Grace Church, 2009 Graduation speech

The Choir Experience at Grace Church…

Third Story. Last I want to tell you about a part of Grace that we certainly never expected to get to know: The Choir. Everyone knows that Grace started out as a choristers’ school, but most people also know the only thing they think they need to know about the choir – namely, you have to get to school at the crack of dawn! Well, that wasn't working for us.

But lo and behold, the kids wanted to join the choir. You know why – yes? All the kids know this: being a Grace Church chorister is the youngest paid position available on the island of Manhattan! Even a kid needs a job these days. So join, they did, and it was not long before choir over-ran our lives. This was like a lot of GCS sports and activities – sound familiar? Well, we became hard-core choir groupies.

Actually, there’s a whole Haight-Ashbury metaphor for the choir. The choir is exactly like The Grateful Dead. Choir parents are roadies – wandering around, totally obsessed, never sleeping. Dr. Allen is Jerry Garcia – ultimate Zen. And, of course, the choir, like The Dead, tours worldwide: Bristol, Amsterdam and, next year, Rome. I know that many of you have been on choir trips or school trips, so you know how crazy those trips can be. All I have to say to you folks going to Rome next year is “WHAT HAPPENS IN ROME STAYS IN ROME". And for your sake, boy, I hope I am JOKING!

Ultimately, choir became an opportunity for the children to grow and lead and an opportunity for our family to give back to Grace a small part of what it had given to us. Perhaps most mysteriously of all, through a re-kindling of our commitment to our Christian tradition, we opened ourselves up to a greater embrace for all faiths and regard for others in this global community that we all inhabit today in 2009.

And through this experience of Grace, we knew that we had found a place that truly invited us to give ourselves to it with all of our hearts."

From Jan Ford, Talk given at Graduation, June 2009 Grace Church School