I wonder – Mary-Anne Rulfs
“I wonder …” is one of the most powerful thoughts/mindsets I’ve encountered in the last few decades. Especially lovely big open questions like “I wonder what would happen if I / we …” Not so much small questions like “I wonder if it’s going to rain tomorrow”.
Stephen Harrison was Director of Mission for the Anglican Schools Commission when I began preparing for ministry. Since I was particularly interested in ministry in a school context, Stephen inducted me into school chaplaincy and forming faith in young people. He had a wealth of experience as a youth worker, youth minister and teacher. He introduced me to “I wonder …” as a catalyst for my own thinking and beginning conversations with children and young people about how they viewed the world, themselves and God.
“I wonder …” is such a spacious and liberating thought. It engages our imagination in our navigation of the world, setting our God-given creativity into action. “I wonder …” provides space for reflection before offering trite answers. “I wonder …” suggests a spirit of generosity that invites the perspective of others.
Since then, “I wonder …” has been a pivotal question for me when problem-solving; when speaking with people, young and old, about life and faith; and even when preparing sermons. I wonder … have you noticed how often I mention “I wonder …” in a sermon?
It’s Thursday evening and I’ve arrived at Noosa for the first Queensland Anglican Schools conference since 2018. There’s a lot of excitement about being able to re-gather for the first time in 5 years. I was part of the organising committee for the 2018 conference, and for the conference planned for 2020 that was cancelled due to Covid. I’m so pleased to be here with friends and colleagues who have shared my “I wonder …” journey.
Quite a few people from our Anglican Church Robina community are here in their capacity as senior leaders in Anglican schools on the Gold Coast and further afield – leaders in both the operational and governing aspects of our schools. Stewart and I are both members of Anglican school councils and consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to help shape school governance.
Some of the questions to be addressed at this conference include:
- What inspires us so that we can be inspiring?
- How are we inspiring staff, students and communities?
- Achievement addiction … at what cost are we pushing students to achieve academically as though that’s the most important or valued part of who they are?
- What are the current trends in youth culture? What are keys to creating cultural change?
- How can we turn what we consider a personal flaw into a strength?
I wonder what insights we’ll gain that might facilitate transformational change in our school communities and the individual people for whom we have a duty of care? After all, that is the vocation of our schools:
The vocation of Anglican schools is education driven by a vision of humanity shaped by the image of God made visible in Jesus Christ, present in every human being.
Anglican schools in our diocese are characterised by their incarnational nature. That is,
‘essential words must be embodied within people and practised within our communities … kindness, generosity, love, justice, fairness, truth, hospitality, service, compassion, forgiveness, redemption. These express values that describe God’s activity among us. Living them is essential to the identity of an Anglican School.’
https://www.ascqld.org/anglican-schools-commission/ethos-in-anglican-schools/
And so, I’m wondering what this conference might offer to empower those who teach to journey with students in ways that open up their minds, their hearts, their souls and their strength, to wonder about what matters most in this life and deserves our full attention.
And how might those who have day-to-day responsibility for students be encouraged in their own important vocation?
Schools are facing some tough challenges at the moment – pressure from aggressive parents who have an inflated sense of entitlement; the prevalence of anxiety and other mental health concerns amongst students and planning for coming decades in an incredibly fast-changing world. Some encouragement for our school leaders will be welcome.
I’m also wondering how I might be challenged by tomorrow’s speakers – what questions will they raise that might shape my ongoing ministry in parish and school contexts? And what incidental conversations will offer opportunities to listen attentively and respond with care?
During this Easter season, “I wonder …” is a great resurrection thought, opening up possibilities for ways of thinking that help us see way beyond how things are now to how things might become.
What are the possibilities you might consider as you ask yourself “I wonder …”?
I love Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day – it’s full of wondering.
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
I wonder …
Grace and peace,
Mary-Anne