Christ Church

“For both we and our words are in his hand, as are all understanding and skill in crafts.”

My congratulations to the grads! I commend you not only on your achievements but for your respect and commitment to the significance of the Encaenia service in the history and life of the King’s-Edgehill School. I thank you and the School for the privilege of speaking to you this morning. I would be remiss if I didn’t say how much I have missed you.

Encaenia is an intriguing concept. It marks both an ending and a beginning. In a few hours you will step up and out of King’s-Edgehill, no longer its students but alumni. That doesn’t mean the end of learning but marks a new beginning in the life-long journey of the understanding. What does the word Encaenia mean? It requires explanation. So, for only the 28^th time, let me explain (or at least try to explain)!

A Greek word, Encaenia means a renewal of purpose and dedication (εν καινος), to the idea of end as meaning and purpose, the telos which directs and informs our lives; in short, the idea of living for something beyond self-interest. It belongs to the whole spiritual and intellectual enterprise of education. It has its origins in the annual dedication of sacred shrines and holy places that recall the principles of intellectual and ethical life in ancient Greek culture that contribute to the understanding of what it means to be human. It has become associated with “the annual commemoration of founders and benefactors at Oxford University in June” (O.E.D.). In short, it belongs to the intellectual traditions of the medieval universities of Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, and others which were very much aware of the philosophical and ethical cultures and communities of thought that they inherited and which shaped their life and which they honoured. Truth and beauty tam antiqua et tam nova, ever ancient and ever new, as Augustine says.

It migrated from its Euro-Mediterranean origins to academic institutions throughout the world, such as King’s-Edgehill School here in the Maritimes, that derive in some measure their history and self-understanding from those medieval institutions which carried over into modern times. At the very least, Encaenia recalls us to the long-standing traditions of learning and thus to the foundational principles of the School captured in the mottoes Deo Legi Regi Gregi, “For God, for the Law, for the King and For the People”, and Fideliter, “faithfulness” to the  principles that belong to the pursuit of learning. It is in every way a counter to the current confusions that beset our schools and colleges that reduce education to a commodity and you to consumers; in short, education as a private good, as Stefan Collini has recently noted about academia in general (LRB, June 2026), though we might ask, ‘Whose good?’ It should be clear that Encaenia speaks to education as a public good, to learning that contributes to civic and public life beyond entitlement and exploitation and rather to human flourishing and service towards others. Education has an inescapable ethical character as Plato shows at great length, not least of all in The Republic.

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