Episcopal Press and News

Episcopal School Week: Oct. 25 - Nov. 1

Diocesan Press Service. September 7, 1964 [XXIV-5]

Note to editors:

The Department of Christian Education and the Episcopal School Association, through its Episcopal School Week Committee, ask cooperation from editors in the observance of Episcopal School Week: Oct. 25-Nov. 1, 1964. This is an appropriate time to run a story about the Episcopal schools in your own diocese. The committee member for your diocese will be in contact with you shortly and is prepared to assist in gathering information concerning Episcopal schools in your area.

Copy:

It is a matter of deep concern to both clergy and schoolmen that many faithful communicants know so little about the schools of our Church. The Department of Christian Education and the Episcopal School Association believe that Episcopal schools are vital agents of the Church, both educational and evangelical. It is their belief that in the intersection of altar and classroom, there exists a unique relationship that should benefit the development of the whole child.

The Anglican tradition has always included schools below the college level; and the more than 70, 000 pupils currently enrolled represent a major missionary action of the Episcopal Church. If education is the process by which we are prepared for life and death, then our Churchmen need only be reminded of our schools as one means of meeting our common task. The schools of the Church pursue our corporate ambition of leading and teaching boys and girls so that they may be at home in God's world, and may accept the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and put themselves at the service of that Spirit, Who shall lead us in all Truth.

A STATEMENT FROM THE PRESIDING BISHOP

The Christian tradition embraces schools dedicated to keeping the sovereignty of God as the fundamental fact of existence at the heart of education. Such Episcopal Schools are a missionary arm of the Church. They make a genuine contribution to the teaching ministry and under the guidance of the Source of all truth assist an increasing number of the Church's children to grow in mind and in grace into Christian citizenship.

In a troubled age the effective voice of the Church is commensurate with the commitment and education of its members. While there is no simple answer nor single system capable of resolving all problems in education the Christian young, the Church does bear the responsibility for providing an arena for raising any academic question and the context for interpreting the significance of answers. The schools of the Church represent a dedicated effort to meet this need.

Again this year I ask you to join with me in observing EPISCOPAL SCHOOL WEEK. Through earnest prayer and deliberate thought ours is now the opportunity to measure the obligation to assist these schools in providing sound learning, encouraging high moral standards, and inspiring a breadth of vision that knows all men as equal before God, and all truth as God's revelation.

The Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger