The Habersham School is a PK3 – 12 private Classical Christian school in Savannah, GA.
by Sharon Mays
As you walk through the halls of either campus of The Habersham School in the morning, you will hear students of all ages raising their voices in song. Words of truth ring in this month’s hymn:
O the deep, deep Love of Jesus! Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free;
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me is the current of thy love:
Leading onward, leading homeward to thy glorious rest above.
The hymns we sing will not only be hummed at home or sung in the car after school, but will echo throughout students for the rest of their lives. When thinking on who your child will become, we hope your child becomes one who knows God, who is growing in their love for God, and who demonstrates this knowledge and love through a Spirit-filled life of virtue. The Morning Liturgy is crafted to encourage the fulfillment of those hopes in partnership with the Holy Spirit.
The Morning Liturgy, a time of prayer, scripture-reading, and hymn singing, is how each Habersham student begins their day. In the Lower School the liturgy is amended to suit the younger ages, but in the Middle and Upper Schools we follow this order:
Opening Psalm: a full psalm is read responsively between a student and the rest of their class;
the Psalms gives us examples of how others communicated with God in the many ups
and downs of life
Minute of Silent Prayer: 60 seconds of silence is observed as students are given time for
personal devotion in peace
The Lord’s Prayer: the prayer given by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew teaches us about the
heart of Christ and thus how our hearts should be aligned
Scripture Reading: books of the Bible are read through in their entirety, chapter-by-chapter,
drawing from both the Old and New Testaments, revealing the stories of God’s people
Hymn: singing rich poetry teaches us about God through the text and by tuning our voice in
song, further revealing sound as God’s creation and an echo of his own harmony and
beauty
Closing Prayer: prayers of faithful believers who preceded us, challenging us to approach
prayer and faith in ways currently foreign
Engaging in the Morning Liturgy reveals to us who God is, and thus who we are.
By beginning each day in truth, we hope to model to students the importance of honoring what is primary. This daily routine provides stability in the lives of the students and hopefully builds habits that will continue well beyond their years at Habersham. Students engage in the Morning Liturgy with a small group, led by a teacher of the same gender, who disciples this group of students all year by encouraging spiritual growth, praying regularly for them, living as an example, and nurturing relationships with this special group. It is our hope that as students daily encounter God and are shepherded, they will grow in love for him. While the journey of growing in love for God is a lifelong one, Habersham desires to partner with parents in preparing students well for the journey.
Our Morning Liturgy is designed to create a close community of peers who practice the communal habit of grounding themselves in worship, scripture, and prayer as they grow together each day toward fuller a love of Christ and a life of virtue.
If you’re curious as to what your own child’s liturgy is in a given week, you can always find it in the Weekly Updates section of The Post.
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