Presiding Bishop's Episcopal School Week Message
Diocesan Press Service. August 3, 1966 [45-16]
Autumn 1966
To those who care for the Church's Schools:
For the fifth year our Church is gladly sponsoring Episcopal School Week. The dates this year will include the Triennial Conference of the National Association of Episcopal Schools. Thus our concern for the schools will be doubly underlined.
More than 70, 000 students attend our schools at home and overseas. The schools they attend--more than 700 of them--are a primary missionary arm of the Church. As we understand their vocation under God, they are called to be instruments for transforming and redeeming the world into which they are set. Faithfulness in this task presses our schools towards conformity to the Gospel of service; they must not be content merely to reflect the society which surrounds them.
We are concerned with a two-fold relationship of the greatest importance: What shall be the kinship between the Church, as an institution, and the schools; and what shall be the affinity between the schools, as institutions, and the Church? Both sides of this equation have much to discover and much to contribute. We rejoice that there are signs of progress and mutual encouragement.
Our culture is presently concentrating itself upon Education as the primary means for national growth and improvement. Our Church's tradition has placed deep concern upon all teaching and learning. Through the schools, we must determine anew to restore at the heart of Education the sovereignty of God as the basis of our existence. To this end, I commend the schools of the Episcopal Church to all its members. I ask their prayers and support, and I cherish their continued interest.
Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines