Religion
Religion
The Religion curriculum at SEA is intended to awaken the students to the spiritual dimension of life, acquaint them with the similarities and differences among various religious traditions, and serve as a primary venue for encouraging the Christian values which are a central component of SEA’s mission.
Each student attends Religion class once every week as part of the enrichment program. Although expressly Christian in nature, the course excludes no one. The chaplain encourages questions about faith, how people relate to the Divine, and how spiritual awareness shapes behavior. Students learn basic stories from the Bible and ways to interact with them, stories from other traditions, and how to grow as spiritual people through hands-on activities including art, music, and drama, in addition to discussion.
Chapel
Our weekly Chapel service gives the school a common time to gather to celebrate God’s presence and love in our world and our lives. We do this in a way that is respectful to all denominations and faiths through a liturgy loosely based on the Episcopal service of Morning Prayer, led by Father Steve Clifton, SEA Chaplain. Beginning by singing “This is the Day” and ending with the SEA school song “One in Love,” our Chapel service emphasizes God’s love and our responsibility to one another through music, prayers, and a chapel talk.
Chapel services are primarily for the students, so we encourage and support as much student participation as possible during each gathering. In the upper grades students take on the responsibilities of leading prayers or songs, serving as acolytes, and reading passages from the Bible. The goal is to make Chapel services lively and fun, in honor of the God of joy!
Chapel time is also an opportunity to celebrate the life of our SEA community. Each week, students who have been “caught being kind” receive Rainbow Awards, SEA’s way of honoring those students who best exemplify “the Kind Zone” in action. Rainbow Award students receive a special ribbon to wear all day as a mark of their “kindness achievement” to other members of our community.
Finally, during our gathering we remember and give thanks for the benefits of living in the United States by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing a patriotic song.
Chapel time, in other words, is our weekly gathering to acknowledge our membership in the human family under God, our national identity as Americans, and our participation in the “Kind Zone,” the SEA community.
