Reflections 2013 – KES Cadet Corps Church Parade
“In my beginning is my end.”
Read by Eric Dufour, Miranda Walsh, Brayden Graves, Michael Dennis, Madeleine Killacky, Prathana Nathan, Nico Castro, Robyn Githinji, Reilly Hind.
1.
“In my beginning is my end.” It was November 1st. The year was 1788. It marks the official beginning of our School. This year marks our 225th anniversary. Not only the oldest independent school in Canada, not only the oldest residential school in Canada, but the oldest school in all of what was once called Britain’s Overseas Empire. Old ‘r us! but young, too!
2.
Our beginnings were even earlier and in another place, in another country. Not England. No. America! Our School and its mission and life were born out of the American Revolution by eighteen loyalist clergy meeting in New York in 1783. They prepared “A Plan for a Religious and Literary Institution for the Province of Nova Scotia,” a scheme for education at a time when “the very fabric of their civilization seemed to be buried in ruins” (R.V. Harris, The History of King’s Collegiate School Windsor, N.S.1788-1938).
3.
The year 2012 marked the amazing achievement of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. We celebrated her sixty years of devotion and duty with the visit to King’s-Edgehill of the Queen’s representative, His Honour Brigadier-General, The Honourable J.J. Grant, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. Our cadet corps arrayed in their scarlet splendor on the Front Hill in the glory of an autumn evening was a memorable sight.
4.
What was the plan in the last decades of the eighteenth century, in the aftermath of the American Revolution that launched thousands northward to the Maritimes and Upper Canada? The plan, conceived in New York and supported by the Church and Crown in England, was that “a public seminary, academy and college, should without delay, begin to be instituted at the most central part of the Province [Windsor] consisting at first of a public grammar school for classical and other branches of education” (Harris, History of KCS). The father-founder of the School and College was Bishop Charles Inglis, one of the clergy loyal to the English Crown who met in New York. Consecrated in England, he was the first bishop appointed for a diocese outside of England; he arrived in 1787 and in 1788 established the School and, in 1789, the College. In 1804, a Royal Charter was granted. The purpose? An education that would contribute to public life in all of its various forms – church, military, law, politics, medicine, business, literature, and philosophy. For the Loyalists, education was key and the counter to revolutionary unrest.
5.
The plan and purpose is captured in the motto of the School and the College, embossed upon the two crests of the School and College that are present throughout the entire campus – on the floor of the Athletic Centre, on the apse of Convocation Hall, in the glass of a window in the Chapel – and emblazoned on the crests of the boys’ blazers. Deo Legi Regi Gregi. A Latin motto, it means FOR GOD, FOR THE LAW, FOR THE KING, FOR THE PEOPLE. It signals an education that is about living beyond oneself, about living for others in public service, about duty and responsibility, self-sacrifice and commitment that shape character and bestow dignity. A counter to the disruptions of revolutionary fervour, the motto also embodies an enlightenment understanding of constitutional order. It is significant that the King is not above the Law. Three of our graduates contributed to the founding of this nation, the Dominion of Canada, as Fathers of Confederation, one of whom was actually opposed to Confederation! (Martin Isaac Wilkins, Robert Barry Dickey, and John Hamilton Gray; Wilkens was opposed).
6.
Edgehill School for Girls was founded in 1891, a sister school to King’s Collegiate School and College. The Edgehill motto is “Fideliter,” meaning faithfulness, faithfulness to the principles of service and sacrifice. Institutions and cultures are only as strong as their allegiance to the principles and ideals that define and shape them. This motto complements the King’s motto and it, too, is all around our school and, most prominently, on the crests of the girls’ uniform.
7.
We meet as a Cadet Corps having marched through the town of Windsor. The military connection is an inescapable feature of our School’s identity and life as one of the forms of public service and duty. Graduates of King’s have been part of the great and defining wars of the past two hundred and twenty-five years: serving in Egypt in 1801; serving in the War of 1812; serving at Waterloo as aide-de-camp to Wellington in 1815 and later as the aide-de-camp of George IV; serving in Canada in the struggles of 1837 and, then, later in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 in the Indian sub-continent – ‘the hero of Lucknow’ – Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, KCB; serving in Crimea in 1854; fighting in South Africa in the Boer War; and, of course, more than 200 served in the First World War, of whom 27 lost their lives; and more than 300 served in the Second World War, 29 of whom gave their lives in service to their country. The girls of Edgehill, too, were part of those defining enterprises: 35 participated in the First World War, 48 in the Second World War. It is a sobering thought, a serious reminder about the larger community of which we are a part.
8.
The litany of wars reminds us that students from King’s and Edgehill were always part of a global world. They went forth from here to places all over the world. And so, too, today, but with an important difference. Not only do students go to places all over the world but we come from all over the world. There are over fifteen countries represented this year at our School: from the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America; from Albania to Russia, from Thailand to China, from Burkina Faso to Ghana, from Mexico to Wolfville, and, of course, from Falmouth to Windsor! We live and learn together.
9.
“Mislike me not for my complexion,” the Prince of Morocco says in Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, a play that challenges us about how we deal with differences between people – racial, religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences. The Prince of Morocco is black and Muslim. We live in a “disordered world,” Amin Maalouf suggests, where we need to know one another intimately and more respectfully, not superficially. Such is the primacy of culture and education, particularly literature. “The heart of a people is its literature. That is where it reveals its passions, aspirations, dreams, frustrations, beliefs, its vision of the world around, its perceptions of itself and others – including us. Because when we speak of others we must never lose sight of the fact that, whoever and wherever we may be, we are also ‘others’ for the rest of the world” (Disordered World).
“We live,” Vaclav Havel, the Czech poet, playwright and president, observes, “in a morally contaminated environment. We fell morally ill because we got used to saying something different from what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only for ourselves. Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility and forgiveness lost their depth and dimensions” (The Art of the Impossible). And yet those concepts and qualities are constantly before us at our School. They continually challenge us. They are there to be learned and lived.
10.
This year saw another trip to Africa, to Tanzania and to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, a trip that included building classrooms at an orphanage and being awakened by hymns each morning. “We rejoice and we mourn at one and the same time,” T.S. Eliot reminds us (Murder in the Cathedral), and sometimes it is the children of Africa who have the most to mourn who teach us the most about how to rejoice. One of Africa’s greatest writers, Chinua Achebe passed away in March, a writer who “changed imperishably the way we see and understand the world.” The lesson of his life “is that knowing your story, and enacting the right to tell it yourself, is only just the beginning” (Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, The Guardian Weekly, 29.03.13). What we do today belongs to our story, to the plan, purpose and mission of our School.
11.
Our story includes music and song, dance and theatre. It was the year of Beauty and the Beast and of the Junior School’s Musical, Oliver!, exclamation marks galore, a year of outstanding talent on stage in song and dance. It is only in learning to love that we recover our humanity, love’s labours won, not lost, through sacrifice and repentance. And love triumphs even given the harsh social realities of Dicken’s England. “Food, food, glorious food” takes on a real poignancy of meaning for those who have so little. Contributing to our food banks and to our community is about reaching out beyond ourselves.
12.
“Food, food, glorious food” gives way to “mud, mud, glorious mud” as we enter into the season of mud, the season of rugby. Sports is a big part of our story past and present. This year saw some stellar accomplishments with soccer star Jillian Murphy, not only running like the wind, but bending it like Beckham and achieving more goals in soccer than many a team, let alone FIFA players. It was a year which saw King’s-Edgehill teams reach the highest echelons of competition: provincial tournaments in Volleyball, Basketball, Wrestling, Skiing and Snowboarding, and Hockey, a year which saw our junior boys in soccer win districts and regionals, which is as far as they can go, and our junior boys in basketball win districts and compete at regionals. Our Biathalon team continues to excel, reaching beyond provincial competitions to the national level. Sports ‘r us! It remains to be seen what glory shall emerge from the muck of the ruck! Ruck on, guys and girls.
13.
Hockey. It was always hockey, even for the girls, just not always ice hockey. Ground hockey or field hockey was once a premier sport at Edgehill and to be one of the XI was something deeply coveted as much as being one of the XV in rugby today. For many years it meant playing with Universities like Dalhousie and Acadia and sometimes with the boys of K.C.S. The 1961 Edgehill Review reports a mixed game; a rather wild game, it appears. “To begin with – the boys were out to play ice hockey, not ground hockey so they didn’t really know what they are doing” – has much really changed, girls? – “after much explanation the game got underway. K.C.S. played most of the game – Edgehill stood back and laughed. It looked so funny to have K.C.S flying down the field, swinging the stick with one hand and body checking each other as in ice hockey. But after the novelty wore off the fun began … no one really minded the score, it was just one big party but all was over too soon.”
14.
The fun continues. ‘She shoots, she scores!’ And at the other end of the rink, ‘they shoot, she saves!’ In hockey-mad Canada, in hockey-obsessed Windsor, King’s-Edgehill girls brought the madness to the height of ecstasy, winning the Provincial Title. Hockey ‘r us! Girls rock! Strong skating and sharpshooting forwards, steady and stellar defense and outstanding goal-tending and a competitive spirit that refuses to give up, the Girls’ Hockey Team achieved the Provincial Title, the first for King’s-Edgehill and a real triumph in the two hundred and twenty-fifth year of our story. A milestone in this milestone year.
15.
It was another year of successes in matters academic and intellectual; from math competitions to public speaking, from Call to Remembrance to Science Fair which saw students win at provincial levels and go on to Nationals. At the heart of our story are the things which shape us far more than we care to realize, the steady constant things that belong to academic fun and rigour, the passion to learn and discover, the love of learning itself. IB ‘r us, in so many ways; it is the academic core of the School.
16.
The lesson which Debby read is a love-song; the love song of God for his vineyard, the vineyard of creation and especially our humanity, a vineyard which we have failed to take care of and honour. “He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!” (Isaiah 5. 7)We have seen too much blood and have heard too many cries of pain and sorrow in our communities and world. They are part of the wilderness of sin that perverts the goodness of nature and of our humanity; they are the things of our disorder.
17.
Love is greater than our disorder. The Lesson which Christian read (John 10. 11-16) is an extended commentary on Psalm 23. In the Chapel, the dominant icon is Christ the Good Shepherd, an image of God’s providential care and love which challenges us about our care and love for one another. The radical meaning of the care of the Good Shepherd is seen in the window above the altar here at Christ Church in the image of Christ Crucified. The arms of the Good Shepherd are the same arms that are stretched out on the Cross, the arms that embrace us in God’s love, the love which alone makes something good out of all our evil. This love challenges us to love as he has loved. It means giving of ourselves in sacrifice and commitment to the ideals and principles that define, dignify and ennoble us. This is our story in the two hundred and twenty-fifth year of our School. As T.S. Eliot puts it in Little Gidding:
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
(T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding)
“In my beginning is my end” and “in my end is my beginning.”
(Rev’d) David Curry
KES Cadet Church Parade
April 26th, 2013