Knightly News

Next to Jesus Christ, the person I most want to emulate in my life, at least in recent years, is the fictitious character Ted Lasso.

The Apple TV series bearing his name tells the story of a gentle, wise, unassuming, all forgiving man who leaves a second-tier college football program in the United States to become a soccer coach for a professional team in the United Kingdom.

In one episode, Ted is lured into a game of darts by his nemesis, who assumes he doesn’t play darts. This person wagers a large amount of money with him, hoping to cheat him. As the game begins, and it appears that Ted will lose, he tells a story about how people have always underestimated him. He quotes Walt Whitman, “Be curious, not judgmental.” He says that if people were curious, they would ask questions like, “Ted, have you played a lot of darts? And I would’ve said, ‘Yes, every Sunday for six years with my father.’” In the end, Ted expertly wins the game.

"Be curious, not judgmental."

I had the honor of leading my first Episcopal All School Eucharist this week, and I was thrilled to look out upon the faces of students, teachers, staff and families. In a way, this felt like my big debut to the Episcopal community. As is often the case when you’re introducing yourself, I took the opportunity for “show and tell” with the help of some kind first graders.

I am a very different style of priest than my predecessor, Fr. Skully Knight. Skully falls on the more evangelical end of the Episcopal spectrum, while I’m what you’d call more traditional. This change is an important learning tool for our community about the worldwide Anglican tradition.

For example, as students have noticed, I wear different vestments than Skully and have some different traditions. In church, my custom is to wear a small circular hat called a zucchetto, which resembles a yarmulke. After students observed this, a rumor began to circulate that I was Jewish and not an Episcopal priest. It’s understandable with the changes coming with my arrival, and it has become an opportunity for learning.

With the help of our brave first graders, I shared my liturgical headgear customs with our gathered community at All School Eucharist. I introduced the Zucchetto, a Biretta, and a Saturno, along with mouse ears from Disney World, to show that there are other things yet to be seen about what may go on this priest’s head. It was a delightful way to answer the curiosity that had been circulating.

As our students begin a new academic year in a robust learning environment like Episcopal School, they do not have to merely draw conclusions on their own without all the details. There are a wealth of resources and teachers dedicated to excellence who will help them explore their interests. We should always ask questions, always seek input from others, always seek other perspectives, and always ask those who are here to help us understand and learn what we can bring in to draw more fruitful conclusions.

In the gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus calls Levi to be a disciple. He eats at his home that night along with many tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners. People made judgments about these people and did not ask questions. They assumed these were people unworthy to eat with Jesus. However, Jesus corrects them and describes how he has come to be with the sick, not the healthy, and that these were the people seeking him to be cured of the illnesses of souls.

In our lives, especially in new relationships and opportunities, we may rush to judgment rather than seek understanding by being curious.

Let us come to God and each other as little children, innocent, wide eyed, and eager to learn, lest we find it hard to enter the kingdom of God. So much about the diverse and engaged community at Episcopal is intended to welcome the sort of learning that comes from asking questions, building new relationships, understanding new perspectives, and seeing things through the eyes and hearts of others in our community. 

“Be curious, not judgmental.” It’s not just about getting the facts; it’s about building relationships and seeing the world through the eyes of others as well as our own and then drawing conclusions that bring us together rather than draw us apart.

I feel blessed to be among the Episcopal community, and I look forward to helping us fulfill our core value of nurturing spirituality on campus. I wish everyone a wonderful and curious school year.

Father Patrick Edwards brings more than two decades of pastoral care experience to his role as Episcopal Head Chaplain. He previously served as an Episcopal faculty member in the school’s religion department from 2011 to 2016. He 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. Father Edwards and his wife Deborah have four children – John Harris ’17, Will, Sefton and Emily. 

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