Spiritual Life

The Day School Chaplain represents a continuing pastoral presence in the School in a manner that is both loving and supportive. Through classroom teaching, Chapels, community service, and caring conversation, the Chaplain interacts with students and families at important times of spiritual and moral formation. The chaplaincy of St. Patrick’s provides a confidential and thoughtful support system for students, parents, and faculty and staff. St. Patrick’s draws upon the skills of the Chaplain, who also serves at the parish, and the Rector of St. Patrick’s Parish, who is also available for consultation and pastoral care. 

As we gather weekly in worship to explore our core values and celebrate life together, Chapel plays a vital role in shaping the community. Chapel nurtures the spiritual growth of students and provides a place to raise the diverse voices in the community. Students and faculty and staff alike, including the Day School Chaplain, lead worship by reading scripture, offering prayers and reflections, and lifting voices in song. Chapel provides an opportunity for students to grow as leaders in the community. In the Grades 3-5 Chapel, Grade 3 students serve as acolytes and crucifers, Grade 4 students read the prayers, and Grade 5 students read scripture and act as an altar guild by assisting with leading and setting up for Chapel each week. Middle School students support each MacArthur Campus Chapel, from choosing music to writing homilies and prayers. In Chapel, we pray for our own needs and those of others, grieve and mourn losses, and celebrate blessings and individual birthdays. Students and faculty and staff attend Chapel, and parents are always welcome and encouraged to attend.

• Each class attends Chapel once a week. PK3/PK4 Chapel is at 8:45 am on Thursdays in the Early Childhood Library.
• Kindergarten-Grade 2 Chapel is at 8:30 am on Tuesdays in the Nave. Grades 3-5 Chapel is at 8:20 am on Wednesdays in the Nave. 
• The Middle School Chapel is at 8:35 am on Fridays in the MacArthur Campus Music Room. 

From time to time, individual Chapels are replaced by Kindergarten-Grade 5 or Kindergarten-Grade 8 Chapels or other special Chapels for various holidays and important celebrations in the church calendar and in the life of the School. These include the Opening Chapel, St. Francis Day, All Saints Day, Christmas Pageants, Epiphany, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, our Chapel Honoring Faculty and Staff, and the Closing Chapel. When we have a special Chapel, we do not have our regular Kindergarten-Grade 2, Grades 3-5, or Middle School Chapels during that week. PK3/PK4 Chapels are not affected by these particular changes. 

Religious education is a life-long process through which the stories, traditions, rituals, and insights of a community of faith become integrated into every aspect of an individual’s life. The goal of religious education at St. Patrick’s is to introduce students to a life of faith, particularly as expressed in the Episcopal tradition, but also in other traditions, to develop an understanding of and respect for diverse people and cultures. At the heart of the religion curriculum are the essential themes of compassion, covenant, and service and central questions of What is the nature of the world?, What is a spiritual life?, and What is my relationship to others and to God? Classroom lessons encourage students to explore ideas freely, while providing an atmosphere that enables individuals to maintain their own religious views and personal values. 

Religion classes begin in the Lower School. From Kindergarten to Grade 3, children learn about the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures, as well as other faith traditions and celebrations across cultures and religions. They also explore the meaning of the basic principles of honesty, respect, responsibility, and kindness that comprise the School Creed. In Grade 4, these themes continue as students study Sacred Stories and Sacred Spaces and, in Grade 5, as students engage with Social Justice through Scripture and specific service-learning opportunities. In the Middle School, students study the six major world religions in Grades 6 and 7, then end their religious education at St. Patrick’s by engaging in an in-depth Ethics course in Grade 8, which draws together many of the subject strands from previous years.

The diversity of faith traditions represented in the students, families, and faculty and staff of St. Patrick’s is a source of richness and strength in our community. As a result, St. Patrick’s is determined to offer space and time for students and faculty and staff to comfortably and confidently practice their religion. 

We recognize that observing religious traditions will, at times, require accommodations. The Day School will work with students and families to provide accommodations necessary to support religious observances that coincide with school days. Religious practices, such as attending special religious events, that keep students from attending school will be considered excused absences. Accommodations for students who fast and pray during the school day include providing designated alternative locations during lunch time and prayer space, if needed. Recognizing that fasting can affect a student’s energy level, we will work with families to offer students who are fasting opportunities to take tests scheduled in the afternoon earlier in the day. Students who are fasting may be exempt from rigorous activity in PE or athletics. 

