Religious Change

As Episcopal High School evolved, Religion, while a key factor in the founding of the school, and never a nonexistent part of student life, found its role waning. During the first half of the century, the religious requirements consisted of a daily chapel, twice daily prayer, and morning and evening Sunday service. By the 1950s, this devolved into just a daily required chapel and an evening Sunday service. By the late 2010s, this chapel was reduced to thrice weekly, with the monthly Vespers service to replace required Sunday service, which migrated to the "optional" category. Additionally, students no longer are expected to be of the Episcopalian faith at EHS, something drastically different from the early days of the school. This is reflected in the mission statement of the School, which in the early 1900s states a school goal of "raising good Christians," a goal that persists up through the late 1970s. This growing trend, shying away from strong religious ties, is not one that was only seen at Episcopal. Latin, a required language for every student at the beginning of the 1900s, becomes optional by the time the late 1960's roles around. In 1968, only a foreign language was required, as opposed to strictly Latin. The lack of a Latin requirement reflects the waning of Christianity as such a strict discipline. A large reason for Latin becoming such an integral language in school was because it is the language of the Bible, and it was believed that the only proper way to read the Bible was in Latin. By no longer requiring Latin, it shows that Episcopal has accepted the vernacular version of the Bible in full, decrying some of the longstanding rigidity of the Church. [1]

1 Marshall, J. C. Douglas. "THE CLASSICS IN AMERICAN EDUCATION." The Classical Outlook 53, no. 8 (1976): 88-90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43937196.