The full College service took place on Friday 7 April, for all pupils and staff. The Sports Hall was packed, and the service was held by Reverend Stephen Cousins and visiting preacher Reverend Robert Thewsey, the Rector of Shiplake Church. The annual service included hymns, bible readings and a performance from the Chamber Choir.
Deputy Head Chapel Warden Ben Tresidder welcomed the Shiplake cohort to the service, before Reverend Thewsey gave a thought-provoking talk on reaping what you sew. The story he told was about a man who was spreading rumours about his neighbour being a thief, which led to the neighbour’s arrest. Upon his release, the innocent neighbour decided to sue the perpetrator of the rumours. Before giving a sentence, the judge told the guilty man to write down all of the things he had said about his neighbour, tear it up and, on the way back to court in the morning, drop all of the pieces of paper out of the car window. The following day, once this was complete and the guilty man was back in court for sentencing, the judge ordered the him to go back along his route and gather all of the torn pieces of paper. The guilty man responded: ‘but that would be impossible! The wind will have taken them all over the place!’ and the judge replied: ‘that is exactly the issue with your words.’ The moral of the story, Reverend Thewsey went on, is to be careful what you say as you cannot control the impact or influence of it.
The congregation sang two hymns, and enjoyed a reading from Emily Duncan, Head of Gilson House. The Chamber Choir gave a rendition of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus.