Installing a new High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony
By: David Schieler, Education Curriculum Specialist (Minnesota State, 2015)
Over the course of the last 103 years Lambda Chi Alpha has installed some estimated 15,000 High Zeta’s at over 300 different campuses across North America. These installations have of course changed slightly with time, but all have occurred under the ceremonious eye of Samuel Dyer and the Officer Installation Ceremony he wrote in the Spring of 1913.
This fall as we prepare to usher in the newest generation of Lambda Chi Alpha undergraduate officers we do so under a revised High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony developed by the Committee on Emblems and Ritual and its High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony task force. This task force was chaired by recent undergraduate Luke Dinkel (Kansas State, 2015) who described the group’s efforts as intentional and wanting to preserve the heritage of the previous ceremony while bringing greater symbolism to the updated ceremony. Other members of the CER task force were Quinn Anglada, (Louisiana-Lafayette, 2018), Chris Buck (Ball State, 2013), Carter Lee (Arkansas State, 2016) and Grand High Phi David Huffine (North Carolina-Greensboro, 1984).
The task force worked for two years with effort that can only be summarized by the open motto “Xalepa Ta Kala,” Naught without Labor. Their efforts brought as many voices into the process as possible and included piloting at Stead 2015 as well as at six chapters during the 2015-2016 election cycle (Iota-Alpha, Ball State; Sigma, Michigan; Lambda-Delta, Minnesota State; Alpha-Gamma, South Dakota; Pi-Tau, Virginia Commonwealth; and Pi-Delta, Wilmington College). The ceremony retains much of the sequence and oath from the 1913 Officer Installation Ceremony, weaves together elements of knighting, officer transition and teamwork, expands understanding of our lion and white rose, and reintroduces phrasing from Theta Kappa Nu’s officer ceremony. Of particular interest, it includes a charge taken from King René d’Angou’s 14th Century Knighting Ceremony for his Order of the Crescent, as discovered and translated from Old French by our spiritual founder Jack Mason.
The product is something Samuel Dyer, himself, would be proud of. Samuel Dyer was called to pen the original ceremony as one of the three members of the first Committee on Emblems and Ritual established at the 1913 2nd General Assembly held in Worcester, Massachusetts. Of course, this is the same committee that, under the leadership of Jack Mason, undertook the redrafting of the Initiation Ritual and produced what has become known as the modern Initiation Ritual, forgoing much of the “Cole Ritual.” With such a heavy workload, the Officer Installation Ceremony was given to Samuel Dyer who was known as the gentle workhorse amongst the early founders.
The final symbolic act then of transitioning to the new High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony was to commission the High Zeta of Samuel Dyer’s initiating chapter, Beta Zeta at the University of Maine, likely the first chapter to use the original officer ceremony. On Saturday, September 17, 2016 Beta Zeta commissioned its High Zeta under the new ceremony. Beta Zeta High Alpha Nick Maynard commented on the new ceremony saying,
“Although it’s tough to see our founding father’s ceremony put to rest, I think it’s great to see that we are always achieving to be the best that we can be. [The new ceremony] certainly showed the chapter how serious it is for an incoming officer to take up a new role.”
The ceremony is no longer conducted entirely by the High Pi, but now also includes significant roles by the incoming and outgoing High Alphas and the incoming High Beta, as well as brief lines by each outgoing officer. It should be allotted about 15-20 minutes in total. There are special cases within the revised script that explains how to conduct the ceremony when officers are re-elected, or not present for the ceremony. Parents, friends, faculty, staff, and campus Greek community members should be invited to the ceremony to bring greater honor to the Fraternity and the service of its officers.
The High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony was approved for chapter and colony use by Grand High Zeta vote on August 4, 2016. The Committee on Emblems and Ritual and its special Task Force are thanked for their efforts. However, our greatest form of thanks we can give our brothers is by appropriately hosting the new High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony this fall and for many years to come.
The ceremony is included in an updated version of the Open Ceremonies Guide which can be found at the link below.
If there are any questions regarding the updated Open Ceremonies Guide or the High Zeta Commissioning Ceremony, please contact programming@lambdachi.org.
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