Chaplain’s Report

The Rev’d Dr. Benjamin Anthony, Chaplain

COVID-related protocols and the expansion of the COVID vaccine program have allowed a measure of normalcy to return to school life. The school year began on-time and inperson and has largely remained that way, save for occasional recourse to remote instruction to curb community spread of the virus in the school. We also began the school year with the fresh perspective and leadership of St. Richard’s new Head of School, Dr. Leslie Hosey. We celebrated and memorialized the advent of her leadership on October 14 All School Chapel with a liturgy for the Installation of a New Head of School. Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows presided, and Mother Julia Whitworth and Mr. Gil Voy, president of the Board of Trustees, presented Dr. Hosey as the school’s next Head. Chapel and community events have resumed at St. Richard’s, often as in-person gatherings with occasional pivots to hybrid and online/remote formats. The installation of the livestream camera system in Trinity has made remote attendance a visually and acoustically richer experience for all students and teachers when they “attend” chapel remotely. Lessons & Carols also returned as a ticketed, in-person event, with services offered on December 15-17 to allow for half-capacity attendance in the Church. Collaboration with Dean Wilmara Manuel has strengthened the kind of learning experiences that happen in chapel. First, this collaboration has led to creation of a schoolwide Virtues of the Month program. Once a month a new virtue–resilience, kindness, thankfulness, creativity, to name a few–provides a focal point that integrates classroom instruction, socialemotional learning, library and other forms of supplemental reading, Chapel and Advisory programs. Second, the addition of a monthly Middle Division Chapel has given the Chapel program the added reach of a space shaped by and for middle school students. Finally, collaboration with Dean Manuel on an integrated Chapel-Assembly program allows for these two schoolwide programs to build upon and reinforce the kind of learning that makes good on St. Richard’s offer of “Knowledge and Values for a Lifetime.” Katie Elder and Cheryl Eiszner continue to provide excellent divinity instruction to the students across the three divisions (Early Childhood, Lower Division, and Middle Division). Mrs. Eiszner has continue to flourish in her work as Godly Play instructor, and Mrs. Elder has exercised considerable and thoughtful initiative in her role(s) as chaplain to Early Childhood students and divinity instructor to Lower and Middle Division students. They have elevated the quality of religious instruction and the communication of Episcopal values through their shared and individual work. The conclusion of the 2021-2022 school year will bring with it Mrs. Eiszner’s retirement from teaching. The very definition of irreplaceable and beloved. We wish Cheryl and John the best as they begin this new chapter of their lives. As Chaplain, my primary role is to supervise and enact the chapel and divinity program at St. Richard’s. Increasingly, my work is the ongoing project of cultivating at the school an environment consistent with Episcopal values. My work as part of the school’s Leadership Team and Diversity Committee are venues where those values are integrated into and reinforced in the life of the school. In November, Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Dean Wilmara Manuel, and I led a retreat for the St. Richard’s faculty that provided an overview of the theology and values of the Episcopal Church and the expression of those in the history and life of St. Richard’s Episcopal School. 2021 was a year marked by the same disruption, upheaval, and loss of the preceding year. But it was also a year marked by the waxing hope offered in the form of student-eligibility for effective COVID vaccines; the promise of clear direction and sustained flourishing under the leadership of a new Head of School; the familiar prayers and hymns of school chapel echoing in the church; and the sight of students and parents in-person and on-campus.