Upper School students and faculty were asked to enter and leave Chapel on November 17th in silence to honor the innocent victims who died in the Paris Attacks on Friday, November 13th.
Three speakers, member and teacher in the history and religion departments Dr. Topher Row, and Upper School French teachers Marc Eripret and Christele Furey, spoke in the service.
Addressing “the nature of evil” in the impersonal act of murder, Dr. Row delivered a sermon that was delivered on the Sunday after 9/11 that echoes this sentiment.
“The destroyers destroyed themselves to destroy….it is the very nature of evil. Evil results in wounds. We are all wounded. We are all shocked. We are all confused. Evil is always personal,” stated Row who continued to say that “Nobody was targeted so everyone was targeted [because] Evil does not discriminate. It destroys.”
“I’m very angry,” Marc Eripret stated outright on the Chapel altar. He claimed to “feel useless and powerless [with] so many thoughts in [his head].”
Eripret began to ask a series of rhetorical questions regarding foreign policy issues with France and Syria especially with the possible arrival of immigrants and thus a potential threat of hidden Jihadists.
However, he left a very thought-provoking question for last when he asked, “Should my security be more important than my civil liberties?”
After a brief pause he answered this question and the preceding questions before it by saying, “I don’t know…that’s why I’m angry.”
Eripret left an impressionable lesson with the Upper School students and faculty that they “need to be careful with how we deal with anger, [for] wrath is the heart of the foolish.”
Last to speak, Christele Furey admitted that upon hearing the tragic news she first thought of her family members whom she found out were all fortunately unharmed. However, a friend of one of her relatives was shot dead during the chaos. With this, Furey regretfully announced that many of the victims in Paris were young and she has “grief for these young lives.”
She is angry that the terrorists committed hateful acts “in the name of God.”
Nevertheless, Furey encouraged those attending Chapel to not “let ISIS…plant their banner and venemous flag on our hearts and souls. If we hate them, they will be victorious. We must open the gates.”
She further encouraged to not only mourn the lives in France but also the lost lives in Egypt, Lebanon, and other countries that are terrorized by ISIS.
The ending hymn was the French National Anthem which was sung by several students and faculty.
Modeling a similar tribute to that of the White House, the French flag will be displayed in the front of the Chapel and the American flag will be at half mast until Thursday.
