26.01.2016
Pioneering the Education of Women – Alexandra College Begins 150th Anniversary Celebrations
A year of celebration marking the 150th anniversary of Alexandra College, Dublin, began yesterday evening (January 21) with a special service in Christ Church Cathedral. The cathedral was filled with past and present students, staff, parents and friends of the Milltown school. The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson presided while the Bishop of Copenhagen, the Right Revd Peter Skov–Jackobsen preached.
Alexandra College was founded in 1866 by educationalist Anne Jellicoe and was the first college in Ireland to provide a university type education for women. It was named after Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
Introducing the service the principal of Alexandra College, Barbara Ennis, said they were celebrating the 150th anniversary of an institution that paved the way for the education of women in Ireland. She paid tribute to the bravery of Anne Jellicoe in setting up an educational facility for women at a time when it was considered that bonnets and brains were not compatible.
“She was an enabler of women. She afforded them the opportunity to move forward and the opportunity of education. What began on 11 October 1866 was the beginning of a movement that we cannot forget today,” Ms Ennis stated.
The present day school has an incredible atmosphere, the principal stated. She said it has a great energy, a sense of fun and of enjoying learning. Innovation is at the core of the school’s teaching and the students do well academically. But the focus is also on the person and she praised the relationships between students and their teachers.
“We encourage the students to be free, to have a voice, to lead. We provide opportunities for them to be the best that they can be and make their contribution to society in whatever way that may turn out to be. We want them to know that their lives matter and what they do counts,” Ms Ennis said.
Haili ng from the birthplace of Princess Alexandra, Bishop Skov–Jackobsen, observed that they were celebrating the education of women. He said that in founding Alexandra College, Anne Jellicoe was ensuring that women could be part of future society but also sought to focus on the whole human being.
He related Alexandra College’s pioneering education of women to the story of Mary Magdalene who arriving at Jesus’ tomb found his body missing. The angel told her to go and tell the disciples and she was confused and uncertain. “It is this love, uncertainty, doubt, confusion in which Christianity has its roots. We have had 2,000 years in which to get used to this. We frame the events with words but the words don’t always express the mystery,” he said. “In 1866 I am sure that that the founding mothers of Alexandra College had an idea of what happened 2,000 years ago. They will have known the story of Mary Magdalene. They were aware of the scandal of the Gospel of John in which a woman brought the news of Jesus’ resurrection to the disciples.”
The Bishop encouraged the congregation to do as Mary Magdalene did – to be baffled and to weep and laugh in exaltation. He said this was important as we live in worrying times, scared of terror and war, hatred and politics, extremists with no compassion.
Past pupil and chairperson of the London branch of the alumnae, Eva Bangle, spoke of her days in Alexandra College in the 1960s and the educational and personal opportunities that she grasped with both hands. Current head girl, Julie Ryan, spoke of today’s school community which allows each student to flourish. She said that the ethos of the school remained the same as when it was founded by Anne Jellicoe.
Archbishop Jackson brought the service to a close saying that in a world of flux, the sense of stability at the heart of the story of Alexandra College was a gift. He thanked the principal for drawing the community together to mark the start of the 150th anniversary year and the pupils who contributed to the evening. He also thanked the cathedral for accommodating the service, the Precentor, Canon Neil McEndoo, and Bishop Skov–Jackobsen for preaching and giving a tangible connection with Copenhagen and the Royal family in Denmark.
Sermon at the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Alexandra College, Dublin
Preached by the Bishop of Copenhagen, the Right Revd Peter Skov–Jackobsen
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
January 21 2016.
Texts: Colossians 1,13–20; John 20,11–18
Truly, today we are celebrating a wonderful story of women’s education in Ireland and in the world. When Alexandra College was founded in 1866 very few people thought of the education of young women to prepare them for the engagement in public, social, cultural and political life. When Anne Jellicoe, the Quaker educationist, founded the College, she did it so that women could be a part of the future society and she provided the highest standards of knowledge within mathematics, history, classics and philosophy.
Although academic studies were the foundation stones of the college, there has always been a sincere wish to educate to life as it is – not only to the academic pursuit. Here the whole human being was being addressed and therefore sport, creative art and music were all in the curriculum because it was all about creating whole human beings who would never estrange themselves to the many walks of lives in society. Here it was always a part of the thinking that there was a duty to be done to society, some philanthropic and social work to be undertaken.
This College, Alexandra College, became a pioneering institution of the liberation of women in Ireland and on the British Isles. Students from this college entered the universities when that was allowed for women in the late 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century.
I wonder what people thought when Dr Henrietta Margaret White, a suffragist educationalist who was known to advocate women’s educational rights, was appointed principal in 1890 (to 1932). I do hope that they experienced a fresh blow of freedom, of future. I do also hope that establishment felt a knock–back and got worried.
Today I would also like you to travel backwards in time together with me. It’s not my intention to set us back! I have absolutely no thoughts about the past being better than the present. I have no dreams of former times. I don’t feel any need to be grumpy about the youth and the future. As a matter of fact I very often feel more safe amongst youth because your hearts and minds are intact. I’m not an optimist. I very often find optimists rather cheerful creatures who haven’t had the intellectual stomach to face the problems of the world. Optimists, I find, often avoid seriousness with hollowness. But be not afraid, I’m not tumbling into grumpiness. I’m carrying forward hope and I suggest that we should be human beings of hope. We should be people carried forward by faith and trust.
