This year we celebrated our first annual Eighth Grade Ringing Forth. In this ceremony the eighth graders walked beneath our bell as Mr. Allen read their names and Mr. Yniguez rang the bell in their honor. The following is a slightly expanded version of my address to the upcoming class of 2030, to celebrate and bless these students and their accomplishments and to thank the parents and teachers who helped them on the way.  

This year alone the eighth grade students have pondered over the works of Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkien, and Lao Tzu, among others. They have peered into the mysteries of physical science and studied early modern history. Most have completed three years of middle school Latin and Ancient Greek. Many participated in school sports: volleyball, basketball, baseball, track, cross country, and golf and even joined this year’s musical, The Sound of Music. Many have participated in the fine arts in art classes, choir, and music lessons. I have been overhearing some of their choir practices; I think their beautiful voices may have made you cry last Friday at the concert. They have befriended and helped younger students. There is much to be proud of. 

But when I think of these students, I think about the community they have made together and I think back to sixth grade.  

Students begin their first Introduction to Great Books class in sixth grade and their very first books are A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle. It is a tradition in middle school to focus some of their Great Books discussions and the 6th grade retreat on the concept of being a “Namer.” According to L’Engle, “A Namer has to know who people are, and who they are meant to be.”  In her stories the act of naming people is a way of loving them and helping them become the people they are meant to be. It is a way of fighting against loneliness and to call out what is good in others. At the sixth grade retreat, Mr. Allen and Mr. Peters called out these students each by name and encouraged them to be a community of Namers. 

This concept also reminds me of what God did in creation and how he transforms Christians by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

In the beginning, God’s word, God’s naming created our world. Because of God’s mercy granted to Christians through faith in Jesus Christ, God proclaims a new relationship and identity for his people. The apostle Paul quotes from Hosea: 

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.
And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’,  
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Romans 9:25-26

When this amazing transformation has happened, God calls us to freedom and to use our freedom to serve one another through love (Galatians 5:13).

When I see this eighth-grade class, I often see them loving and serving one another. I pray that you continue this way as you go to the adventure of high school: to go on to name and to love and to call out the good in others in your communities. 

Today we name them again for one last time before they go on to upper school across the street or to a new high school community. 

Thank you parents for loving and supporting your children from the first day they became yours.  

Thank you teachers for giving of your time, your talents, and your love. 

Thank you students for your humility, hard work, and for the love you have shared in this community.