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RESPECT

This April marks the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday
agreement. I suppose I’m showing my age but it never fails
to amaze me that there isn’t a pupil in the Royal School who
was even born at the time that it was signed. The hope at
that time was that people from different backgrounds and
traditions would learn to respect each other and while it is
still a work in progress, it has brought to an end almost thirty
years of violence, for which we must be truly thankful.

Showing respect is such an important element in the world
of our day. It is all about how we think about and how we
treat other people -thinking about them in a positive way
that acknowledges who they are and what they are doing
and treating them in a dignified manner. When we show
someone respect, we are seeing them as fellow human
beings: we are recognising their worth and the contribution
that they are making to our life. When we withhold respect,
we are demeaning them, denying their humanity, literally de-humanising them.
The new anti-bullying charter in the Royal School the title “Respect” and it would be difficult to think of
a more appropriate term because showing respect is the very opposite to a bullying attitude and the
antidote to it. It includes respecting other people›s personalities, their feelings, their property but also
their differences. God has made us the person we are: we are unique, we are precious and of infinite
worth to him - which is why we should in turn respect and value each other.

One of my great heroes is Bishop Desmond Tutu who was Archbishop of Capetown during the time of
Apartheid. Along with Nelson Mandela, he campaigned with incredible courage and single-mindedness
to bring to an end racial segregation and establish a new South Africa where everybody is treated
equally. And although he is almost ninety, he continues to this day to defend the rights of minorities
with regard to colour, creed and sexuality. He once said to a gathering of people, ‘your ordinary acts of
love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.’
Saint Paul writes to the people of Philippi ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather
in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the
interests of the others.’

Canon Mark Lidwill

School Chaplain

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