Chapel

Hutchins is an Anglican school with a commitment to Jesus Christ as its foundation. Hutchins values the spiritual growth and wellbeing of our students alongside their academic, physical, and artistic achievements. As part of our Anglican identity staff and students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 gather regularly for services in the Chapel. These services include the reading of the New and the Old Testament, praying for our community and ourselves, as well as music and hymns. An emphasis is placed on students playing a significant part in these services. All students and families are welcome to attend any service advertised in the School calendar.

Our Chaplains at Hutchins are the Reverend Dr Lee Weissel and the Reverend Mark Holland. Each year the Chaplains offer preparation courses to help students decide whether they wish to be baptised and/or confirmed. They are also highly involved in the co-curricular life of the School and members of the Hutchins community are encouraged to seek their assistance.

Hutchins sees chapel and community service as two inextricably linked pieces of our Anglican identity. We encourage our students to develop the habit of service because we believe it is one of the ways in which we make the world a better place. By meeting and serving those who are less fortunate than ourselves, we better understand the world around us.

We require all our graduates to complete at least 50 hours of approved community service. Those who complete these requirements are honoured with the ‘Servant’ distinction at graduation.

Numerous schools throughout the world were originally founded as Anglican schools, but as times have changed many have lost or put aside those traditions and foundations that truly embody the Anglican identity. Hutchins is not one of those schools. We fully embrace this identity in the following ways:

• We seek to integrate religious and spiritual formation into the overall curriculum and life of the School community. Chapel is held daily in all year groups.
• We strive for intentional pluralism. We invite people from all denominations and creeds to work in and attend our school. We honour all people – Anglican or not – and strive for justice, peace, and understanding among all people and respect for the dignity of every human being.
• We exist not merely to educate, but to demonstrate and proclaim the unique worth and beauty of all human beings as creations of a loving, empowering God.
• We guide and challenge all who attend our school to build lives of genuine meaning, purpose, and service in the world they will inherit.

Student participation

Student participation is an important part of chapel life. All students are expected to participate in chapel, though students of other faith backgrounds may choose to participate by sitting quietly during the service. For more information about chapel please contact our Chaplains.

Chaplains of The Hutchins School

• Reverend G Needham (1950)
• Reverend S C Brammall (1951–1958)
• Reverend F S Ingoldsby (1962–1963)
• Reverend M B Eagle (1964–1972)
• Reverend Dr G H Stephens (1974–1987)
• Reverend R B Mitchell (1988–1997)
• Reverend J A Goodwin (1998–2008)
• Reverend Canon M C Gray (2009–2014)
• Reverend M W Holland (2010–)
• Reverend Dr L M Weissel (2016–)