This week in Senior School Chapel, students from the Green Team spoke about how finding contentment in Christ can steer us away from overconsumption, as we find a deep spiritual satisfaction that steadies us in a way that buying more items never will. As they highlighted the dangers of fast fashion and encouraged girls to make more responsible clothing choices, they drew on Jesus’ words from Matthew 6:25-34:
“Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes”.
The girls pointed us away from consumption to confidence in our creator, who promises to clothe us just as he clothes the world with natural beauty:
“If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!”
As I sat in Chapel this week, I was reminded of two truths that shape the Christian ministry at Meriden.
Firstly, knowing Jesus transforms the way we see everything else. When we understand God as the creator of all and affirm that the world is his gift to us, we find that every part of it bears his fingerprints. This world is God’s world and all truth is God’s truth. This means that no part of living in the world, and no aspect of learning about it, is separate from him. We aim to provide students with a “Godward” perspective and purpose for all learning: students learn from all disciplines to live wisely in God’s world, and students develop their gifts and abilities to serve the common good. You can’t separate fast fashion from God’s truths, and the same is true for mathematical formulas, musical notes and great works of art and literature.
Secondly, I was reminded of the significance of students learning to speak clearly and compellingly about what they believe. We hope that Meriden girls become young women who are appreciative of the Christian faith, and who have been provided with the opportunity to form a cohesive worldview. We hope that this foundation gives them the confidence to hold firmly to what they have found to be true and to use their voices to shine light on those truths, whether the issue is a textile waste mountain or a myriad of others they will face in an increasingly complex world.