Meditations for the 225th Anniversary Celebration of King’s Collegiate School, now King’s-Edgehill School
Meditations 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.
