Three weddings and two funerals

By supporting school chaplains you are supporting entire communities

When Chaplain Terry Keen was first introduced at Alexandra Hills State School in 2006, the principal at the time asked a child to sit on a chair.

She then took out a doona and wrapped it around the child saying, “This is what the role of Mr Keen will be in our school. He will be the one who will comfort us, he will just make us feel special.”

“She had such confidence about what chaplaincy was going to be in her school. And the children understood it, I’ve never forgotten that,” remembers Terry.

The doona story is more than just a sweet story for children.

“The actual word chaplain comes from a French word, which means to cover or surround. To put a mantel on you,” explains Terry. Chaplains play this role not only for young people in schools, but often for the wider community.

When the same principal devastatingly passed away two years later from brain tumours, Chaplain Keen was asked to conduct her funeral and continued her vision by covering the community, including teachers, students, and parents with comfort and care.

Terry describes the importance of building bridges of connection so that chaplains can be there to support those in need when they need them.

“When it comes to relationships, I know how important it is to have someone in your life. You just build the bridge,” explains Terry.

Creating spaces of safety and love was instrumental in Terry’s supporting children. From establishing an in-school breakfast program where students sat at tables like at a cafe and learnt to use proper manners, to building a lizard lounge for nervous children to come to (which is still operating today!) Terry highlights the impact these spaces have on a young person’s life.

“Even a raging child would come down… and the lizard lounge was extraordinary. It was the most healing place in the whole school,” he says.

When the mum of one of his lizard lounge visitors was facing terminal cancer, Terry and the school stepped in to make it possible for her to marry her long-time partner, the child’s father.

“We organised the whole school to provide for this wedding….I was privy to the point that Sarah* [not her real name] was dying and her time was getting short. My daughter offered her wedding dress to Sarah,” says Terry.

“Our school provided for the reception financially.

We had the wedding and then 12 days later I conducted her funeral….It was such a powerful time impacting the school ….”

While Chaplains can’t stay forever, though no doubt many wish they could, the effect of their presence and God’s work through them can carry on in the communities they bless.

When Terry left the school, a ceremony was organised to farewell him, with a very special surprise.

Chappy Keen’s legacy lives on at Alexandra Hills at the newly named “Keen’s Corner” (formerly K-block) where a plaque commemorates his dedication to staff and students.