Sermon for Encaenia 2011
“Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her”
“’The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things:/ Of shoes-and ships-and sealing-wax – Of cabbages-and kings-/And why the sea is boiling hot – /And whether pigs have wings.’” And yet, we have just heard that one thing is needful, unum necessarium. “Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her.”
Well, the time has come, if not “to talk of many things,” then, at least to talk of a few things, perhaps not “of shoes or ships,” or “cabbages” or “sealing-wax” unless, perchance, that is somehow on your diploma, but of your graduation today from King’s-Edgehill School. For you are all the talk of this day. As to “why the sea is boiling hot -/ And whether pigs have wings,” we will leave that to the climate specialists and the evolutionary biologists.
Today, you are the pride of the school, your parents and grandparents, your friends and family. We salute you for all that you have accomplished.
We have been through a lot together. Whether you have been here for one year or for six or seven, much has happened that has become, indelibly and indubitably, a part of you (I had to get that in for Jonte’s benefit). We have learned to laugh and sing, to pray and think, to march and run, and perhaps even to sit and listen, sitting even on the back of the Rev’s Vespa (I had to get that in for Kerri’s benefit). And yet, all the many things come down to the moment of your graduation.
Today you step up and step out but only so as to step into new things. Today is really a necessary prelude to other things that will constantly require a kind of thoughtfulness in the serious quest to know and understand, something which, I hope, has been an essential feature of your education here.
It is about taking hold of what has been opened out to you and making it your own. The many things of the many years – the many hours of cadets, sports, classes, chapel, concerts, choir, debates, exams, paddling pumpkins, climbing mountains, digging latrines, TOK, wonderful plays and musicals, IB therefore I am or not to be, that is, indeed, the question – are all concentrated in one thing, the one thing needful. It is this: the realization of ourselves as learners.