The Rev. Daniel R. Heischman, D.D.
I remember well a colleague of mine remarking to me, during the opening
weeks of school, “No doubt about it; it is the best time of the year.”
It is hard to disagree with that description of these opening weeks of
the school year. There is a freshness to the new academic year, with
faculty feeling idealistic—some of those problems that seemed
intractable last spring are now a thing of the past—as well as
reinvigorated by the summer months. Students seem eager to please, many
of them resolute that this year is going to be different! It is good to
be back in the routine, all members of the school community seem to be
saying.
With the passing of weeks come such things as back-to-school nights for
parents, then the all-important open house events for potential
applicants to the school and their parents. With many of our schools
reporting concern about reaching projected enrollment targets, those
times of welcoming strangers to the school and putting the mission and
ethos of the school in its best light will take on even more urgency.
“The Question” and the People Who Ask It
As admissions season opens, the perennial question will be asked, “You
call yourself an Episcopal school, what does that mean?” For some
schools, this is a vexing challenge: how do we put into words what we
feel is so unique about how we go about doing things in this school? For
others, particularly if the question of what it means to be an
Episcopal school remains unanswered, it can be the trickiest, perhaps
even most unwelcome of the battery of questions that will be hurled at
us during the admissions process.
Tricky, in part, because it is not always clear to the responder of that
question just what the intent is in asking it. On the one hand, it may
be coming out of the concern an applicant’s parents may have that this
element of the school’s mission truly matters. I well remember one
autumn, many years ago, when, as the school’s chaplain, I was asked to
be present at a meeting of parents of prospective students to field the
inevitable and intricate questions about chapel and the religious life
of the school. One parent asked me, in all honesty, “Is my child really
going to be affected by chapel?” How should I respond, I wondered? “Of
course, he or she will?” or, “No problem, don’t worry about it?” or, “It
depends on what you mean by affected?” On the other hand, there are
many parents who are able, pretty quickly, to identify a soft spot in
the school’s understanding of itself, and just may be eager to see how
the school’s representatives explain away that ambiguity! Others ask
that question because they are drawn to the school for this very reason
and want their hopes about its importance confirmed.
Whatever the motivation, and whatever degree of clarity the school is
able to muster in responding to the question and these challenges, it is
important to keep a few things in mind about the people asking these
questions.
Religious Illiteracy
We are now well into the second generation of Americans that exhibit
high degrees of religious illiteracy. For many, the only things they
know about religious life and symbolism come from what they have
absorbed through the media, leaving them both confused and wary about
the place of belief and practice in any aspect of common life, let alone
the school to which they send their child. They simply do not know what
being a school with a religious identity means.
Many Episcopal schools, in hiring marketing consultants, can be
surprised when—as often is the case—survey findings are reported
regarding what is most important to parents in selecting their
respective school. The fact that it is an Episcopal school turns out not
to be as high on the priority scale as may have been imagined or
expected. It is a mistake, to my way of thinking, to jump from that
finding to the conclusion that it is not in fact important, without
considering along the way that many families, with their lack of
understanding of the dynamics of religious life, really do not know what
that option means on such a survey.
Denominational Labels
It is important to keep in mind that for many parents, in our
contemporary culture, denominational labels—be they Episcopal, Lutheran,
Presbyterian, etc.—do not hold the same weight they may have in the
past. The “what” of the denomination—its polity and practices—means less
to them than the “how” of what they do. Is the chapel a welcoming
place? Does it encourage open inquiry? Will my child be able to learn
about a variety of beliefs and traditions? Is it a place that fosters a
sense of values?
Religious Diversity
With the religious diversity of our nation increasing, along with a
significant growth of families from mixed heritages, a new view on how
to deal with that diversity in our communities is emerging. In the past,
we may have thought that the best way to deal with religious diversity
was to be as generalized and unfocused as we could be in religious
identity, thinking that this would include everyone and no one would be
offended. Increasingly, observers on religious pluralism are telling us
that the best mode of interacting with and learning from those who are
different from us is to be authentically ourselves. Such transparency
tells a diverse group of people that we are being honest about
ourselves, not holding anything back, and that we have something of
value to bring to the table of honest and open discussion about how we
all differ religiously.
Emphasizing Chapel Is the Answer
When, therefore, schools contact me to ask how best to put into words
and imagery the Episcopal identity of the institution, I encourage them
to be forthright, confident, and honest, emphasizing with parents two
important goals: first, through chapel and other aspects of the
religious life of a school, a student will learn a great deal about
particular traditions that may differ from his or her own; secondly,
with that particular framework comes another benefit, in that it can be a
springboard for a student learning more about his or her own tradition.
A goal of any Episcopal school is that a student from a non-Episcopal
tradition will, as a result of attending that school, become better
informed about and a more able practitioner of that tradition!
Strategies for Talking About Chapel
Keeping that in mind, I would offer a few suggestions on how to capture
what is, in so many schools, the liveliness and centrality of Episcopal
identity, in talking with those who are exhibiting varying degrees of
eagerness to learn about it.
Focus on practices, as opposed to theory.
Share with parents some of what is done on a regular basis in chapel.
Describe in some detail what students are expected to do and not do.
Talk about the important days of the year that are observed in chapel,
the times when non-Episcopal or non-Christian families share something
of their own heritage. The heart of any chapel program in an Episcopal
school has to do with the practice, not the theology: what we do tells
us who we are. That is the miracle of our tradition, not to mention one
of the reasons I believe Episcopal schools are among those best
positioned to deal with growing religious diversity.
Such a focus on what is done helps parents picture in their own mind
what this strange thing called chapel is about. It helps many with their
concern that we are going to be telling their children what to believe.
It also appeals to that need and reality in all of us to be, in some
way, ritual beings.
Share stories of how chapel fosters the community spirit and corporate identity of school, indeed how it helps students to live in a more pluralistic world.
Some of these stories may seem illogical or ironic to outsiders—a
non-Christian being an acolyte for a chapel service, for example—but
stories are among our most powerful ways of capturing the rich
complexity of a situation that may not necessarily give way to precise
descriptions.
Involve students directly in explaining what chapel means to them.
In many schools, there is a lag of immediacy and excitement that takes
place en route from directly experiencing the ongoing life of the
chapel, and what that means to students themselves, to the efforts on
the part of the school administration to explain just why it is so
important to the school community. Allowing students to explain it
directly to prospective students and their parents both disarms chapel
of its seeming inaccessibility as well as underscores that this program
genuinely means something to students.
I would venture to say that what can make parents of prospective
students most anxious about the religious identity of the school is when
they see school officials struggling either to explain this part of
their common life, or attempting to sidestep it altogether. Once again,
if the school feels confident in its articulation and practice of its
Episcopal identity, there is at least a place to begin. Without that
confidence, many parents wonder where it all will end!
The Rev. Daniel R. Heischman, D.D., is executive director of NAES.A version of this article is available in the NAES library.