Dear Parents
Yesterday was 169 years since the school that would become known as Bishops opened at Protea (known as Bishopscourt now) in Maynier’s Cottage with six pupils. 169 years later we have 1 433 pupils from Grade N to Matric. Even though Robert Gray secured and saw the purchase of the Woodlands Farm where the College and Pre-Prep are now situated, the school would be largely unrecognisable to him today.
What would be recognisable to him, however, would be the school crest with the mitre above the shield, the same crest as that of the Diocese of Cape Town. It largely represents the early life of Robert Gray as he grew up in Bristol where his father was a Bishop and he later became a parish priest in Durham. And he gave the Diocesan Collegiate School a mixture of the coats of arms of the Dioceses of Bristol and Durham. No doubt he would identify enormously with our motto of Pro Fide et Patria – For Faith and Country.
So at our Founder’s Day Assembly, where the boys sang magnificently (their singing can vary), we spoke about the Bishops crest and our motto. Two moments specifically embodied the latter: the singing of the National Anthem, the Anthem that since 1994 has represented all the people of South Africa; followed by the hymn, Brother, let me be your servant, the words of which talk to a lived faith and our relationship with one another.
Brother, let me be your servant,
Let me be as Christ to you,
Pray that I may have the grace
To let you be my servant too.
Today is a special celebration of not only what we owe to those who came before, but also a reminder of what we can give to the present and, hopefully, the future.
Best wishes
Kind regards
GREG BROWN
HEADMASTER |
