Special guest Bishop Michael Curry and others visited campus, spreading a message of unity and love.

Inspired by the life of The Rev. Dr. King to continue forwarding the St. Stephen’s school mission and commitment to honoring and respecting the dignity of all humans, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is traditionally a day "on" for St. Stephen's students, faculty and staff. The entire community spent the day on campus engaging in active participation and programming centered on this year's theme: Unity Through Love.

During the school’s banner 75th anniversary celebration, the Rt. Rev Bishop Michael Bruce Curry, who served as the presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church was invited as the event’s keynote speaker, which began with a Sunday night reception and fireside-style conversation with television host, Professor of Practice and former Texas Tribune Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith.

The one-hour talk focused on present day religion versus spirituality and its place in the current state of world affairs and events, a Christian’s responsibility to respond and react to the moment and how generations have participated and distanced themselves from the institution of church. Bishop Curry described Christianity as a Jesus movement that experiences ebbs and flows.

“Albert Nolan, who was a South African theologian once said in one of his books that Jesus didn’t actually begin an institution, he began a movement and it was a movement that centered teachings on his life and what he taught and how he lived and that movement grew over time. And then, had institutional embodiment — and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. It's just how things evolve, and the truth is, if you look at the history of Christianity, you'll see that Christianity has been institutional. It has been organized,” said Curry.

On Monday, Dr. King’s birthday, Bishop Curry returned to campus and joined in student activities and programming which included small groups, energetic and joyful musical performances by the Christopher Spivey & Co. gospel choir, and a rhythmic and compelling dance performance by the RushTopFish dancers, an alumni panel and Bishop Curry’s ‘A Case for Love’ chapel message. His charge to the St. Stephen’s community and to the world is to love God, love your neighbor and love yourself. 

“I really enjoyed the talk from Bishop Curry,” said Sydney Train ’31, Middle School Chapel Leadership Team member. “It was very inspiring and I learned a lot about love and God. Bishop Curry was also very funny, too.”

The day’s activities also included an alumni panel with alums who were students during desegregation in the 1960s. Students heard from Clarke Heidrick ’68 and John McFarland ’68, who started the St. Stephen’s MLK Scholarship, along with MLK Scholarship recipients and brothers Rudy Green ’71 and Ricky Green ’86. Moderated by Marsha Elliott, director of equity and inclusion, the four men stepped back in time to talk about the emotions they felt and the school’s atmosphere when the first Black students were admitted to St. Stephen’s.

“It seemed natural to me when I came here that we would have an authentic community,” said John McFarland ’68. “Greg Hicks was a personal friend of mine. We attended Yale together and it just seemed like it was perfectly correct that we should have people on campus of all colors. I read an article sometime that stuck in my head that that wasn't necessarily the case with other Episcopal schools across the country. And in some schools it was really tough to integrate. And when the church decided that these schools needed to integrate, it was resisted in a lot of places, especially in the South, but I did not experience that here. That speaks volumes to the history of our school, specifically. I didn't realize that other Episcopal schools weren't necessarily on that same journey of integration like we were.”

“My family did not choose St. Stephen’s. St. Stephen’s chose me,” said Rudy Green ’71. “I had never heard of St. Stephen’s until about two months before I enrolled as a student. This was 1968, a very, very turbulent time. I mean, we talked about the assassination of Martin Luther King, but within two months or about two months thereafter, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. And in the Black community, the Kennedy family was a beacon of hope just as Martin Luther King. So, it was a rough time. Until the time I came to St. Stephen’s, I went to all segregated schools. I never went to school with any white kids until I came to St. Stephen’s as a 10th grader in 1968. What happened, I guess, as a result of the efforts of the students and faculty here to create the Martin Luther King scholarship, they were looking for someone to give it to. And as it turned out, I was that person.”

The day ended with reflections and discussions about Bishop Curry’s chapel talk.

In his closing remarks to Middle School students, Middle School Athletic Director Dustin Armstrong said, “Today wasn't just about listening. It was about participating in conversations and music and movement and stories and each other. What we experienced today all pointed to one powerful idea that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in Bishop Curry’s name so clearly. Love is not soft and it is not passive. Love is a choice and it's working. We saw love expressed in many ways today: in words, through stories and reflection, and sound through music that brought us together in movement, through dance — that reminded us how our bodies can speak without even saying a word. And in history, through alumni who showed us that love has been practiced here long before us, and how now it's our turn to carry it forward.”

Click the direct links below to watch full recordings of the guest speakers on the St. Stephen’s YouTube channel.

A Conversation with Bishop Curry and Evan Smith
Bishop Curry Upper School Chapel Talk
MLK Scholarship Panel