FROM THE RECTOR
The Covenants We Share KATHLEEN C. GILES
Last spring, our Conroy Distinguished Visitor, retired Admiral John Richardson, talked to the assembled School about the covenants that define his life — with his spouse, his faith, and the U.S. Constitution. Implicit in his statement is the concept that our covenants temper our freedoms; and that the covenants that create mutual care, respect, and regard ultimately create order, purpose and meaning in our lives. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks once noted, “Contracts are about interest; covenants are about identity. Contracts benefit; covenants transform.” A covenant is a relationship in which parties make binding promises to each other and work together toward a common goal. Covenants are enforced ethically, morally, and spiritually, as well as legally; we abide by them because we agree to do so, in exchange for other peoples’ commitment to us, and covenants are effective only when we have the discipline to commit, to trust, to be trustworthy, to be credible, to be a partner in service to the greater good. At St. Paul’s, we are connected by caring deeply about others and being cared for, as our covenants would have it, in return. Our mission and guiding principles, along with our School Prayer and School motto, embody our covenants within the community and in extension, as our alumni embrace these principles in their own lives
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Alumni Horae | Issue IV 23/24
and work. Perhaps the most intensely personal covenant we consider takes the form of our School Prayer. This prayer was written by Bishop Charles Slattery and published around 1922, and it was written in the form of a personal covenant, starting with the request, “grant,” and later on, “help.” Think about it from the “I” perspective for just a minute: grant that I may never forget to be kind; grant that I will be generous in offering friendship to people who need it and not just people I like; grant that I will be thoughtful — attentive to, aware of — people who don’t enjoy my privileges, from basic education to expensive stuff; and grant that I will commit to learning to be eager to bear the burdens of others as my blanket approach to life. My covenants temper my freedom. When Dr. Drury changed the pronoun to “we” around 1937, our community adopted this covenant as our internal community covenant as well as our request to the Love Divine. Grant us these gifts so that in return, we live good lives, become good people, enjoy the joy of those connections. We try and fail and try and fail and try again to live it because we care about each other and our world and our purpose, dedicated as we are to the pursuit of excellence in character and scholarship in service to the greater good. We heard another important statement about covenants and freedom when Dr. Bruce Duthu of Dartmouth College last fall referenced the concept of freedom as defined by Judge Learned Hand in his “Spirit of Liberty” speech. Judge Hand delivered this speech in May 1944, in front of a huge crowd in New York City’s Central Park celebrating “I am an American Day” during a time of worldwide upheaval and chaos 18 months before the end of the Second World War. During a time of intense national hardship, Judge Hand participated in the swearing in of thousands of immigrants as new citizens of the United States. He spoke as follows: What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest