by Madeleine Collins

Trinity Grammar School has taken a bold step to support the Diocesan Mission and in doing so has revitalised a local church.
Trinity’s 40 high school boarding students now make up a large proportion of the evening service at St Andrew’s, Summer Hill. The boarders have traditionally met for their Sunday services at a Trinity chapel, but the school’s Headmaster, Milton Cujes, approached St Andrew’s with the aim to integrate the boys into the existing congregation. The school says the move aims to help the church grow and reach out into the suburb and will give the students a taste of church fellowship with people of different ages.
As a result, the existing evening congregation has grown from 12 to approximately 60 people, says Rector Trevor Oakley. Mr Oakley has given oversight of the new congregation to Trinity’s Senior Chaplain, Greg Webster.
Ministry staff numbers have increased to bolster the move. Two graduates from the Sydney Missionary and Bible College, Lincoln Job and Clayton Moss, have been employed to work across the school and the church community as assistant chaplains. Mal York is the new student minister from Moore Theological College.
The congregation will run for a two-year trial basis. Logistical changes included meeting at an earlier time and shortening the sermon, Mr Oakley explains, who added his congregation was highly supportive of the change, paerticularly in light of the Mission goals of growing spiritually and numerically.
“The atmosphere changed because suddenly there were 40 borders, young men. Some members of the school community came,” Mr Oakley explains. “We changed from a service predominately reaching people in their 40s and 50s to now a large number in their teenage years.”
He emphasised the importance of faithful and relevant teaching. “We want relevant preaching, especially to those young people.”
Mr Oakley believes the move is a significant step for both the church and the school. “It’s not just a school thing coming to use the building, or a parish thing but it’s two groups working together,” he said.
Trinity chaplain Greg Webster agrees. He says the school’s council considered they could be doing more to encourage the students to become part of local churches, particularly because it is in the school’s charter to do so.
“We don’t know who we’re going to end up with, [but it will be] non liturgical, sharp and punchy, with strong Bible teaching,” he said.
Mr Oakley said when he first heard the idea his initial thoughts were ‘the two groups are like chalk and cheese, will it work?’
“But the decision to make it work, and with the vision and Mission in mind, I think it will.”
The Rev Ed Vaughan, Rector of Darling Street Anglican Churches, helped the two men work through issues relating to new church plants, including the need to define leadership, shared values and the importance of a mission statement.
“In order to make it work, somebody has to have responsibility for the service,”  Mr Oakley said.
Robert Forsyth, Bishop of South Sydney, points to the venture as an example of two groups willing to make sacrifices and changes by being committed to trying something new.
For the Mission to go ahead, “some of the real heroes” are people like Trevor who love Christ enough to see this as important, he said.