For Humanities Teacher Beth Little, the classroom is just the first of many ways to connect with her students.
March 20, 2025
For SPS Dean of Chapel and Spiritual Life Rev. Charles Wynder Jr., the School’s chapel program is about inviting students to make meaning of the world, their time at St. Paul’s School and their life’s journeys.
BY KRISTIN DUISBERG
Dean of Chapel and Spiritual Life the Rev. Charles Wynder Jr. has a favorite quote that he often shares with members of the St. Paul’s School community: “What you will be you are now becoming.” It’s an idea that Wynder grew up with, and one that he finds particularly resonant working with high school students who are as busy with the work of exploration and discovery as they are with their classes, clubs, athletics and artistic endeavors. “Holding space for students … to grapple with the large questions — ‘Who am I? Why am I here? How am I called to live in relationship with others? What is the meaning of the life I am living?’ — and doing it in a way in which we foster an environment of welcome and inclusion for people of all faiths, and no faiths, while being grounded in our Episcopal tradition, these are among the things I find most deeply rewarding about my work at St. Paul’s School,” he says.
A Truman Scholar and four-year member of the Army ROTC at Syracuse University who went on to earn his law degree from the University of Michigan, Wynder came to SPS in 2020 from a position on the Presiding Bishop’s staff of the Episcopal Church and as Priest-in-Charge of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. He lives on the grounds with his wife, Bethany Dickerson Wynder, the School’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and their son, Chase. He says that the opportunity to have an impact on the lives of students and his fellow faculty members while living in a community where Chase can grow up surrounded by other children who help him make meaning of his own life is something that brings him joy every day.
As both a chaplain and a humanities teacher — he holds the Charles Dickey Faculty Chair for Religion and Ethics and teaches classes on topics related to religion, ethics and law — Wynder sees a direct connection between the School’s Episcopal roots, its modern identity of Becoming Beloved Community where all identities, perspectives and beliefs are welcomed and embraced, and students’ own work to grow their perspective, empathy and understanding.
As both a chaplain and a humanities teacher … Wynder sees a direct connection between the School’s Episcopal roots, its modern identity as a Beloved Community … and students’ own work to grow their perspective, empathy and understanding.
“There is a plaque outside our chapel door that says, ‘All Are Welcome,’” Wynder says. “The communal exercise of meaning-making that we undertake four days a week in chapel, with additional opportunities for students to attend services at Temple Beth Jacob or the Catholic Church, the local nondenominational church, or the local congregations of the Orthodox tradition, are things we foster, and do with and for, our students and faculty. … not in spite of being an Episcopal school, but rather because we are an Episcopal School. We provide School-approved and supported ways for students to learn how to love others who are like them and are different from them. Each religion teaches, preaches and promotes compassion, kindness, joy and respect for humanity.”
Wynder notes that another important way that chapel helps students grow intellectually is through frequent visits from alumni and outside guests who share personal perspectives on issues and events that affect the community and the world. In the past year alone, those guests have included international journalists and poets, scholars, theologians and faith leaders, military veterans, a former U.S. Ambassador and a retired four-star Admiral. It is through these visits and the conversations in classes and elsewhere that follow, Wynder says, that “we collectively [make] meaning of an invitation to be bold, embrace the diversity of our school, participate in our democracy and be bridge-makers in our communities and in the world. … It is in promoting faith and reason that we equip students with a foundation for understanding what it means to be human.”
Five years into his time at St. Paul’s School and several decades into a career of public and spiritual service and teaching, Wynder says that he, too, remains engaged in the work of becoming … every day. “It’s about recognizing that you are constantly becoming — to work and learn, to love and find joy,” he says.
