WES or St. Andrews
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Anonymous
Exactly. The OP asked about Episcopal schools specifically. There are loads of fabulous independent schools that have no religious affiliation. But if you are looking for an Episcopal school, regardless of the diversity of the student body, then you are going to look at the administration and staff, and their commitment to maintaining an Episcopal identity. SAES and Grace Episcopal in Kensington (I have kids at both) for example, have strong Episcopal identities, and remain very welcoming to families of many faiths and cultures. We attend church on Sunday, because we recognize that school is not a replacement for worship. But how the school integrates religion is very important to us. |
Anonymous
| If you expect an Episcopal School to have a strong Episcopal identity, try SSAS or Grace Episcopal. Both are very nice schools. |
Anonymous
| By SSAS do you mean St. Stevens & St. Agnes School? |
Anonymous
| Right. St Stephen's and St. Agnes in Alexandria. |
Anonymous
| To have an "Episcopal identity" for a school is to have a place that is kind and welcoming to all relgions and cultures. If you are looking for a place with all Episcopalians, you should attend an Episcopal church but, very intentionally, education at an Episcopalian school is inclusive of many. In my mind, a strong "Episcoplian identity" for a school means to have a diverse student body and parent community. I actually think that all of the Episcopal schools in NW DC/southern MoCo do a great job of this (IMO from my visits for my kids). It's a great environment for learning. |
Anonymous
I don't think the OP is looking for a school comprised entirely of Episcopalians. If the primary requirement for being an Episcopal school means that all religions and cultures are welcome, then every independent school in DC with which I am familiar would be an Episcopal school. Sidwell, Maret, GDS, Sheridan, Bullis, Norwood, etc., are all diverse and welcoming schools, but that does not mean they are Episcopal in their identity. |
Anonymous
Thank you. Being an Episcopal school and being welcoming to families of other faith traditions are not mutually exclusive, but an Episcopal school should have chapel with an ordained priest, and celebrate major events in the liturgical calendar. Or as you correctly point out, it is just another independent school. The primary requirement of an Episcopal school is much more than just being welcoming. I went to Catholic schools and I was welcomed, even though I am not Catholic. That being said, there was no question the schools I attended were Catholic. |
Anonymous
As someone whose kid is at WES now and whom I hope to see matriculate to St. Andrew's for high school, I view both schools as excellent Episcopal schools with much in common, as evidenced by the large number of WES students who attend St. Andrew's for high school (along with St. Alban's, Episcopal High and ohter Episcopal and secular independent schools). Here are some excerpts from both schools' websites that explain exactly what an Episcopal school is all about, along with a link to the Episcopal Diocese of Washington site, which lists all local Episcopal schools. WES http://www.w-e-s.org/page.cfm?p=264 According to the WES philosophy statement, the school is a community “that supports the principles of the Episcopal Church” and thus strives “to nurture the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual development of the children.” The Religion and Chapel Program is firmly rooted in this commitment. As an Episcopal school, the community affirms the beliefs and traditions of the Episcopal Church while also celebrating religious diversity. WES students represent many Christian denominations, religious affiliations, and beliefs. As a result, the religion program is designed to foster respect, tolerance, and understanding of the faith traditions, beliefs, and customs practiced both by members of our school community and people the world. The components of the Religion and Chapel Program include weekly chapels, the virtue curriculum, religion classes, and pastoral care. Chapel and Morning Devotions Our chapel program is designed to nurture the spiritual life of our school community. Students attend chapel once each week and several Special Chapels throughout the year (All Saints' Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Ash Wednesday, and Easter). Starting with the first grade, students are invited to participate as assistants in leading our services as readers, acolytes, crucifers, and musicians. As an Episcopal school, our worship generally follows the order of the Morning Prayer service from the Book of Common Prayer, the prayer book of the Episcopal Church. In chapel, we sing, pray, read lessons from the Bible and other sacred texts, and hear a reflection from our Chaplain or a guest speaker. School chapels seek to honor the religious diversity of the WES community, and throughout the year, the holy days of other faiths and traditions are recognized and celebrated during chapel services. The WES community routinely comes together for all-school worship services to celebrate the opening/closing of the school year, All Saints’ Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Ash Wednesday, and Easter. Religion Curriculum WES is committed to educating our students about religion as an integral part of human life. Religion is taught once each week, starting in Nursery and continuing through the Middle School. In addition to the topics and themes described below, WES uses a curriculum developed by the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE) entitled Creating Classrooms and Homes of Virtue. This is a comprehensive two-year cycle for teaching one virtue per month – 18 virtues in all – over a two-year period, engaging the members of the entire student body in a unified focus on a featured virtue. These virtues are taught through age-appropriate materials, vocabulary lists, references, and tools for parents. The web site for CSEE is http://www.csee.org. The list of virtues in this curriculum with their definitions is appended. In Nursery, Transition, and Kindergarten, students hear simple stories drawn from the Bible about God’s love for creation and humanity, and they are introduced to some major biblical characters. In Grade 1 through Grade 3, students become familiar with the biblical narrative in greater detail, learning about some its major characters, stories, themes, and lessons for life. They are also introduced to some of the major holidays, traditions, and people from other world religions. In Grade 4, students are more formally introduced to the literature, characters, and themes of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), and they learn how to use a study Bible. In Grade 5, students are more formally introduced to the New Testament, with special emphasis on the life and teachings of Jesus. An introductory course in world religions is taught in Grade 6. In Middle School, the seventh-grade religion curriculum introduces our students to the study of ethics. Using literature, movies, case studies, and class discussions, students explore classic moral issues. In Grade 8, students explore the role of faith in our society. St. Andrew's https://www.saes.org/Page/Spiritual-Life/Chapel Central to our life as an Episcopal school is weekly Chapel worship. The purpose of Chapel is not conversion, or to make Episcopalians out of everyone. On the contrary: It is a time set apart in the midst of a full week to pause, pray, center ourselves, and contemplate what it means to be beloved children of God. While our Chaplains oversee our worship and often preach, students participate actively as acolytes, readers, choristers, instrumentalists, dancers, and homilists (Middle and Upper School). Our worship reflects the diverse beliefs and passions of our community. Spiritual Life St. Andrew's values all of God's children as sacred. We blend this understanding into all aspects of our school life—in study, self-expression, athletics and service to others. We are an Episcopal school. This identity is not limiting; it opens us to all kinds of faith perspectives. Many of us are not Episcopalians or even Christians; thus, our varied conversations and spiritual expressions are rich, diverse and articulated with tolerance and understanding. Why an Episcopal School? What does it mean to be an Episcopal school?” We hear this question often. At St. Andrew's, we live out our Episcopal identity in five ways. We love. We believe that God calls us to love. And because we view each of our students as a child of God, we care about them not merely as students who need to pass their courses and get on with life, but as complex human beings whose minds, bodies and spirits need to be nurtured and supported because they are God’s hope for a future generation. The love we practice as an Episcopal school is not a sappy, sentimental, or superficial love, but a love that reveals itself in sacrifice, patience, truth-telling and, to quote St. Paul, a willingness to build one another up and to bear one another's burdens. It is a love that both sets expectations and practices forgiveness, each in equal measure. In a phrase, we care deeply for each other. As an Episcopal school, we place love at the center of our life together. We worship. Each week we come together for chapel. The purpose of chapel is not to make Episcopalians out of everyone; rather, our conviction is that our young people (and our old people!) will grow spiritually if we balance the hectic pace of school life with a weekly rhythm that includes pause, prayer, and reflection on those things and those relationships that matter most in life. Chapel is about making time each week to thank God for what we have, to hold up in prayer each other's needs and concerns, to sing in joy and celebration for the blessings of this life, and to share stories of meaning and purpose. Perhaps most importantly and most counter-culturally, chapel is where we regularly remember to be mindful of the presence of something larger than ourselves. We welcome. Just as love of neighbor is one cornerstone of Episcopal identity, hospitality to the stranger is another. We strive to be a welcoming place. Whereas some other religious schools want everyone to believe more or less the same thing, Episcopal schools are intentionally diverse. We do not insist that our way to God is the only way. Far from feeling threatened by those from other faiths, we welcome their perspectives and know that we are better for their presence. We invite all who attend and work in our school both to seek clarity about their own deepest beliefs and to honor their convictions, whatever they may be, more fully and faithfully in their own lives. Having said that, our desire to be welcoming and inclusive does not mean that we abandon or shy away from our Episcopal identity. We believe that authentic interfaith conversation is most fruitful when each of us is clear about, and true to, who we are. Our Anglican tradition is a beautiful and rich one that we are eager and committed to share. But in sharing it we strive mightily to be as graceful and inclusive as we can to make room for all in our community. We serve. Service is at the heart of the Christian life and is another hallmark of Episcopal identity. We serve not out of some altruistic attitude of noblesse oblige, but from a deeper place: we serve out of a conviction that we find our true identity as God's people precisely when we abandon our self-centered