Our Episcopal Identity

As I was putting together our annual report to the Diocese of Western Louisiana, I thought this might be a perfect opportunity to write to you all about what it means to be an Episcopal School. There is a huge variety of expression of Episcopal Identity among Episcopal Schools in America, but at their core they are all “created to be communities that honor, celebrate, and worship God as the center of life. They are created to be models of God’s love and grace. They are created to serve God in Christ in all persons, regardless of origin, background, ability, or religion. They are created to ‘strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.’ These principles are the basis on which identity and vocation are to be defined in Episcopal schools.”*

 

Episcopal Schools are different from other types of religious schools (i.e. Catholic Schools) in that they are set up as “ecumenical and diverse ministries of educational and human formation for people of all faiths and backgrounds.”* In fact, it would be difficult to find an Episcopal School in the US that has a majority of students who are Episcopalian. Thus Episcopal Schools have always been concerned with educational excellence and helping each member of the community find clarity about their own beliefs and live more fully and faithfully in their own lives. They are high-powered educational communities filled with the love and acceptance that we believe define God’s grace.

 

Technically, there are three types of Episcopal Schools: Independent, Parish and Diocesan. An Independent Episcopal school is not formally tied to a particular parish church or the diocese; it operates with Episcopal ideals but without a governance structure that is tied to a church or the diocese (like Epiphany Day School). A Parish school is typically an outgrowth ministry of a particular parish church (like Ascension Episcopal School). This is probably the most common and most understood model in this area, because it mimics the situation at most of the Catholic Schools here. Finally, Diocesan schools are not attached to a particular parish, but serve the whole diocese and typically have the Bishop as part of their Board. ESA is the Diocesan school for the Diocese of Western Louisiana, and Bishop Jacob Owensby sits on our Board of Trustees. As such, we are under his authority and we make yearly reports to the Diocese. I’ve included a link to our latest report, in case you would like to read it, here.

 

ESA is an Episcopal school with an amazing record of academic achievements, and we are a school that is deeply immersed in the love of God and the love of neighbor. What Episcopal Identity looks like here is school-wide worship through a strong chapel program that incorporates the rich traditions of the Episcopal Church, religious education that is meaningful, academically substantive and age appropriate, and a focus on community service within the school and in the greater communities in which we live. The second sentence of our mission statement, “ESA challenges students to develop intellectually, spiritually, and physically,” mirrors the statement of community life in Episcopal Schools from NAES: The principles and ideals of Episcopal Schools are best expressed through “community life, in which reflection, prayer, and matters of the spirit are honored and cultivated and the physical, mental, and emotional health of all are supported and nurtured.”*

 

We are also a work in progress and are constantly striving to improve in all areas; Episcopal Identity is always included in that list. In fact, enhancing our Episcopal Identity has been and will remain one of the strategic goals as developed by the Board of Trustees. This goal reads, in part, “Continue building our Episcopal identity with an emphasis on a more substantive and diverse spiritual development program that has an eye toward producing ethical citizens with empathy in a diverse and complex world.” One of the things that I am most proud of is that ESA doesn’t just produce amazing academic minds, but we also produce really good people. As I write each year to close our Diocesan report, I am blessed to work in a school that lives out its mission of scholarship, honor and service to others. Areté!

 

*From the National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES)