Working together to help children learn and grow in a complex world
CANTERBURY BLOG
Mar. 3, 2021
The Canterbury School Prayer
By Canterbury School
Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, Canterbury students and faculty pause for a brief chapel service to pray, listen, and reflect on the things and relationships that matter most in their lives. Each service concludes with our community joining together in saying the words of the Canterbury School Prayer.
This prayer is still just as resonant and meaningful as it was when it was written at Canterbury’s founding 28 years ago. It reminds students of the learning awaiting each of them in our classrooms; of their responsibility to love and serve others; and of the importance of being their own unique, best selves.
Take a moment to look between the lines with us to see how this prayer guides our special Canterbury School experience. Click here or on the image at the right to hear the prayer spoken by our students.Take into your hands, O Lord, Canterbury School and bless each member of it.
Make it a place after your own heart.
As an Episcopal school, we are mindful of the presence of something greater than ourselves. We invite all members of our community to seek clarity about their own deepest beliefs and to honor their convictions, whatever they may be, more fully and faithfully in their own lives.
Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn.
We cherish the life of the mind. Ours is a faith that seeks understanding. We are eager to question and to explore the most fundamental questions in life.
Forgive us for the things that we have done wrong,
We encourage students to take responsibility for their mistakes and also to understand that learning from mistakes is how we grow. We are all works in progress, and Canterbury is a safe place for taking risks.
And help us to treat others as we want to be treated.
Kindness, inclusivity, and empathy for others are key among the values that students learn to embrace in the classrooms, the chapel, and on the playing fields.
Help us to grow in grace and become who you have created us to be.
Each Canterbury student is known and loved for the complex human beings they are and nurtured in mind, body, and spirit to reach their own full potential.
Give us a true desire to learn, to love, to serve, and to live,
We believe that learning, loving, and serving are all essential parts of a meaningful life. More than any other single lesson, our alumni take this phrase with them into the world after graduating and return to it as they shape their adult lives.
So that we may grow to serve others the world over.
Our students are cultivated to be servant leaders who use their time, talent, and resources to better everything they touch, during their time at Canterbury and throughout their lives. Through service, our students discover not only that they can change the world, but that their service and those they serve change them for the better, as well.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Canterbury School Prayer resonates with each of us in different ways. We encourage current and prospective parents to consider how it reflects the qualities your family is seeking in your school home.
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