The vision of MECS is to “Seek the Kingdom of God in Education”, but what does that actually mean? I’ve asked myself that a few times, since starting as the Principal. I love the vision, it resonates with me, but I do find it hard to put in a few words what it means. I know what it means to seek, I know what education is about, but what do we mean by the “Kingdom of God”? 

As the staff gathered together to begin the year, we unpacked a familiar and beautiful passage of scripture, John 15:1-17 where, amongst a wonderful digest of horticultural imagery of Jesus being like a grape vine, we read the repeated word, “remain”. The original Greek word, is “meno”, which, when translated can mean; remain, stay or abide. The surprising thing for me in looking into this further, is that “meno” of course applies to our relationship with God (we meno/abide in Jesus) but it can also apply to how we “meno” with others. How we do life together, how we care for each other, how we are shaped by each other. 

Here at MECS we are a bunch of people that have been brought together with a common intention. We want to partner with this particular Christian school. Whether we are parents, employees or friends of MECS or relatives in the distance, we share this common ground of belonging to this particular community. And as we know, community can be complex! There’s people that have different opinions to us, there’s people that we don’t particularly warm too, people that hold different values and others that we might have had issues with in the past. Yet, for this time in history, we have been brought together, to be community. 

As we launch into 2024 at MECS, it’s my hope that we will “meno” together, as a community. This might be through classes, parent nights, staff meetings, community events and more. As we meno together, abide together, remain together, stay together, we are actually reflecting God’s intention for his people. We are in essence, seeking His Kingdom (His reign, His rule, His good intention), here at MECS, in 2024. 

I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for our community this year. I look forward to doing this in partnership.

Michelle Dempsey
MECS Principal