From Monday, 5 to Friday, 9 May, nine Anglican schools in the Diocese of Perth, including St James’ Anglican School, Peter Moyes Anglican Community School, St Mark’s Anglican Community School, John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School, and St George’s Anglican Grammar School took up the initiative of Bishop Hans Christiansen and walked for hope. On any pilgrimage, the focus is on the journey more than the destination. The Walk for Hope was about what could be learned and experienced on the way in each step and each conversation. Taking time out to walk together reminded us that hope is available to each of us in any and all of life’s circumstances.
The way hope is available to us is reflected in a saying attributed to St Augustine, a fourth century Bishop in Northern Africa: ‘Hope has two beautiful daughters, their names are Anger and Courage. Anger that things are the way they are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.’ Those daughters, Anger and Courage, remind us that Hope is not a passive thing. This is one of the reasons the Pilgrimage Walk for Hope was linked to social justice – specifically to fundraising for the Anglicare Schools Sleepout and Trillion Trees. If you’d like to donate, you can do so via our GoFundMe.
Held during the season of Easter under the banner of the Hope 25 initiative of the Anglican Church of Australia, the Pilgrimage Walk for Hope was grounded in the deep conviction that the nature of God is love at all levels. The love God has for us and for all the world is the heart of the Christian gospel and is witnessed to by Christ rising from the dead, the very thing we celebrate in our Churches and Schools at Easter. This Good News is, in and of itself, a profoundly hopeful thing that we can each carry with us at all times and in all places.
