Prize Day Richard B. Commons, Headmaster:
A Formmates Brooke Moore, Haley Ladd-Luthringshauser, and Charlotte Bullard Davies smile before Chapel on Prize Day morning.
perhaps you’ll realize it in college or somewhere down the road, but you will meet people who are better than you. Better than you at the things you most pride yourself in. And you will realize that, in the grand scheme of things, we’re not special. But that doesn’t mean we don’t matter because the little things do matter. Common courtesy, being a good person, our relationships. Pour your heart and soul in them. Your relationship with your friends, your teachers, your family. I ask for the Sixth Form to look to the person to the left of them and then to the right of them. Perhaps you’ll keep in touch with them, perhaps not. Inevitably some of these relationships are over, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t matter. Because what we did here did matter … Perhaps we’re overquoting the Gospel of Matthew, and it’s not just because he shares my name, but I think there is so much that is relevant now; this is one of my favorite lines. I used it in my Chapel Talk. Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Inspire and lead by example. I believe in the power of the word, but more so in the power of action. When I was elected Prize Day speaker, a younger member of my dorm, the first thing he said to me was, “Wow, that’s surprising. You’re not very vocal.” And I think leadership is often confused with raising your voice above those around you. And to other forms, I’d like to say, encourage each other, encourage us as we have encouraged you. Because I hope that you exceed our accomplishments as a form. That is the sign of true leadership. In closing, I’d just like to say thank you to this School because I believe in this place. I believe in what it has to offer. Is Groton relevant? More so than ever. The teaching done here goes beyond the classroom. And to the Sixth Form and to the future Sixth Forms, I truly do say with a most sincere heart, good luck.
nd now I have the distinct honor of introducing our keynote speaker, CANON ANDREW WHITE, who has built an extraordinary ministry of reconciliation and conflict mediation in the Middle East. Having worked for many years in Israel and Palestine, where he negotiated the end of the Bethlehem siege in 2002, Canon White now works almost exclusively in Iraq, which has earned him the nickname “the Vicar of Baghdad.” In the face of significant threats to him personally and repeated bombings of the church, Canon White pastors St. George’s Baghdad, which ministers to over 550 local Iraqi Christian families and operates well outside the safety of the International Zone of Baghdad, known formerly as the Green Zone. Based in the church compound, St. George’s Clinic employs medical staff from across sectarian divides to deliver humanitarian relief to its neighbors, regardless of patients’ religious or ethnic background.
Graduate Jack Cohen stands with his extended family, including sister Madeleine ’13.
Canon White also engages in conflict mediation with the most senior religious leaders in Iraq. Building relationships of trust and confidence, Canon White has brought together the leaders of the opposing sectarian factions, producing the first-ever joint Sunni/Shia fatwa against violence in Iraq, which was read out in mosques throughout the country, as well as on Iraqi television. Canon White has been awarded several significant prizes for his peacemaking efforts, including the International Council of Christians and Jews Prize for Intellectual Contribution to Jewish-Christian Relations, the International Sternberg Prize, and the Tanenbaum Peace Prize. Canon White has also received the Woolf Institute Peace Quarterly Fall 2011
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