St. Christopher’s School, Richmond, Virginia, was founded in 1911 by the Reverend Dr. Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, the University of Virginia, Bachelor of Divinity, Virginia Theological Seminary, M.A. and PhD, the University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.
St. Christopher’s was established as a Christian School with the intention of providing a liberal arts, education to elementary and secondary level boys. The aim was to train young men as followers of the way of Christ in mind, body, and spirit with the Christian faith motivating its work, informing its teaching and discipline.
Since 1919, St. Christopher’s School has been owned and operated by “Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia Inc.” , the educational arm of the (Episcopal) Diocese of Virginia. In the intervening years since 1919, albeit incrementally, the Episcopal Church has fallen very far from grace. The denomination today is apostate and unbiblical, teaching, acceptance of abortion; gender neutral marriage; ordination of homosexual bishops and pastors; that homosexuality is not a sin; that homosexual activism and behavior is to be supported and promoted and those who speak out against it are branded as homophobic. Herein is the problem.
To celebrate “gay pride month” this year, an Instagram message was sent out by St. Christopher’s to all middle and upper school boys (see attached) to show solidarity with the “gay and lesbian cause/agenda.” This message had the St. Christopher’s logo and the gay flag together. This fits hand and glove with the school’s projected reset through Momentum 2025, a strategy to “create a more diverse St. Christopher’s and eliminate root systems of inequity.”
Under the guise of diversity, inclusion and tolerance, St. Christopher’s has abandoned their roots and the founding principles of Dr. Chamberlayne. They are no longer a Christian school, but a “church school” that embraces and promotes the morally corrupt social and religious agenda of the Episcopal Church.
In the wake of this madness has been created a serious moral dilemma. The school trumpets the fact that they are, “educating boys for life” when, in fact, they are miseducating boys for life. They are not protecting the innocent minds entrusted to them to be shaped. Promoting homosexuality and the gay agenda to boys and young men is harmful to the social welfare of our children and amounts to child abuse. It is an insane and evil message. While everyone would like to ignore it, a growing sexual corruption coalition is aggressively pursuing children in schools, libraries and other areas. It would be instructive for St. Christopher’s to re-visit the school motto (Proverbs 9:10) as well as Matthew 18:5-6 as they proceed with “educating boys for life.”
Proverbs 9:10 The fear (knowledge) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Matthew 18: 5-6 Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
The Bottom line:
In no particular order, this is what I believe is coming to St. Christopher’s School in the next few years as Momentum 2025 unfolds.
- Tuition rates, which currently are between $17,525 and $29,975, will continue to escalate.
- A Christian education is not now a priority, nor will it be emphasized in the future.
- The school will continue to violate its stated principles in favor of embracing current and ever changing cultural norms.
- Critical Race Theory (CRT) will be incorporated into the curriculum.
- Indoctrination will prevail over education in many social as well as academic areas.
- Equity (guaranteed outcome), over equality (guaranteed opportunity), will be emphasized.
- Meritocracy will come to be questioned.
- Boys will become “awakened” to, and taught to speak, the preferred, ever evolving, language of inclusion.
- Parents, faculty, and students, will be made suspect and shamed for dissenting to any of the strictures and changes propagated by Momentum 2025.
- Parents and students will be taught the social benefits of giving up ambition and yielding positions earned through hard work to others who are marginalized.
- Parents and students will have an expensive private school no different from all the rest.
- Character development will become “old school.”
- A “social report card” will be established for each boy. In addition to academic requirements, an “acceptable” score on this report card will be required to graduate in good standing.
- The dress code will be changed or abolished because it is viewed as too judgmental and too white. An “anything goes” dress code will be adopted.
- There will be a concerted effort put forward to emphasize and “partner” with other world religions and any subsets thereof.
- The curriculum will be gradually changed and re-shaped in the lower, middle, and upper schools to de-emphasize and re-interpret our Judeo-Christian heritage, the history of western civilization, and American history. In order to accomplish this, elements of political correctness, affirmative action, multiculturalism, CRT, the 1619 Project, systemic racism, as well as various and sundry social action programs will be used.
- Admissions and academic standards will be lowered to allow acceptance and pass through for unqualified students.
- Financial aid will be re-framed to give more scholarship assistance to lesser qualified students.
- Foreign language requirements will be lowered or abolished.
- The gay and lesbian agenda will be incorporated in the life of the school and throughout the curriculum.
Final thoughts and a cautionary tale:
Parents, teachers, students, alumni, and friends of St. Christopher’s must shed their normalcy bias and insist upon being fully informed about “how we get there” as detailed in the glossy publication mailed out by the school about Momentum 2025. Specifics are not provided. Dig deeper for the facts. Talk to board members, friends, and administrators to understand the truth about the coming reset of the school which is Momentum 2025.
What is the goal and end game of all of this? After fully implementing Momentum 2025, St. Christopher’s can begin an aggressive marketing campaign to sell themselves to all comers. They will have become a corporate commodity with the very real possibility that they might just price themselves right out of the market morally, spiritually, and financially.
I cannot help but think about the many good and true, morally honest, wise, Christian scholars, past and present, who put the school together, made it work, and labored their entire lives to place St. Christopher’s in the forefront of exceptional schools in Richmond, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation. Unfortunately we are on the verge of seeing the school dismembered from within, recalibrated, re-imaged, dumbed down, and destroyed.
Is there anyone left who will stand under the pines and rally for St. Christopher, Dr. Chamberlayne, and “for all the saints who from their labors rest.”?
John L. Morgan III
St. Christopher’s School, Class of 1965