Page 8 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 1 Fall 2013

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All in One Magazine Stroke
I have been reading the Alumni Horae for
Spring 2013 this morning. What a superb
issue of the magazine. There are so many
themes, handled so wonderfully, and yet
the final segment has alumni notes as
always and as faithful Horae readers
have come to expect. The photography
and the printing are beautiful. All in one
magazine stroke, a remembrance of the
several celebrations is accomplished with
distinction. This certainly is a high testa-
ment to the group of advisors and writers
and planners who clearly have been deeply
involved in this for some time. An
excellent job, and congratulations.
William Oates, Eighth Rector
Westwood, Mass.
June 19, 2013
New Goals
I want to thank you guys for the best
Alumni Horae ever [Spring 2013], and I
am happy to say that I do not feel this
way simply because it includes my uncle’s
obit (Jack Hollister ’43). The three lead
articles are just outstanding ! Not sure
that I can pull this off, but my goal is to
appear to check the Chapel for all the
gems captured by Karen Bobotas, most
of which (typically) I had not known to
exist. Again, many thanks!
J.J. Stevenson III ’59
Watch Hill, R.I.
June 16, 2013
Editor’s Note: A few readers have asked us
to identify the photograph that opens the
article “Finding Meaning” in the Spring
2013 issue of Alumni Horae. Some of you
will recognize the view upward into the
narrow, spiral stairs that lead to the tower
of the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul.
Please keep writing to: The Editor, Alumni
Horae, 325 Pleasant St., Concord, NH 03301
or to alumni@sps.edu.
Apostles’ Creed
It seems unnecessary to write six pages
on the question of whether St. Paul’s is
still an Episcopal school. Is the Apostles’
Creed recited regularly on Sundays
(participation presumably being volun-
tary)? If yes, it is. If no, it isn’t.
Bill Brigham ’61
Putnam Valley, N.Y.
June 18, 2013
Finding Meaning
I appreciated the article “Finding
Meaning” in the Spring 2013 edition. May
I offer two observations?
First, the report of a recent self-as-
sessment was quoted: “Four mornings a
week, students and faculty gather in the
School Chapel to celebrate community,
engage in prayer and meditation, and
begin the academic day just as the first
three students did 157 years ago.” It
seems to me that today the students and
faculty do not gather just as they did at
the school’s founding. Indeed, the claim
to meaningful historical continuity
appears quite stretched. This is borne out
by another article published in the same
issue, “Architect and Builder,” by Douglas
Marshall. The author recounts, “It was to
the Chapel that the School repaired twice
daily and three times on Sunday. At
intervals, every boy in the School was
required to publicly answer questions
from the catechism. At the appropriate
age, all were confirmed. In the early years
of St. Paul’s, all of the masters were
unmarried clergy.”
Second, the Reverend Michael Spencer,
SPS dean of Chapel and religious life, was
represented as emphatically denying that
for families who send their children to an
Episcopal school this “means indoctrinat-
ing them into the Episcopal faith.”
Further on, the story was told of a
mother who initially drove to the School
on Easter in order to take her son to Roman
Catholic services under the impression
that “it didn’t count unless we went to a
Catholic church.” But four years later, for
him “the idea of going someplace else for
services is just crazy.” Now as a matter of
fact, according to the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, Catholics are required
to attend Catholic services on Sunday.
In this case, then, the young man was
indoctrinated into the Episcopal faith; he
now sees the teaching of his church as
“crazy.” While this could be discounted as
a poor choice of words, it could also be
taken as indicative of the ardor felt by a
new convert.
KAREN BOBOTAS
LETTERS