Sermon for Encaenia 2016
“Martha, Martha; thou art anxious and troubled about a multitude of things;
one thing is needful”
Isaiah’s lovely words which Abigail read complement Luke’s wonderful words which Colin read. Together they suggest something about the significance of this day and our gathering here in the School Chapel which has been in so many ways an integral part of your time at King’s-Edgehill. Cadets, Chapel, Sports, Classes – “these are a few of your favourite things”! It is, to be sure, the last Chapel for the graduating class. Today you step up as students and step out as graduates and alumni. You have made the grade! And I am sure that along with the mountains and the hills breaking forth with joy, there are the prayers of many a parent and grandparent, guardian and friend, whose hearts are breaking forth with joy, too, a joy coloured by no little sense of relief that you made it. At last! I hear them sigh, checking their chequebooks for what they hope might be the last time. It won’t.
Along with your stepping up and stepping out, Mr. Darcy Walsh goes with you after thirty-six years of teaching and coaching here at King’s-Edgehill and after far, far more Chapel services than any of you can boast. I worry whether Chapel will be able to continue without his expertise – in turning off the blower, that is to say. I don’t mean me. We wish him all the best in his retirement. But no doubt he will be back and back to the Chapel too when Finn and Sawyer come of age to continue the tradition of Walshs at King’s-Edgehill.
Yet, paradoxically, this time of endings is also about beginnings. Encaenia is the proper word for this service, even as Commencement is the word for the ceremonies which follow. Both words speak of a sense of beginning by way of honouring the principles that last, the principles that inform the life and purpose of the School. Encaenia is a Greek word (en & kainos) referring to a dedication festival, to a renewal of a sense of purpose and identity. Used with respect to the anniversary dedication of temples and churches, it has its further application to “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 here in Windsor. We are all part of something much larger than ourselves.