Sermon for Encaenia 2012
“In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.”
At last, the last chapel, the last day, the last year! Encaenia. Graduation. What does it mean? Simply this. You are on your own, kid! At last, I hear you say! At last, I sense your parents saying, with a sigh too great for words, Yes! Today, you step up and step out! In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you will no longer be students but alumni of King’s-Edgehill School, “pure and prepared to leap up to the stars,” as it were. You are on your own, kid!
That may be a frightening idea! No one to prod and push you, no one to coddle and carry you! And it can be altogether frightening especially in the face of a rather fearful and uncertain world, economically and environmentally, socially and politically. But that would be to lose sight of everything that has gone into this moment and milestone in your life.
Because, fortunately, it is not just about you. So much that has been accomplished and done is wonderful and worthy of note, to be sure. It enrolls you in a company of hundreds and hundreds of others in the parade of generations that have gone before you. You are not so much alone now as part of a much larger company. That is the profounder reason to rejoice and give thanks. It means to give thanks for what you have become through what you have embraced and made your own. It is only possible through what has been set before you. And that is altogether about the formation of character, about the ‘you’ that you are becoming.
There is a paradox to this day. Encaenia is the word for this service, even as commencement is the word that belongs to the ceremony that follows. Both words speak of beginnings rather than endings. Both words point us towards the honouring of principles that last, the principles that inform the life and purpose of the School. Encaenia is a Greek word (εν & καινο), referring to a dedication festival, to a renewal of a sense of purpose and identity, that came to be used at “the annual commemoration of founders and benefactors at Oxford University in June”(O.E.D.) and, by extension to many other schools and colleges throughout the world, such as King’s-Edgehill. We are all part of something much larger than ourselves. And that is part of the poignancy of our gatherings today. It all begins to come home to you and to us on this the last day of your high school experience.