Page 6 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 3 Spring 2014

LETTERS
More Than a Pretty Building
I do not share the sentiments of my class-
mate, Zach Allen ’56, about retaining the
religious traditions and identity of St. Paul’s
(“Perspective,” AH Winter 2014). When I
arrived there as a Fourth Former, I had
already guessed that stories about gods
– creation myths, virgin birth, resurrec-
tion, bodily ascension to heaven, and the
like in other cultures – are useful fictions
for keeping the lid on competition within
human groups and at the same time pro-
moting subjugation and exploitation of
other human groups.
My courses at St. Paul’s, especially those
in religion, confirmed such suspicions, and
my subsequent education, plus 40 years
of thinking and teaching about human
evolution at Amherst College, a place
quite similar in its history to St. Paul’s,
led me to conclude that religious beliefs
have caused, and continue to cause, more
harm and suffering than good (read the
writings of Christopher Hitchens, Sam
Harris, and Richard Dawkins). It may be
that in thinking about the evil humans
perpetrate on each other, some people
find solace in believing in a personal,
responsive deity. But the facts are that a
lot of that evil has been encouraged and
justified by such beliefs in the first place.
If fairness, inclusiveness, and honesty
are among the educational goals of SPS,
I think they have been and are best fos-
tered by teaching the use of logical and
evidence-based reasoning to question
authority, to seek new knowledge and
understanding, and to bring out the
decency, fairness, and empathy that are
just as much a part of our evolved nature
as the opposite traits. I think a spiritu-
ality based on these values, not on relig-
ious beliefs, has and should come to be
evoked by the beauty and grandeur of
the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul. The
Chapel can continue to be more than “a
pretty building.”
William F. Zimmerman ’56
Amherst, Mass.
April 13, 2014
A Sacred Place
I read with interest “Not Just a Pretty
Building” by Zachariah Allen ’56 ( AH
Winter 2014). As a priest of the Church
whose vocation to ordained ministry was
deeply influenced by my own experience
of the School and Chapel in the turbulence
of the late 1960s, I would like to offer a
different view of Chapel and its place in
the life of the School today.
I spent three days at Millville last Sep-
tember with the Governing Board of the
National Association of Episcopal Schools.
An evening compline in the Old Chapel
led by the Madrigal Singers was filled to
capacity with students and faculty who
seemed grateful to be in such contem-
plative and prayerful space in the course
of the busyness of school life. The School’s
tradition of excellence in sacred music
was evident in this ancient liturgy. The
next morning in Chapel, Scripture was
read, a hymn was sung, and prayers
appropriate to the occasion were spoken.
At lunch with the 17 Chapel prefects and
the Missionary Society officers, students
shared thoughts on the importance of
Chapel, service in the community and
the world, and their spiritual lives.
Several had received the sacrament of
Confirmation in the Episcopal Church.
Others from different faiths said their
appreciation of their own traditions
had been deepened by their Chapel
experience.
Are there students in 2014 for whom the
Chapel of St Peter and St Paul is simply a
“pretty building?” I am sure there are. There
certainly were such students in 1970, just
as I suspect there were in 1956 and earlier.
Yet my observation is that Chapel today
continues to offer, as it always has, a sacred
place and time in which God will write the
law of compassionate service and forgive-
ness and mercy given and received, on each
heart that is open to it.
The Rev. Alexander N. Breckinridge IV ’70
Medina, Wash.
May 8, 2014
A Ghost Frame?
Thinking that I immediately recognized
the portrait of John G. Winant pictured in
the winter edition of your magazine, I read
the article by Berkley Latimer with more
than usual care. I was struck by finding
that “there seems to be no record of the
portrait’s movements” prior to its redis-
covery in storage in late 2011.
Not eager to assert historical accuracy
in the clarity of the memory I think I have
of the portrait from my Fifth and Sixth
Form years, when I ate my meals in the
New Upper Dining Room, I nevertheless
write to you about this recollection, think-
ing that it might help the School to assemble
its record of the painting.
My memory is that I often looked up
at the portrait from the intensity of meal-
times. I regarded its subject fondly, expres-
sing benevolence and attentiveness so
simply from an almost gestural painting,
yet with such integrity and strength as to
belie any sense but an impression in the
simplicity of its rendering.
If my memory is correct about the
painting, I believe that it hung high on
the wall opposite the dais, from which
Mr. Montgomery ruled the room, offer-
ing vivid contrast in my teenaged per-
ception of personality. Perhaps there
may even be a ghost of the frame resid-
ing in the fumed oak of the paneling, or
perhaps on the plaster above – I do not
remember the background on which the
painting hung.
George B. Terrien ’59
Rockland, Maine
April 9, 2014
We love hearing from you about stories
we have published in Alumni Horae or
in response to alumni matters. As space
permits, we will print your letters. Please
keep writing to: The Editor, Alumni Horae,
325 Pleasant St., Concord, NH 03301 or to
alumni@sps.edu.
6