Knightly News

For the first month of school, we’ve been talking about what it means to be a community. We’ve been asking ourselves questions of—what does it mean to be a part of a community? What makes a good community? What should the Episcopal community look like? And as I’ve been listening to these questions and hearing what everyone has to say, it’s led me to reflect on what communities I’m a part of. I am a part of the Episcopal community, the community of our senior class, the cross country community. However, one community that hits especially close to home actually has to do with this chapel. The community of the Episcopal Church. 

I've been a member of the Episcopal Church my entire life. My parents were both Episcopalians and their parents were also Episcopalians. Besides this just meaning that I’ve gone to an Episcopal school my entire life and attend church on Sundays, it runs a bit deeper than that in my family. See, before I made the transition over to Episcopal, I attended St. James. However my family's story stretches long before just my time as a Pelican. My dad is from Baton Rouge, and he grew up attending St. James on Sundays and even went there for elementary school. My grandfather served on the school board there, and it was one of the many places here in Baton Rouge that my dad was raised. After graduating from high school and attending LSU, he still found himself a part of the St. James community. Flash forward a couple of years, it was at the annual crawfish boil at St. James where he met my mom and oldest sister Jane who had just moved here from Shreveport. Luckily for me, they ended up getting married at St. James, and this is truly when my family’s history started there. 

St. James became a home for my family. All my siblings and I were baptized and attended elementary school there. We also were all confirmed there in the 8th grade and it really came full circle when my sister Jane married her husband Bobby there about four years ago. It was a community that my family felt comfortable and wanted in. 

Photo by Jeannie Frey Rhodes Photography

Photo by Natalie S. Miller Photography

And, as I’ve gotten older, I have begun to appreciate everything the Episcopal Church has given me. It is where I have met some of my very best friends, and it is one place that has truly molded me into who I am today. I have been given the opportunity of attending Episcopal for the past seven years, and I have found that the community of the Episcopal Church has followed me. I get to surround myself with people that remind me of that everyday. 

For anyone at Episcopal  thinking that, if you're not a member of the Episcopal Church, this couldn’t pertain to you, we do all go to this school, and therefore we all are a part of The Episcopal Church. The Episcopal church is larger than just what we have at this school, and by going to this school we get to share the experience of being a part of the larger Episcopal community. I mean, the Chapel itself  is where so many significant events in our Episcopal careers take place. It feels like just yesterday I was filing into the chapel for Freshman year orientation, so excited about no longer being in middle school, but not even ready for the Freshman year experience. And last year, we received our Junior Class rings, marking yet another huge milestone in our journey to becoming a leader and a member of the Episcopal community. Honor Code signings, LAUNCH presentations, baccalaureate, and so many more meaningful events all happen in this place we get to gather in together. 

As Fr. Skully has said, memories and events are what connect us. It is how we relate to one another and see our common values. The Episcopal Church is where myself and my family does that.  So my message to my Episcopal School peer is to find your community and to soak it all in. To my fellow seniors, in just eight short months, we are going to be walking down the Chapel’s aisle and across its stage to fingers crossed receive our high school diploma. We are going to look back on our time  spent here and remember all the fun and memorable moments we’ve had here as a class. And to the current Freshmen, I know graduation seems an actual lifetime away, but it is going to come quicker than you think. Find opportunities where you can be a part of this community. Find people and a place that you are going to feel wanted and appreciated. Find a community where your greatest strengths can shine through and you can offer anything and everything. 

After all, God created us to live a life with others, in community, learning and growing from each other's similarities and differences. By giving and receiving support, we see the generosity and gratitude of one another. The most important thing we learned from Jesus was to love God and to love your neighbor, and being a part of a community is exactly how to do this. So plug in to the community here at Episcopal, because I can tell you—it truly is something special. Amen. 

Margaret Harrell is an Episcopal senior. She is an active leader in the community as a Student Vestry Member, a cross country athlete and more.

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