The Day School recognizes the diversity across and within religious traditions and seeks to offer a flexible and caring response to the needs of our students. We encourage students and their families to speak with the Chaplain or the appropriate Division Head, homeroom teacher, or advisor about accommodations the Day School can make to support religious observances among members of the community.

Children and adults in the St. Patrick’s community are blessed with a bounty of talents, gifts, and opportunities. The fullest expression of gratitude for these blessings is found not just as each child and adult strives for individual excellence and responsibility, but also as each individual learns to respond to the needs of ever-widening communities, serving others, and contributing to building a better world. Therefore, the Day School has built into its basic philosophy a commitment to involving our students meaningfully in the lives of others in various communities that encompass their lives. 

With our commitment to service as an integral part of our mission, community service becomes an important part of our students’ lives. Our Director of Service Learning, working in collaboration with faculty and staff as well as the Parents Association’s Vice President for Partnerships, guides various forms of service for our Whitehaven Campus students that expand our understanding of community and foster a sense of fulfillment when contributing to, and learning from, the lives of others. Every grade level at St. Patrick’s participates in the Salvation Army’s Grate Patrol. Our PK3/PK4 and Kindergarten children make trail mix or bring vegetables from home to chop and cook for homemade soup, while our older students prepare sandwiches and cookies. The sandwiches and soup made at school are then picked up from the church kitchen by the Salvation Army’s Grate Patrol van twice a month to feed those experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. 

In the Middle School, service to the community is fostered through our Grade 7 service learning course, which combines the academic study of hunger, poverty, aging, disability, and homelessness with service at local agencies that address those issues in the community. Additionally, a Community Service Club seeks to teach responsible leadership on local, national, and global levels; to help students look outward at the world in which they live; and to organize and offer volunteer opportunities. Service projects, the focus of the service learning course, are selected based on the interests of the students, as well as the needs of the communities of which St. Patrick’s is a part. 

St. Patrick’s students have worked with a variety of organizations seeking local, national, and international impact. They also plan and participate in one of our annual signature events. Gifts for Good is a holiday alternative gift fair, which raises awareness and funds across topics and areas of need. Examples include funds for education for all children, protecting endangered species, providing shelter for animals, supporting troops returning from conflict, and providing books for local children. 

The Haiti Partnership Program 
Since 1979, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church and Day School have been in partnership with St. Etienne, our sister church and school in the mountains southwest of Port-au-Prince. Over the years, the partnership has enabled students, faculty and staff, parents, and parishioners to become engaged in a variety of initiatives in support of St. Etienne. While civil unrest in Haiti has prevented recent visits, earlier trips have brought students, faculty and staff, and parishioners to St. Etienne to deepen the partnership, which students have supported by raising funds for school supplies, student uniforms, earthquake damage repair, and the lunch program. Other initiatives have focused on funding small businesses in Haiti. The establishment of the Haitian Connection, a group of faculty, staff, and students who have traveled to Haiti and open to any students interested in supporting our work with St. Etienne, furthers this work of social entrepreneurship. Hoops for Haiti, a student basketball tournament held each spring, has become an important and enjoyable fundraising event. 

Horizons Greater Washington 
Part of a national network of independent schools and other educational institutions working closely with nearby public schools, Horizons Greater Washington is a summer-based intervention that helps economically disadvantaged students continue learning at a time when they might otherwise experience a decline in their academic development. St. Patrick’s partners with Bancroft Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, along with other D.C. public schools, The Bishop Walker School for Boys in SE Washington, and with fellow independent schools Maret and Norwood in the Washington-area public-private program. As a Horizons site school, St. Patrick’s welcomes students to our campus for the six-week summer program; engages faculty and staff as administrators, teachers, and volunteers; and benefits from vigorous parent support marshaled by the Parents Association’s Vice President for Partnerships. Many Day School alumni return to serve as Program Support Staff (PSS). A fall event, Reach for the Stars, a gala evening for adults, provides the St. Patrick’s community with an additional way to demonstrate its enthusiastic support for Horizons.