I could tell you about the Bishop Anstey that is a pillar of the Anglican Community... I could tell you about the Bishop Anstey that has come to epitomize excellence in academic achievement and the all-round development of young women. But that would be to describe Bishop Anstey the school and to neglect to describe Bishop Anstey the Spirit... that which abides within these walls.
Despite its crumbling structure, and despite the dangers inherent in the daily pilgrimage to the tuck-shop, this school is at its core an educational institution... a place where intellectual challenge, aesthetic appreciation, moral awareness, Christian virtue are fostered... and yet it is more than that... it has to be, for into it has poured the sacrifice and vision of one man - Bishop Anstey; seventy-five years of individual and collective initiative and perseverance; and seven years of the lives of many many little girls... and (believe me) ladies and gentlemen, seven of seventeen years of existence is a long time to spend in one place.
But society can testify that it is time well spent, for what emerges is the Hilarian Woman - she who is at the forefront of the corporate community and Diplomatic Corps, who is a pioneer in the field of environmental study, the jewel of the artistic community.
Her qualities are easy enough to identify. I remember a girl-friend of mine telling me how he had gone to the market with her father, and an old toothless vendor had suddenly stopped and asked
"You does go to Bishop's?"
all because she was so talkative and excitable.
Perhaps we are dramatic and talkative and enthusiastic, but that enthusiasm infuses everything we do and is translated into a commitment and sensitivity that are perhaps too rare in today's world.
But what truly distinguishes the Hilarian Woman is an independence of spirit. She who traverses the passage from Bishop's girl to Bishop's woman is sure and bold and confident and strangely capable of stretching beyond herself, of imbibing something more, of redefining herself if necessary without fear of losing anything in the process. The Anstey Spirit is a supple Spirit... an ever-brightening Spirit.
However in a system indeed in a society where economic gain, competition, defeat are watchwords, the Spirit is pressed. The values that animate it, love, selflessness, service, are strangely delicate - not ephemeral, but delicate, and so the Spirit bends ever so slightly.
Financial shortages are eating away at existing resources and time for artistic expression - liberation of the spirit, is being encroached upon by monstrous syllabi.
The old sounds of the school - music from the music room, groans from the aerobic class in the hall, animated debating voices from the Dem Lab - are slowly disappearing.
Now when we pass the Dem Lab there is silence except for the scratch of chalk on the board. When we pass the hall there is noise... renovations, again.
Yet the Spirit perseveres. There are ideas, there are visions and there are enthusiastic, talkative, dramatic girls to voice them. So as the twenty-first century dawns, we await excitedly the chance to work with you in liberating our Spirit... in letting it shine.
TRICIA BARROW
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1997
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