursdays at 8.25 am, which all members of Common Room are expected to attend.
Sundays
On Sunday mornings, pupils must attend either the College Chapel, which is usually held at 10.30 am, or Sunday Forum at 10.30 am. (Forum is a talk or presentation, usually on a topic of current interest and often presented by an outside speaker.) Each term, there are usually two Full College Chapels when the whole of the College attends Chapel and there is no Sunday Forum. Families and visitors are always welcome.
The example set by Common Room as a whole in regular attendance both on Sundays and weekdays cannot be over-estimated. There is normally a celebration of Holy Communion on Saints’ Days and Holy Days, which any member of the College is welcome to attend.
On Remembrance Sunday, there is a service in Chapel for the whole school following an Act of Remembrance around the statue of St. George. This is an important gathering of the College community and members of Common Room are expected to attend. Gowns and hoods are worn. Gowns and hoods are worn on other special occasions, such as Confirmation, Carol Services and Commemoration.
It is often difficult for members of other faith communities to attend their place of worship as these are often far removed from Malvern. However, the Crypt Chapel is available for all pupils as a worship centre, no matter what their religious belief.
The worship we offer in weekday Chapel is mainly of broadly Christian character, reflecting the main traditions of Christian belief without being distinctive of any particular Christian denomination. We recognise that, if school worship is to have real meaning, it needs to be seen in very different terms from church worship. Worship which traditionally takes place in church is obviously not suitable when pupils represent a wide variety of Christian denominations and have not assembled for collective worship voluntarily.
We recognise that the pupils’ readiness to worship will vary considerably, as will their understanding of what worship involves. It is our intention that acts of worship will leave pupils to respond in a variety of ways since no-one can be made to worship and no-one can impose what is, in essence, a spiritual experience. We seek therefore to provide acts of worship which can accommodate individual rather than uniform responses – our interpretation of the term ‘collective worship’. As some of our pupils are of other faith backgrounds or none, we aim to provide chapels on a regular basis which might be described as ‘other’, namely another tradition or secular.
The Chapel
The Chapel stands physically and spiritually at the heart of the College. As a Church of England foundation with the Bishop of Worcester as its President of Council and Visitor the College worship is Anglican in style and inclusive by nature. Weekday Chapel and the Sunday services of Holy Communion or Morning/Evening Prayer aim to be accessible to all. Spiritual and moral contemporary issues are addressed. Pupils are required to attend Chapel and many choose to take an active role in presenting talks, music or drama. On certain days, notably Remembrance Sunday and Commemoration, the whole College community is expected to be present.
The Crypt Chapel which lies beneath the main Chapel is open daily as a space which any member of the community may use for quiet prayer or meditation.
The resident Chaplain, the Reverend Andrew Law, is here to offer help, advice and counsel for pupils and staff: he is responsible for the spiritual support and nurture of the whole Malvern family. Each year pupils are prepared for Confirmation. Baptisms are also conducted for members of the community.
The Chapel has connections with the Philosophy and Religious Studies department, but the focus of teaching is on religious studies as distinct from religious education or instruction: a variety of beliefs and practices is encountered. The department teaches in an objective, non-confessional way towards public examinations which do not take formal account of personal faith.