This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Charles Wright's Chaplaincy Is Vital to Its Curriculum—and Its Culture

By: CWA Chaplain Mike Moffitt

While Charles Wright is not a parochial school—and religion isn’t mentioned per se in our mission statement—there are several reasons why CWA has maintained a chaplaincy. 

First, the school was founded as part of the ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. While that formal relationship ended in the late ’60s, the insight that a well-rounded education would include cultivating healthy bodies, minds, and spirits has remained through the decades. 

Second, Charles Wright Academy recognizes that students of all ages are on personal journeys and need adults to accompany them along the way. When students want to confide in an adult other than parents or guardians, it can be helpful for them to have several resources at school, including trusted teachers, administrators, the school counselor, and, of course, the chaplain. Every year, in cooperation with the counselors and other faculty, I sit with students who are navigating through the stormy seas of childhood and adolescence. 

Third, the world is an ever-shrinking place, with an overflowing population and quick access to not-always-reliable information. Because of this, knowledge about the world's religions has become an integral piece of the Upper School curriculum (ninth grade seminar) and is also present in Middle School reflection and Lower School chapel. The chaplain is key in fulfilling the values stated in the school's Spirituality Statement, as we hope to send informed and empathetic young people into college and the world.
When it comes to religion, the CWA chaplain can facilitate people's journeys in two basic ways:

  • First, in my particular case as an ordained Presbyterian minister, I have helped adults and students explore the meaning of scriptures, theology, and Christian practice; offer services and prayer; and performed weddings, memorial services, and even baptisms—all fairly traditional functions of a minister.
  • Second, I also offer services of prayer and Communion during the two most sacred Christian seasons of Advent (leading to Christmas) and Lent (leading to Easter).
  • Finally, I have performed weddings for faculty and alumni, led memorial services for CWA friends and families, and even baptized two former students! In these ways, I perform the fairly traditional functions of a minister.

But these are not the only ways I can serve people when it comes to religion. I have had countless conversations with Charles Wright students and adults from a variety of backgrounds, including those who identify with Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, agnosticism, atheism, and Wicca. In each of these cases, I provide a listening ear, insights into questions, comparisons to other religions when necessary, historical perspectives, and overall rich conversation about religious and spiritual ideas. Good conversations are one of my favorite things about being the CWA chaplain! And if someone at CWA wants to create an event regarding their own religion, or a religion other than Christianity, I can help facilitate that through research and helping them get in touch with other people who can help.

Another component of the CWA chaplaincy involves the concepts of values and morals. Of course, teaching morality is the job of those raising children at home. But we would be naive if we thought that children don't learn morality in other places as well, especially the place they spend most of their time—school. I attended public schools all the way through high school, and I learned plenty about religion, spirituality, and morality, but almost none of it within the safe environment of a classroom or office of someone well versed in such matters. Morality was taught in the locker rooms and the cafeteria, or only when a student was publicly in trouble.
My parents did their best and gave me great resources when I was an adolescent, but when I wanted to ask questions beyond hearth and home, I had to take it upon myself to pursue answers. As an independent school, therefore, we can take the initiative to expose kids to sources of wisdom that have stood the test of time and really equip them to be able to continue their search for Truth when they are men and women, living outside the safe boundaries of the homes in which they were raised.

Admittedly, no one avoids bias when they teach—no one avoids bias when they do anything else, for that matter. One of the fundamental principles I teach in ninth grade religious studies is that bias is inevitable as long as a person has only one point of view. So studying religions is not about avoiding bias but rather about being wise enough to understand one's own beliefs, humble enough to recognize one's limitations, respectful enough to seek to learn when having dialogue with people whose views are different, patient enough to know that everyone is on a journey at their own pace, courageous enough to evaluate the veracity of different ideas, and finally faithful enough to believe that the search for Truth can and will be fruitful.

So, ultimately, it is important to see the difference between academic knowledge of one's religion and experiential knowledge and belief. In other words, when I teach world religions (including my own religion!), I take an academic approach, teaching about the religions, rather than a religious approach, teaching about the truth or personal significance of the religions. Take, for example, the subject of the story of Abraham and Isaac, which is important in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (though in Islam it is Ismail and not Isaac). In a synagogue, church, or mosque, the teacher might proclaim that the events of the story “happened” and then interpret the import of the story on the students' lives. In an academic setting, I would teach that "Scripture contains a story" about Abraham and Isaac (or Ismail) and then ask the students to write a paragraph interpreting what the story might mean. It is important to add that such personal interpretation does not open the door for any idea to be correct. The same could be said for any literary interpretation—regardless of one's worldview, Shakespeare's Hamlet is not about a tiny pig! But in an English literature class, the teacher would be out of line if she insisted that all the kids believe Shakespeare was the best playwright in history. In the same way, religious studies can be academic, teaching students the ideas within religions and allowing them the room to decide how true and significant the ideas might be.

Whether teaching ninth grade religious studies, nurturing good character in Lower School chapel, urging Middle Schoolers to reflect on some of life’s great questions, cultivating a love for service to the world, or just listening to people share their personal journeys, I continue to enjoy the vitality, or liveliness (from the Latin vitalis, “life”), of the chaplaincy at CWA.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from University Place