Knightly News

Please join us in welcoming Father Patrick Edwards as the new Episcopal Head Chaplain. With more than two decades in pastoral care, Father Edwards has valuable experience that will benefit our Episcopal community.

Father Edwards is returning to Episcopal, as he was previously a faculty member in the school’s religion department from 2011 to 2016. During this time, “Uncle Pat,” as he was known, developed curricula and taught History of Religion in America, History of World Religions and Biblical Studies. He also provided pastoral care and counseling to students and faculty. While in this role, Father Edwards also served as the Priest in Charge at Saint Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge. 

Most recently, Father Edwards was the Rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church and Vicar at St. Andrew’s Dune Church in Southampton, New York. He was also a Second Lieutenant of the Southampton Fire Department, serving also as the Chaplain to the department. Father Edwards was active and engaged with the community as the President of the Board of Directors of the Southampton History Center, a Board Member of Heart of the Hamptons and a lecturer on subjects of history and social issues.

Father Edwards is defending his thesis for a Doctor of Ministry emphasizing Liturgics from the School of Theology at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. He also earned a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Church History, Ascetical Theology and Liturgics from the Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin. Father Edwards has a degree in history and politics from Oglethorpe University and a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He has traveled and taught extensively within the Anglican Communion in the United Kingdom and Africa.

Father Edwards and his wife Deborah have four children – John Harris ’17, Will, Sefton and Emily. He enjoys reading history, politics and biographies, golf, hiking and spending time with his family and their corgis.

We look forward to Father Edwards joining us on campus, and we are confident that you will welcome him to the Episcopal community.  “I am excited about the spiritual leadership, sense of warmth, and genuine care that Fr. Patrick brings to our school,” says Head of School Dr. Carrie Steakley. “He loves Episcopal and is over the moon to join us in nurturing and supporting the well-being of our students. I am confident that his presence will be a valuable addition to our school, and I look forward to seeing the positive impact he will have on our students.”

We invite you to learn more about Father Edwards in his own words below.

1. What drew you specifically to Episcopal School of Baton Rouge and the role of Head Chaplain?

My time teaching at Episcopal was some of the most rewarding and resonate in my life. I discovered not only a gift for ministry with young people, but also a passion for it, and a great love and respect for Episcopal, its students, faculty, and staff. When I left to answer the call to St John’s and Saint Andrew’s in Southampton, my deepest regret was leaving the classroom, the community, and the ministry at Episcopal. 

I find returning to Baton Rouge and to Episcopal as not only taking up where I left off, but coming home. My visit during the search process was so wonderfully familiar, energizing, and purposeful. I felt not only my own enthusiasm and that of the people with whom I met, but also God’s joy and favor. 

I feel that many of the talents God has given me as well as my experience in ministry combine with my passion and enthusiasm to allow me to make an effective ministry with the students, faculty, staff, and their families. I truly feel called and prepared to take up this ministry among the Episcopal School community.

2. What is the most important thing a school can do to support the growth and development of its students in your opinion?

That Episcopal provides its students with excellent academic preparation for further success in university and beyond is evident in both its recognition for excellence as well in its ultimate reputation, our graduates. It is also attested to by the number of multi-generational families in our community, parents and even grandparents, having made Episcopal a family tradition. 

But the formation of the total person during these critical formative years goes well beyond academics, and this is seen in the vast and superlative athletic, social, service, and other developmental opportunities, resources, and programs at Episcopal. From the playing fields, to the service programs, to the playground and quad, we facilitate and support the character and development of the student into their best selves.

I feel especially that the faith and spiritual growth of our students is every bit as important as each of these other components, and in many ways is the foundation and wellspring of the deepest parts of the human being. I am proud to join an already rich and diverse religion faculty and chaplains who help our students to begin and enrich that journey with the Divine for themselves and together as a community.

I believe that we prepare our students for success in life with faith foundations for a life that has a deeper meaning than merely monetary or material success. 

3. How do you envision fostering spiritual growth and development among students, faculty and staff within the school community?

I have both researched and written on the subject of enculturation and acculturation in communities and their implications in building those communities. Episcopal is a diverse community that seeks to forge a culture that cultivates that bond and the values it imparts. 

Fostering spiritual growth and discipleship is really the unique component that we offer the world at the Episcopal School, and specifically that part of the Kingdom of God known as the Anglican/Episcopal tradition. Making that accessible and applicable to each of our community members is a crucial part of our mission and aspirations. 

Providing, at each age-appropriate level and with a generous heart towards people of other faiths and traditions, ways to give our students the means and support to find their way through their faith journey, meeting with each other the lessons we have to share that make us the community that we strive to be, as well as the virtuous individuals we seek to become. 

There is a wonderful model for this that is the foundation of the Anglican tradition, and it has its roots in the ancient models of the Church. We come together to work, study, and pray. Then, so brought together, formed and informed, we seek to serve the world around us. To all this I would add the element of PLAY. We have so much at Episcopal to fill that culture of, together, working, studying, praying, and playing together. It has worked for so very long, beyond our community as well as within it.

4. How do you plan to collaborate with other religious leaders and community members to enrich the school’s spiritual life?

I believe and enjoy ecumenism as a critical part of the Christian life as well as a healthy community life in our diverse and pluralistic world. The shrinking of the world has made cooperation, respect, and collaboration critical talents to obtain, and virtues to foster. What unites us as people of faith is far greater than what divides us, and our unity as faithful people is our gift to a sadly divided, materialistic, and cynical world.

I also believe that, as an Episcopal priest, what I most bring to ecumenism is my own authentic identity. I was deeply struck once by a Muslim imam who corrected a fellow priest because he kept speaking of Allah. The imam asked him to be a Christian. It was the Christian he wanted to engage with, and he would be the Muslim.

The wonderful strengths of the Episcopal School’s diversity means that we can all come together as we are, authentically, celebrating each other, both in our differences and our similarities. It is the gift we share of ourselves that teaches us as much about who we are, as who the fellow members of our community are.

To share who we are, what we believe, how we reach for God, and how all this drives our lives is the greatest asset that diversity gives us. It opens our eyes to how we strive to a deeper sense of purpose in life and defines how we value that life. 

Regardless of anyone’s own faith traditions and beliefs, I believe the message of Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation, but also of the brotherhood of us all as children of God in the here and now, are an essential answer to the needs of our world. I also believe that the Anglican tradition, wonderfully embodied in its American expression of the Episcopal Church, gives the broadest scope of expression and most welcoming opportunities to engage with its gifts. An axiom of our tradition, “All may, none must, some should,” speaks to the flexibility and openness of the Episcopal Church. It is also a beloved principle of the church that, as St Augustine is credited as saying, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, unconditional love,” Again, it is the openness to exploration and discovery that are essential to offering, encountering, and engaging with faith for our young people, while holding to its core identity with integrity. “And in all things, unconditional love.” 

5. Do you enjoy any hobbies or interests outside of education?

I am an avid hiker, having walked the 550 mile Camino Frances to Santiago, Spain in the fall of 2022. I am also a serious student of history, interested in ancient history, English history (a life-long Anglophile), and modern history. I spend as much time as I can with my family, including my wife Deborah and our four children, John Harris, a 2017 graduate of Episcopal, and Will, Sefton, and Emily, all of whom have attended Episcopal in the past, and Emily who will be returning as a sophomore this fall. I am also the personal manservant of two terribly spoiled corgis, George and Ringo. 

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2024-2025 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.