Water and Community

We each are made mostly of water. We each depend on water for our life. Water binds all humans together across the world. We are shaped of water and sustained by its grace. Water binds us beyond borders, beyond differences. It does not ask who we are, nor measure our worth by wealth or poverty, skin colour, sexual orientation, faith, or spirituality. No matter who we are or where we come from, we all rely on water in the same way.

 

I am excited to listen to one another’s stories in Chapel this year and honour one another’s identities. In this process, we create belonging together.

 

In just a bit I will ask the Heads of Houses to come up to the front with their pitchers of water collected in their Houses. They will each pour a small amount of water into this font. This font lives in the Chapel, and through this year, these collective waters of our community will be held here. This vessel holds – and represents – how we have come together as a community, each from our own lives and now into the river of Shawnigan. 

 

My experience of Shawnigan is that it is like a river that sometimes can flow mighty fast. If you are able to trust that you’re supported by those journeying alongside you, your time here will be very fulfilling. Ms. Emily Coolidge, the Heimbecker Inspiration Chair for Experiential Education, passed along a definition of a river that she recently came across as "a gathering towards the sea.” This seems to also define Chapel. A gathering towards the sea.

 

Today we blend the waters that each has brought, as we gather in chapel to create shared meaning, and a culture of inclusion, and care, in this community. In this water, we are reminded of the wellsprings of our homelands, our cultures, our languages, and our values that flow to us from those who came before. So, we inherit these communal values, and we add them to this collective vessel. May we each serve as separate streams flowing into one river, adding to the waters of ever-growing love here at Shawnigan.