A Place in the Choir

In the final stretch of the school year I am reminded daily of the extraordinary talents and accomplishments of our students. This is the season of concerts and playoffs, projects and final reports, exams and Advanced Placement’s, open houses and awards, and emotional farewells to beloved friends and colleagues and the Class of 2012. If April is the cruelest month, then May is without doubt the busiest with a seemingly never-ending calendar of events where our students demonstrate how much they have learned and how talented they truly are. This time of year requires stamina and fortitude, but it also challenges us to avoid donning what author Sharon Daloz Parks refers to in her book, Common Fire, as the “armor of busyness.” At this time especially, our collective busyness can cause us to miss precious moments and unique experiences with our children and each other as we charge headlong to the finish line.

Last month, at one of the many outstanding end-of-the-year musical concerts, a combined Lower-Middle School choral group sang a song that momentarily penetrated my own “armor of busyness” and reminded me once again of the important role we play as an Episcopal school. The first line in the chorus of A Place in the Choir pretty much says it all – All God’s creatures got a place in the choir, some sing low some sing higher. This is a very fun song with a catchy melody and lyrics that kids love, and for those of us who live and learn in Episcopal schools, the song emphasizes our special commitment to foster school communities that celebrate the dignity and unique worth of each and every person in our midst. We live in an increasingly diverse world and central to our mission is a commitment to welcome, love and care for people from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures. We are honored to be a part of a larger Episcopal church that believes that God pushes us all to be more inclusive and open-minded in our thinking. As the Reverend Daniel Heischman, executive director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools, reminds us, “We human beings may well have made some progress in our understanding of inclusivity, but it is God who challenges us to ever widening circles of care and openness to difference. We still have much to learn about our own limitations when it comes to accepting other peoples and groups. Fortunately, not only is God there to teach us what we have yet to learn, it is the very nature of God to be inclusive.”

A Place in the Choir is a wonderful statement about how we are called upon to look at difference. There are many places where this is not the accepted viewpoint, but at St. Margaret’s we are all God’s children and we come together each and every day guided by this perspective. As Dan Heischman adds, “It is Jesus who breaks beyond the restrictiveness of social or religious norms at the time and ministers to so many at the margins, bringing the whole world to himself.” Even in the small world of St. Margaret’s there are those at the margins on a variety of levels who deserve their rightful place in the choir.

As we come together to bring the 2011-2012 school year to a close, let us do so with a mutual commitment to prevent the “armor of busyness” from denying us the opportunity to reach out to those in need or those on the margins. While our students have accomplished so much since we began last fall and there is without question much to celebrate, we do so ever mindful that this has been a very challenging and at times tragic year for far too many of our families, who despite the demands of our calendars and the busyness of our days continue to need our love and support. After all, when the year ends and the dust settles we are all God’s creatures, with a place in the choir.

All the best to you and your families for a successful conclusion to the school year.