Meditations for the 225th Anniversary Celebration of King’s Collegiate School, now King’s-Edgehill School
admin | 2 November 2013Meditations for the 225th Anniversary Celebration of King’s Collegiate School,
now King’s-Edgehill,
November 1st, 2013
Christ Church, Windsor, Nova Scotia
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
I.
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” The haunting questions of the poet, T.S. Eliot, reverberate throughout the ups and downs of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries but they also cast light upon what belongs to our eighteenth century beginnings.
The year was 1788. The day was November 1st. Our beginnings. This day marks the beginnings of a programme of formal education in what would one day become Canada. It marks the beginnings of a School and, in the following year, a College and an University; institutions committed to the idea that education is not just about information, not just about knowledge, but about the pursuit and love of wisdom.
II.
We celebrate today the 225th anniversary of King’s Collegiate School, now King’s-Edgehill. It is our birthday! But it is about more than ourselves. This celebration marks an important milestone in Canadian history and in the history of Britain’s Overseas Empire, as it was once called, in the history of the Province of Nova Scotia and in the history of the Town of Windsor. It marks the beginnings of an important chapter about education in our country and province.
III.
Born between two revolutions, the American Revolution and the French Revolution, our many storied history speaks volumes about the hopes and aspirations of a parade of generations and about an education that contributes to public life and service in every way.
IV.
Anniversary celebrations are reminders of who we are and what we stand for. Our beginnings reveal our principles, the very ideals that define us. They are captured in the Motto of the School and College as envisioned by the founder of both, Bishop Charles Inglis. Deo Legi Regi Gregi – for God, for the Law, for the King, and for the People. Words conveying meaning and purpose, they speak to a vision about education that inculcates the qualities of gentleness, learning and humanitas and that leads to service and sacrifice in a great number of different public arenas: government, business, military, education, medicine, church, academia, to mention but a few.
V.
The King’s Motto is complemented by the Edgehill motto, Fideliter, reminding us of our faithfulness and commitment to the ideals that perfect and ennoble our humanity. More than mere words inscribed on crests and flags, engraved on walls and floors, these words challenge us about a certain kind of education that contributes to public and civic life through the formation of character, an education that is moral and intellectual, spiritual and physical, an education that is about the whole person and that seeks the good of the human community.
VI.
Our School had its beginnings in the aftermath of the American Revolution. A group of clergy gathered in New York envisioned the establishment of a school and a College in the rural wilderness of Nova Scotia, in Windsor. This was before pucks and pumpkins! Their vision was broad and generous – an education that would contribute to the building of a culture and a country founded not upon the revolutionary principles of the new America but upon another form of constitutional government and order, monarchical and parliamentary. We are delighted that our Member of Parliament, Mr. Scott Brison is with us today.
VII.
Just as graduates of the School have gone all over the world so, too, our students come from all over the world and go forth to every part of the world, shaped by the experience of education here: from Albania to Burkino Faso; from Ghana to Mexico; from Halifax to Moscow; from Bedford to the Barbadoes; from Beijing to Parrsboro; from Toronto to Taiwan; from Hong Kong to Lisbon; from England to America; from Falmouth to Windsor. Hard to say which are the greatest distances between places!
VIII.
It was not by accident that November 1st marks the formal beginning of the School. In the Christian and Anglican understanding, this is The Feast of All Saints, a significant festival that reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, the saints. It offers a vision of the City of God that inspires all our aspirations and hopes for our world and day. In the lesson which Jenna read from The Letter to the Hebrews we are told that “they desire a better country.” The motto of the Order of Canada, this phrase challenges us to contribute to the making of a better world. It reminds us too that social and political questions ultimately belong to matters spiritual and intellectual. Among the members of the distinguished Order of Canada are Dr. George Cooper, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of King’s College, and an Alumnus of our School, and Dr. Kevin Lynch, Vice-Chancellor of the University of King’s College. We are honoured that they are with us today.
IX.
We honour our founders and our foundations. In the lesson which Jacob read from Ecclesiasticus, we praise those who have gone before us, both those who have left a name for themselves in the chronicles of history such as Sir John Archibald Inglis, the hero of Lucknow, or the three fathers of Confederation, whether for or against – Martin Isaac Wilkins, Robert Barry Dickey, and John Hamilton Gray – but also the many, many more who in a myriad of quiet ways have given of themselves in the communities where they have been placed, even those whom the world has forgotten but who are known to God.
X.
The connection to the military is a fundamental feature of the life and history of the School. From the wars of the Napoleonic era through the great and defining conflicts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the global conflicts and confusions of the present, students from King’s, from Edgehill and from the College have played an important role. Our Cadet Corps, more than 100 years old, signals the continuation of this connection to the military. The Cenotaph at the School is a serious and somber reminder of the conflicts and their cost, past and present in our world; a reminder, too, of the nature of sacrifice and service.
XI.
Sound minds, healthy bodies and creative spirits. Sports and the Arts are a big part of our school life and its history. Perhaps it wasn’t two hundred and twenty-five years ago but it was not too long after that hockey had its beginnings here too! Windsor claims to be the birthplace of hockey and our School is a big part of its hockey history. After all, Long Pond was really our first rink! It is not all hockey, of course, but every other sport as well: soccer, volleyball, wrestling, basketball, swimming, biathalon, cycling, cross country, track and field, badminton, table tennis, yoga, riding, and, of course, rugby. And it is not all sports. School Musicals and dramatic productions, band concerts and instrumental performances are all a big part of our life.
XII.
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Above all else, we are a School dedicated to the pursuit of learning. It happens in the classroom and in the Chapel and carries over into every other aspect of our lives athletically, artistically, socially, and in terms of service to our communities.
IB or not to be, at least T.S. Eliot’s questions help us to be aware of the problems of facts and figures disconnected from any context and of the dangers of knowledge without understanding. The International Baccalaureate Programme is the academic engine of the School that shapes all of the various aspects of our School’s life, from Junior School to Senior School. We are constantly being challenged to embrace learning for learning’s sake, to be more than the mindless automatons of a technocratic world, and to strive to be thoughtful in a thoughtless world.
Wisdom, not just knowledge, not just information. It was in some sense the founding vision: an education that would form thoughtful and caring people ready to contribute and commit to the community of our humanity.
Deo Legi Regi Gregi – For God, for the Law, for the King and for the People. This is King’s-Edgehill. This is our School.
Readers: (Pulpit: Nathaniel Kimball, Miranda Walsh, Krishshain Nathan; Lectern: Robyn Githinji, Eric Dufour, Nandini Mishra)
(Rev’d) David Curry
November 1st, 2013