agendas to encounter and serve the other. In serving the other we learn that both the server and the served are transformed in unexpected and wonderful ways. Indeed, we learn that in serving the other we more often than not meet God. This is why service-learning is at the center of our curriculum. Through service, our students discover not only that they can change the world, but that their service and those they serve change them for the better as well. We question. We cherish the life of the mind. We do not see faith and reason as opposed to one another. Ours is a faith that seeks understanding. We are eager to question and to explore the most fundamental questions in life. As an independent Episcopal school, we enjoy the freedom and exercise the responsibility to engage our students in talking openly about God and the good life. We welcome seekers, doubters, and even skeptics into the fray; not so that we can proselytize them, but because we trust that if we build our community on open, honest, inquisitive, careful and respectful questioning, the truth will emerge and all of us will be enlightened as a result. Our aim is not to shelter our students from a sometimes hostile and skeptical world by indoctrinating them with a blind faith, but to equip their minds with the skill and their hearts with the desire to find meaning, to claim their own spiritual identities, and to articulate their convictions with a balance of clarity, generosity, and humility. We love. We worship. We welcome. We serve. We question. These five habits of heart and mind are at the core of who we are as an Episcopal school. Note: SAES has religion taught in each grade as well, but their website doesn't have a comprehensive description of the curriculum (or at least I couldn't find it!) http://www.edow.org/ministries/academic/episcopal-schools |
Anonymous
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For SAES. Go the the Curriculum Guide under the academics link of the web site and you will find course descriptions for religion in middle and upper school. These are one trimester classes each year. In middle school, students cover such things as the major themes/ stories of the old and new testaments, and for those joining in high school I believe there is a similar elective. In some years, the religion requirement is fulfilled with a service learning class - actions rather than words. There are courses on justice, philosophy, etc. in high school too. I believe it is probably more rudimentary in lower school, but am less familiar with that. Check the lower school curriculum guide.
In my mind, the key difference from a secular school is institutional acceptance of religious values and a ritual framework for approaching life cycle events, stress, trauma etc. This "grounds" the school community even when students don't see any benefit of chapel etc. My kids - who are not Christian -- have benefited from this culture in many subtle ways that add up over time, while having room to forge / carry on their own religious or secular identities and having a deeper understanding of others. |
Anonymous
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From the WES description:
"from our Chaplain..." But there is no Chaplain at WES. Please post current information so that other posters/readers have an accurate description. Otherwise it seems deceiving. |
Anonymous
You are correct! Thank you! Sadly, the leadership at WES doesn't understand your point. They do not understand whey many of us who are Episcopalian take issue with it. |
Anonymous
| As I said very early in this thread--this stuff isn't a priority at WES. They have other issues to address and don't. |
Anonymous
| Oh, and as a 4th year SAES parent, there aren't that many kids from WES (DD is now in the US). Many more from Grace, Norwood, public, and even Beauvior. I would say that Grace is their largest feeder. There are a few each year from WES, but not that many compared to other schools. |
Anonymous
Perhaps, then, it would be wise to change the school's name. The school is still young. The name heralds from the school's origins when Mrs. Schessler broke it away from St. Patrick's Episcopal and set up Wash. Epis. School. Mrs. Scheussler has been gone a long time. The school has no parish affiliation. The Wednesday "chapel" was chapel in name only when we were there (parents were welcome). It was very ecumenical. I never had any interactions with the rotating chaplains; in fact, I couldn't name them to save my life (some men, a woman). I've checked with all three kids we had there and not one says any religion was taught in class (which is what I recalled but wanted to make sure before posting). The "three kings" processional, mentioned above, in the Holiday concert was as close to anything "Episcopal" that I can recall. By the time we left, all faiths were being celebrated in chapel and at the holiday concert. Religion was not discussed by the parents (who were of all faiths) and the teachers hailed from all religions and walks of life. Same with the administration. If the current acting head is cracking jokes about the school being called "Wash. Methodist School" then perhaps it is time to call a spade a spade and drop the "Episcopal". Maybe call it Washington Day School. I realize there is a desirable cache to try and falsely link the school with the Cathedral Schools but if the school is no longer Episcopal, Christian and doesn't have an ordained priest, then it is time to save the money that is designated for the priest and put it where it is needed more. |
Anonymous
I have no ties to WES at all and don't know anything about the school. Just want to say to those who are reading this rant that the poster, who obviously has his/her own agenda, in no way represents what the Episcopal faith is about. |