The Good News November | 2010
In This Issue: 1
From the Headmaster
2
Board of Trustees
3
Christian Education Peace Prayer
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4, 5 Campus Clips Lower School Athletics Annual Fund Operating Principles for Students
6
7
CESPA News
Mark your calendars! AATP 2011 will host a “Fais Do Do” April 15 th & 16 th, 2011. See page 7 for more information.
From the Headmaster... Instruments of Peace t a recent Middle and Upper School chapel, on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, I spoke about the life of that great saint, particularly about his love for all of God’s creatures. I suggested to the students that, were he alive today, St. Francis would have admired Christ Episcopal School, particularly our wilderness education program which teaches respect for the environment and a comfort with the outdoors. And I told the students that, of course, St. Francis would have particularly loved The Barn and Clearwater Wildlife Sanctuary, with that program’s emphasis on rehabilitating injured and orphaned animals and teaching our younger students to respect and love those creatures who most need our help. Then I went a bit further, suggesting that St. Francis would have also loved our school Mission and Operating Principles. His life was spent imitating Christ and instilling peace; he showed what it means to be a Christian. And so I challenged our students with an assignment to be completed in their Christian Ed classes: list three ways you can imitate Christ and instill peace at school at school. Their responses helped create a new set of Operating Principles for Students, listed on page 6. Finally, the students were introduced to The Prayer of St. Francis, also called the Peace Prayer (see p. 3), which they pray daily in their Christian Education classes.
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ll this provided the students a meaningful backdrop to their introduction to the books of Greg Mortenson: Listen to the Wind (Lower School and ECC), Three Cups of Tea (Middle School), and Stones Into Schools (Upper School). Mr. Mortenson’s story is now well known by every student at CES: An attempt in 1993 to scale the world’s second highest mountain, K2, resulted in Mortenson’s becoming disoriented and lost, and he stumbled into a poor village in Pakistan called Korphe. Moved by the kindness of the villagers, he promised to return and build a school there for its children. His journey to build that first school, and his subsequent efforts in building over 150 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a remarkable chronicle of overcoming adversity and learning to work with diverse people to accomplish extraordinary things. In addition to reading the books, we have invited our students and the entire school community to participate in the “Pennies for Peace” program, which supports the efforts of Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute in building schools and creating educational opportunities for the children, especially for girls, in that impoverished region.
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he overarching message for our students is this: they need to become Instruments of Peace at home, at school, and in the world. I believe that St. Francis and Greg Mortenson would passionately encourage our students in that quest. With concern being voiced nationwide about bullying in schools, and the attention being paid to the often mean-spirited relationships among school-aged children, Christ School must remain a beacon of peace, a place where children can express their individuality as unique children of God, without fear of insult or abuse. We are determined that our school remains a sanctuary for every child who enters our doors, where kindness and respect define every relationship, where imitating Christ and instilling peace are living principles which inform everything that we do. John Morvant, Headmaster