Students, staff, parents and friends of Richard Challoner School enjoyed a highly emotive, celebratory Challoner Day Mass at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark last week.
This year attendance at the traditional Challoner Day event was exceptionally high, with over thirteen hundred people, and marked the thirteenth year that the school has enjoyed the Cathedral’s stunning interior. Having established the traditional Challoner Day celebration back in the 1980s, it was Our Lady Immaculate Church in Tolworth, Surrey that originally hosted the special Masses.
Challoner Day provides the school community the opportunity to formally mark the birthday of Bishop Richard Challoner, an inspirational and highly influential Bishop who died in 1781. Bishop Challoner’s efforts greatly contributed to the survival of Catholicism in England during a very challenging period.
The powerful music throughout the Mass was performed by over seventy students and staff and each year the bar is raised higher, impacting the congregation with strong emotions. Sung with extraordinary power, Be Still, My Soul, arranged by Heather Sorenson, was performed for the first time. After the school’s final signature hymn, Non Nobis, the students spontaneously applauded for the first time. Mrs Louise Solanki, the school’s new Choral Director, commented: “I am enormously proud of the quality of singing during the service. The boys excelled in their commitment and delivery. It was a truly moving and uplifting service – a big well done to all those who took part.”
The Principal Celebrant was Fr Dermott O’Gorman and, in his sermon, he talked about a memorable time during his primary school years when he was mountain climbing and, when one of his peers became extremely anxious, he was advised by the group leader to fix his eyes only on the mountain peak and the path to that peak. Fr Dermott related this to the Mass being an exceptional mountain summit where Heaven and Earth meet and he reiterated that Bishop Challoner’s primary aim was to get to the mountain peak of Heaven.
Mr Ian O’Brien, the school’s Deputy Head, addressed the congregation at the end of the Mass, advising he would be stepping down from his leadership role at the end of the year, and would begin a phased retirement, after an intensely rewarding 31 years working in different positions at the school. Commenting on the special Mass, Mr O’Brien said: “Whether this is your first Challoner Day, or indeed for some of you your last, I hope that this day sits in your heart and in your memory, and helps you to go out and be beacons of light and hope to the wider world. This community of faith is truly something special. It continues to be and will always be my Challoner family. Thank you all for doing ordinary things, extraordinarily well. Keep faith!”.
The Challoner Day celebration was organised with meticulous attention to detail by Mr Neil D’Aguiar, the School Chaplain, who ensured that over a thousand students, irrespective of any additional difficulties, were attentively supported throughout the event by high levels of staff. Commenting on the impeccable behaviour of the students, Mr D’Aguiar reflected: “There was a special feeling this year, the school seemed energised and enthused and sung with a gusto and unity that I have not heard for a number of years”.
