Episcopal Press and News

Church Schools Celebrate Special Week

Diocesan Press Service. August 22, 1969 [78-13]

Note to Editors -- The following article was written by Donn D. Wright, the headmaster of the Hoosac School, Hoosick, N.Y. It is for publication during October and may be used in conjunction with a story about a local Episcopal School.

The National Episcopal Church Schools will be drawing Church attention October 26 through November 2, an eight-day span beginning and ending on a Sunday, which will be observed as Episcopal Schools Week. This will be the fifth consecutive year for the celebration.

Special chapel services will be held in most of the 900 schools which will be celebrating the occasion. Some will be holding services among the schools in their own Dioceses, and in many communities school choirs will be singing at nearby churches. Headmasters and chaplains will be serving as guest preachers. Leaders and delegations from churches will be visiting the schools during the week, and some schools will be engaged in special conferences and community service projects. It is an especially fitting time for the prayer "for those who teach and those who learn."

Among those who teach there are about 1,000 priests engaged in work with these schools. There are more than 100,000 students, some in nursery schools, some in elementary schools, some in schools kindergarten through the 12th grade, some in day schools, some in boarding schools.

The celebration is being sponsored by the National Association of Episcopal Schools which has offices at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York City. The Rev. John Paul Carter is Executive Secretary. NAES President is the Rev. Dr. John D. Verdery, Headmaster of the Wooster School, Danbury, Conn. Vice-President is the Rev. Thomas N. F. Shaw, Headmaster of Trinity Episcopal School, New Orleans. The Treasurer is Doctor Allen W. Becker, Headmaster of St. Stephen's School, Austin, Tex. The immediate past president is Dr. Ruth Jenkins, Headmistress of the Bishop's School, La Jolla, Calif.

The NAES organization will be meeting November 13 to 15 in a triennial conference at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The title of the conference is "From Generation to Generation, " and featured speakers will be the Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, and the Rev. John B. Coburn, President of the House of Deputies and former Dean of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass. Many other nationally known Churchmen and educators will be serving as conference leaders. A number of the Bishops of the Church are expected to attend.

NAES traces its beginning to 1937 when the National Council appointed a Commission on Secondary Schools. The present name was adopted in 1965 when the organization was incorporated and the Rev. Mr. Carter was appointed its full time Executive Secretary. It was in the fall of 1965 that the first Episcopal School Week was held. Bishop Hines has annually endorsed and commended the celebration since that time. The following is from a letter from the Presiding Bishop.

"I think it was Howard Mumford Jones who suggested that one of the ironies of our modern day is that society has to fear only the educated man. Primitive man offers no threat to the continuation of human society. This inaccurately quoted observation highlights not simply the importance of education but the importance of education which is able to encompass the enduring basis for moral and ethical decisions on the part of human beings.

"The Church's legitimate concern for education is implicit in her allegiance to her Lord, Christ, the Truth. The Church's concern for education is explicit in educational institutions which accept the responsibility for an educational process which aims at the good life for the whole man in the midst of God's creation. "

There are a number of ways that churches can participate in Episcopal Schools Week. The congregation can pray for all educators and students in all the schools of our nation; for the schools of the Episcopal Church; for the schools in the area of the parish; for its parish members who are attending school. The clergy can preach about the church's vocation and responsibility in education. Parishes can publish in the Sunday bulletin or newsletter the names of parish members in Church schools, facts about education and church schools, plans for Episcopal Schools Week, the names of church schools in the area. Vestries can discuss opportunities Churchmen have to promote and encourage high standards of education, both in public and Church schools. Church organizations can explore the educational needs of their community. Some Churches will invite the choir, chaplain: and headmaster of a Church school to participate in a worship service in their churches during Episcopal Schools Week. Many will want to visit a nearby Episcopal School with a parish delegation.

Education is the primary concern of our American culture. Thirty nine per cent of the national population is engaged in the educational process as students, teachers or administrators. The nationwide budget for education is second only to national defense. The largest single professional group in the country is that which is engaged in the educational process. Some churches provide support for schools and for scholarship funds.

In a statement about Episcopal Schools Week, NAES President John Verdery asserts:

"The NAES does not exist as a private club for a relatively small collection of our nation's schools, to keep them separate and unsullied by the rest. It exists as a rallying point and source of strength for our member schools, that they may help each other and help their Mother Church and so better serve all education in our country and all Christendom. We are an association which, by its very existence, enables each of its members to know to whom they belong, just because they know what they believe.

"These are days when men and institutions need to have the courage to stand up and be counted, not defiantly but confidently. Episcopal Schools Week is nothing but an annual opportunity to do just that. Our Church has some cause to be proud of us; we have some cause to be proud of her, as well as some cause to be proud of each other. Our sins are many and so are our problems. But let us, each in the most appropriate way for ourselves, not be ashamed to let the world know what we believe and with whom we belong. "

-- Donn D. Wright