You may have seen students in a bright purple polo walking around campus. These students, the members of the school vestry, have been a part of the school community for years, but this year, the club has taken a more involved role in student life.
Led by Dr. Mary Ellen Cassini, the school chaplain, the vestry are religious leaders of the PTS community and are responsible for the religious portion of our weekly chapels.
“As you know, from the situation of the world, the interfaith workings need to get stronger. We need to see our similarities rather than our differences,” Cassini said. “I needed a lot of help with chapel because chapel is not about the chaplain’s chapel. It’s everybody’s chapel.”
Because Vestry is a student-led club made up of 11 juniors and seniors, its members hope that other students can better identify with its message, Limsang said.
“Vestry is important because I think it helps get students engaged with chapel,” senior Kayliah Limsang said. “Not just people who are in Vestry but the students who are watching us as well because we set an example.”
Vestry is more than just the people that put chapel together. The goal of vestry is to create religious appreciation and an interest in learning about and accepting different religions than one’s own.
“I think what we just witnessed in the Holy Land [is] very sad [because] people’s religion have made them hate each other just because of their religion,” Cassini said. “It’s important for us to respect each other’s religions and to be able to have conversations and to figure out our similarities and not focus on the differences but also here at school to be able to realize what is sacred.”
Vestry hopes to set an example for religious appreciation and how in a time of religious conflict, the importance to love and admire one another, Limsang said.
“I’m an Episcopal priest married to a very devout Roman Catholic who goes to church every day and teaches our CIA and we have a Jewish grandson, so we ourselves [need to live with] interfaith acceptance and love,” Cassini said.
