Ladies, gentlemen and New Boys of 2023, welcome to St Alban’s College. You join St Alban’s, which was established in 1963, in its Diamond Jubilee year. We will be celebrating 60 years of excellence and preparing young men for the future, and we are excited that your son joins us in this historic and significant year for us and, ultimately for them, as they now weave themselves into the history of the College.
You move into this new phase at an uncertain time in the world and our young democracy. There is a cost-of-living crises right here at home, in Europe and the United Kingdom, a war in the Ukraine, a widening Gini-co-efficient in South Africa, and an energy crisis which is affecting every household and business in the country and is fast becoming the cause of rampant cynicism and negativity with is seeping into our collective souls. I have recently read Jacque Pauw’s book: Our Poisoned Land, and it is filled with horrific stories of greed, selfishness, bullying and corruption and one can feel an air of despair and significant frustration and pessimism which pervades our collective conversations and our mindset.
The Class of 2027 joins us at a time which is filled with difficulty and challenge and it will be up to them as individuals but, more importantly, up to us as adults to ensure that we provide an environment which is filled with optimism and hope and I am proud to say, at the start of our 60th year, that optimism and hope are ingrained in our collective DNA at St Alban’s.
We should remind ourselves of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13:13, where he says: Three things will last forever, faith, hope and love….Read More