On Wednesday, the famous Corinthians Morning Exercise–the year-opener since Parker’s founding in 1901–became a little less focused on Corinthians.

As tradition dictates, in addition to the sing-alongs and house-constructing, a member of the faculty reads Corinthians 12:14-26, a New Testament passage which uses the body as a metaphor to describe how every individual is important to and valued by the community as a whole. This year, after Upper School Head Justin Brandon delivered the Corinthians portion, two new quotes were introduced in the MX when music department Co-Chair Kingsley Tang read from the eleventh chapter of the classic Chinese text Tao Te Ching, and SK teacher Kirkland La Rue read the words of South African Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The purpose of adding quotes from other cultures was to make the MX more inclusive, according to Tang. “We’re starting the school year with a Bible quote, and if that’s the only quote, it may unintentionally express a level of Christocentrism, the idea that Christianity is the most important religion,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with exploring Christianity or the Bible, but other voices need to be a part of it.”

A group of teachers, including Tang and La Rue, generated the idea after attending the Equity and Inclusion Institute held at the Nueva School in California this August. There they were prompted to consider the unintended messages Parker conveys to the community, leading them to a discussion on the Corinthians MX.

“The concept of the Corinthians quote is interconnectivity, which we think is very important,” Tang said, “but we don’t want to express that Christianity is the only faith with this value.”

According to Tang, when he asked other teachers if they knew any quotes that had a similar meaning to the Corinthians passage, music teacher Rob Denien suggested Desmond Tutu’s and seventh grade English teacher Kate Tabor recommended the chapter from Tao Te Ching. Then, Tang and La Rue sent an email to the administration voicing their request to expand the scope of the MX, receiving an “enthusiastic” yes from Principal Dan Frank just minutes later.

“I believe that this is a necessary step in a school that claims to be as diverse and culturally varied as Parker,” sophomore Claire Levin said. “I do feel, however, that more groups should be represented, as the two that were added to the MX only celebrated a portion of the people at Parker.”

In the future, Tang said, he would like to incorporate quotes from other cultures into the MX, whether that means rotating within a set of quotes each year or reading more shorter ones. He said, “We’re looking to continue to make these changes to make the tradition relevant and more meaningful.”