Reply to St. Andrews Episcopal school and rigor

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how does the school do with children from diverse religious backgrounds? If you're not Christian, will your family feel comfortable there? How religious is the E part of SAES?[/quote]

This is a great question, and one that any prospective family should ask when considering a school based in a faith tradition.

Ours is a current SAES family, affiliated and active in the Reform Jewish movement. Our children attended religious school from K through HS and are active in our congregation’s youth group. Our children and family have found ourselves warmly welcome in the SAES community and attribute our SAES affiliation with a deepening of our own faith and community social action practices. We also have an anecdotal sense that the number of faculty, staff, and students who affiliate as Jewish or Jewish/other interfaith are significantly greater than the 10% SAES references in their promotional materials.

SAES is every bit as welcoming as they say in their recruitment materials. That said, it is also dedicated to its traditions as an Episcopal School. Religious practices at the school are clearly Christian, but they are in no ways exclusionary or offensive to those who’s faith traditions differ.  One has to be comfortable hearing references to Jesus and the trinity. With last year’s unexpected departure of a long time school chaplain, references have grown from what Reverend Alexander used to lightheartedly refer to as “the twice a year” reference to Jesus: convocation and commencement to Reverend Isaacs’ preference for much more frequent reference to the trinity. Would we prefer the former, sure. Are we put off by the return to slightly more traditional texts, not at all. And when a newly appointed  full time chaplain is brought in, they will likely embrace the school’s progressive values and bring their own approach to references of faith.

As with all topics related to comfort with a school, the only real way to assess is to visit and witness the programs for yourself. SAES open houses and the like are as authentic and true to form as it gets  in showing what it’s like to be at the school. Visit soon and often and make your own assessment.  You are bound to be impressed by the SAES community. [/quote]

Hi to the family who posted above.  We were a Jewish family when the last Chaplain joined SAES and we had the same concern about her style when she started compared to her predecessor.  Now that the school year is half over, I encourage your children (if old enough) or you to talk about this with the new chaplain.  Our kids and several others had some very productive discussions with her they eventually led to some changes in style that we found more comfortable.  Sometimes chaplains really don’t understand how certain phrases can be heard/felt by a student who is not raised in their faith and when they do, constructive dialogue and changes can tskemplsceX

Curious - As an agnostic, I have no dog in this. But...Why choose a Christian school in the first place?  Would you be ok with a Christian family coming to a Jewish school and asking the Rabbi to speak differently about Judaism just to appease them?  Inclusivity is fine and all that, but this is an Episcopal school after all. Actively working to alter a faith-based school’s expression of belief to meet your own needs seems very presumptuous and is a slippery slope towards watering down the school’s religious voice. 
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