Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I must confess that I read three books sitting in the choir. The choir stalls make it easier to hide books from view

Mrs C. wrote:If you would be uncomfortable with attending Chapel , which IS COMPULSORY for ALL pupils, perhaps this is not the school for you after all. There is no question of "trying" it - it is done . End of story.

Well, all students except Catholics apparently, who are given the option not to. Why the exception?

The Chapel in itself is a very minor issue, its the whole of the school I'm worried about. Compulsory attendance to a religious ceremony, and it isn't the biggest leap to suspect further religious expectations. I can, of course, put up with a few services.

Deb GP wrote:I'm not saying that you are in that camp Ariel - I commend you for your principals (sp?) - but believe me, CH isn't God Squad (obviously you get the one or two which you'd get anywhere but they're the exception).

Don't waste a marvellous opportunity - unless of course you've had a better offer with guaranteed A-level grades and two fun filled years of whatever you want them to be with everything at your fingertips.

I was just worried that CH was an indoctrination centre having read that page and was a little apprehensive. Phrasing like 'instilling our students with Gospel values' suggest that all aspects of CH life would be dominated by Christianity.

My concern was that chapel attendance was compounded with a requirement for actual religious involvement in all areas of school life. Thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case, as you're quite right, CH offers a huge oppurtunity for me.

blondie95 wrote:If you really feel this strongly i dont suggest you go as you will find yourself constantly battling with something that has been going for hundreds of years!

We all have to do things we dont like or find uncomfrtable in life its up to you whether or not you think all the postivies of school out do the issue?

If Christianity completely dominated the curriculum and school life, then yeah, it would have out done the issue.

Deb GP wrote:Ariel, I wouldn't read too much into it if I were you. It's but a part, and a small part of school life. It's like marching to lunch and sports cup ties at the end of term. It's just something that's done. Life's like that.

My question is this - is it a small, contained part of school life? I can obviously sit through an hour or two a week and daydream, what I can't do is pretend to be somebody else every hour of the day.

I think thats a genuine concern - some of the more hostile posts seem to suggest I'm just some lazy kid that doesn't want to attend chapel. I don't know if this is a simple misinterpretation, or if I've offended anybody's sensibilities, but the issue is wider than that and not what I would classify as trivial by any standards.

Edit:

graham wrote:I understand your position with regards chapel; it's not the content but the compulsory aspect. All I can do is reiterate the point that chapel services are rarely extremely religous affairs and many of the sermons are quite surprisingly refreshing and diverse. Quite "unreligous" infact (I'm still thinking of that guy who shouted at us that we would go to hell for eating meat - nutter). Point is, chapel, while compulsory, isn't what you expect. There will be little of the christian/juden/islamic/whatever intolerance that you are expecting and instead a wealth of educational and thought provoking talks. Some you will, of course, disagree wholeheartedly with, and some you may find offensive to your beliefs. Many will enlighten you though, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what it has to offer.


So, yes you ae forced to go, which sucks, but you are not being forced to attend for religous reasons, but so that you can hear interesting guest speakers. There is a splattering of religous singalong to build community spirit etc, which you are within your rights to not participate in.

Thats great to hear - as long as the services aren't hardline religious preaching I can live with it. It wasn't the compulsory aspect I was too bothered about, but the content. I'm all for hearing philosophical talks, in fact I'd find that very interesting - I'm quite interested in many theological ideas. Sounds good. Its a big relief to hear these kinds of comments, cheers.

And yeah I'll be visiting pretty soon.

Again, thanks for the help guys.

To my knowledge all catholics attend chapel too,

The replies are not meant to be hostile, Ariel , just honest. If you think its going to be "an indoctrination centre", you`re very much mistaken . It`s your choice to go for a place here or not - only you can decide. What we have pointed out is that , whatever you may or may not like, chapel is compulsory for all - there`s no avoiding the issue. What you do during that time, and with the rest of your time here is up to you , but like any institution there are things that not everyone likes. Fortunately everyone just gets on with it - like life.

You asked the question - you`ve read the replies. Judge for yourself.

It is not a very well known fact but we Catholics can opt out of the chapel service. I had the option to be driven to Horsham by a master for mass in the nearest catholic church. I opted to go to chapel.

No, the school definately isnt hardline christian fundamental or anything. I dont know anything of these christian values they talk of through the curriculum, i also was only there for two years. So no, dont worry about that part. Its just chapel that you may have a problem with.

You seem really clever too. Like, way more intelligent than most people of your age.

School prospectus' are rather like business proposals. There is an awful lot of sales pitch hoping that you are saying exactly what the reader wants to read.

soc wrote:It is not a very well known fact but we Catholics can opt out of the chapel service. I had the option to be driven to Horsham by a master for mass in the nearest catholic church. I opted to go to chapel.

At Hertford it wasn't a case of either/or. Catholics went to an early Mass, then attended am and pm services in the chapel.

I even had to get the bishop to sign a letter stating that it was okay for me to go to a Church of England School!

soc wrote:It is not a very well known fact but we Catholics can opt out of the chapel service. I had the option to be driven to Horsham by a master for mass in the nearest catholic church. I opted to go to chapel.

i think this may have changed these days - although in the 90's a visiting Catholic priest would visit once a month to do a mass in the chaplaincy room...

But back to the main topic; whilst the school is a 'royal, religious and ancient' foundation, the only 'religious' thing that you must attend is a chapel service on a Sunday and a small service on a Tuesday morning instead of period 1...

When we got to senior end we were no longer obliged to attend chapel, is that still the same today?

No - everyone expected to attend.

Still it was always a good time to put the past week into perspective and ready yourself for the new week to come

Given quite how busy CH life is, chapel services were quite an oasis in the week.
Compline on a Friday night was always my favourite 15 minutes of the week in many ways - candle-lite, great atmosphere, simple music....

But, back to the topic..........!

I would say that the day-to-day principles of CH are Christian-founded - respect each other, do-unto-others-as-you-would-be-done-unto-you etc. etc. - these are now regarded as common courtesy, principles and values, irrelevent of religion, at least in the western world?

These are of course the foundation of many other religions too, but maybe not the eye-for-an-eye approach, or the convert-everyone-else-in-any-way-possible approach....

I wouldn't worry about the Christian emphasis - if you don't have a problem with the core values of society, then I'm sure you wouldn't notice any overt Christian influence in daily life at CH.....

Ariel wrote:I was just worried that CH was an indoctrination centre having read that page and was a little apprehensive. Phrasing like 'instilling our students with Gospel values' suggest that all aspects of CH life would be dominated by Christianity.

Life, whether you be Christian, Muslim, Bhuddist or of any other grouping, religious or otherwise, generally has a few guiding principals;
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
- Honour thy Father and thy mother
and a few more.

I hope that you cannnot object to such basic rules of society; OK so the school might call them gospel values but they are mankind values as well.

In coming to the school you will be one of 850 or so; you have to fit in or sink and the rules which allow you to fit in are respect for other people's opinions, looking out for their interests as well as your own (you get somebody into trouble and he/she will get back at you five fold) and others which you will quickly and easily pick up.

If you wish, forget the tag "gospel values" and think of them as simple rules of society behaviour. You have nothing to fear from that side and Chapel will not ba a haranging session. If you want to end up as an athiest then you will; if you want to become a shaman or a Candoble "Mae de Santo" (which includes the masculine) then you will not find much opposition

Enjoy your time there, Ariel

David