New Church Life September/October 2015 | Page 91

  and information. Our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ancss) provides regular updates on day-to-day activities and information for major upcoming events. You can also follow us on Twitter (@anclions), which should be more active moving forward. Our athletic teams love to have fans in the stands, so please visit www. ancss.org, look at the athletic calendar and come cheer our student-athletes as they represent ANC. The social calendar, also available on our website, is updated regularly and provides information for other popular events including Charter Day, Telegrams, the fall/winter production (SantaLand Diaries), the Oratorical Event and the spring production (Oliver). british academy summer school 2015 The Rev. Howard A. Thompson As they have for more than 50 years, young people gathered at the Purley Chase Centre in July in the English Midlands for two weeks of spiritual discovery and fun. This year’s British Academy Summer School included 32 students from across the United States and three European countries. Our regular staff included: the Rev. Alan Cowley (Pastor of the Michael Church, London) and his wife, Susan; the Rev. Howard Thompson (Pastor of the Colchester New Church); the Rev. Göran Appelgren (Pastor of the New Church Society in Stockholm) and his wife, Josephine; and Ivan Maddock from the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn. The staff was supported this year by Kyle Genzlinger, a teacher from the Academy of the New Church, and the Rev. Alain Nicolier from France. Additional support was provided by Philly Chambers and Jenny de Padua. I could go on for several paragraphs about the summer school this year but that would be from my perspective. I believe the best one to summarize this year’s Summer School is Brent van der Merwe. (See below.) Brent has been attending for six years now and has truly come to embody the meaning and purpose of B.A.S.S. Each year I invite the students to return to B.A.S.S., telling them that returning students get more out of the experience as they come to take ownership of the school. (Brent and his brother Erik, also a regular at B.A.S.S., live in England but are originally from Durban, South Africa.) The British Academy Summer School is open to young people from across the New Church from 14 years to 24 years (18 and older from the United States and Canada). For a unique summer experience feel free to contact the Rev. Howard Thompson, the Rev. Alan Cowley or any New Church pastor and we will make certain that you have a place at B.A.S.S. 2016. 523