Therefore I would like you to meet Mary Magdalene. I wonder how that story survived church history. I really wonder because so many men have had all sorts of misgivings of Mary Magdalene. According to John she went out to the tomb and was horrified. She was absolutely sure that somebody had stolen the body. You know! A stolen body – it would make most police stations busy! An angel was there at the beginning of the Christian story, history and narrative. Go and tell the disciples, the angel had told Mary Magdalene.
If you all think that everything was crystal clear from the beginning, be aware of Mary Magdalene. She was confused. She probably also was terrified of the fact that the body was missing. Did they really hate him that much – did they really hate his followers so much, that they would not even allow them a grave where they could mourn?
I love the confusion, the uncertainty, the ambiguity, the doubts in which Christian faith obviously has its roots.
Nowadays we speak of the resurrection as the most obvious thing. We don’t even allow this cosmic happening to make us feel just a little unrest. We have had 2000 years to get accustomed to the proclamation. It is as if we come running with all our dogma, all our faith language, all our orthodoxy and we frame the event with myriads of words but they don’t always try to express the mystery, the unknown and fabulous reality. No, we just fight it off with our pictures and words – it is as if we say: don’t touch me with your words and concepts and your dreams.
In 1866 I’m sure that quite a few of the founding mothers of Alexandra College had quite an idea of what had happened 1800 years earlier. They were capable of reading texts and I’m sure they noticed that it was Mary Magdalene who was sent to the disciples and they will have rejoiced, because they saw the scandal of the Gospel of John: a woman, Mary Magdalene, taught the males about the very center of Christian belief – she taught the mystery and they instantly knew that out of the confusion of Mary Magdalene, people would believe! She had been present at Calvary, she had wept, she had followed him, and she had never found anybody who really loved her as he did. She is so much out of her mind, so distressed in this scene that she can’t recognize Christ. He says her name and all of a sudden she sees him, recognizes him. “Rabbouni” she says.
Christ is not out of this world. He is present in this very world. He didn’t cover himself up. When we don’t recognize him, he sees us as we have been seen so often by those who love us. When we care for one another, it’s not always necessary to say anything, to make it clear what we mean. When you love somebody, you can tell from their way of walking, from the glimpse in their eyes, from the tone of the words, from the way the front door opens whether this is a good day or whether this has been one of those days surrounded by no less than disaster!
We have just been celebrating that God became human! The resurrection faith proclaims this humanness of God all the time. God did not stay on his heavenly throne. He became human and can be met in every human situation.
He is present at the wonderful confusion of our lives. Every search for truth begins with confusion and wanting to know more. Every truth is demanding a lot of questions from us all. No truth without inquiry. No truth without interpretation. No truth without ourselves being in doubt and searching for words. Truth is not a façade – it’s not a smokescreen for all sorts of statements.
Do as Mary Magdalene – allow yourselves to be baffled, to be out of yourselves – allow yourselves to weep and to laugh in exultation. Weep and laugh – do it! For heaven’s sake – do it!
Although, we live in a time of worry! We have to admit to being scared of terror, of war – scared by hatred! We are terrified of politics, of religions. We are petrified of fundamentalists whether they are of political, ideological or religious persuasion. Extremists all speak the same language and they have no idea of mercy, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance or kindness.
Sometimes the victims of evil speak the Gospel – they show passion for life – they remind us of the traditions around Jesus from Nazareth – they remind us of what Mary Magdalene taught the disciples and their followers, the church. When I saw this Facebook–update a month ago, I had a feeling that everything what we believe in was in the air. These are the traditions which came out of Jerusalem and were carried to us over Rome, Athens, Wittenberg. These are the words of a good society, of a good school, words of wisdom that are being carried forward i.e. traditions of Alexandra College. I want these words to be an expression of hope in a world haunted with anxiety. Listen to Antoine Leiris’ words a few days after his wife had been murdered in Paris and carry these words with the words of Mary Magdalene with you into the future:
“Friday night, you took an exceptional life –– the love of my life, the mother of my son –– but you will not have my hatred. I don’t know who you are and I don’t want to know, you are dead souls. If God, for whom you kill blindly, made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my wife is one more wound in his heart.
So, no, I will not grant you the gift of my hatred. You’re asking for it, but responding to hatred with anger is falling victim to the same ignorance that has made you what you are. You want me to be scared, to view my countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my liberty for my security. You lost.
I saw her this morning. Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago. Of course I am devastated by this pain, I give you this little victory, but the pain will be short–lived. I know that she will be with us every day and that we will find ourselves again in this paradise of free love to which you have no access.
We are just two, my son and me, but we are stronger than all the armies in the world. I don’t have any more time to devote to you, I have to join Melvil who is waking up from his nap. He is barely 17–months–old. He will eat his meals as usual, and then we are going to play as usual, and for his whole life this little boy will threaten you by being happy and free. Because no, you will not have his hatred either.”
Amen