Editing Regent's Park College, Oxford (section)

==Traditions==
[[File:Regent's Park Logo Lowest Res edited-1.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Regent's Park College, Oxford's coat of arms]]

===Motto===
The college motto is: {{lang|la|Omnia probate quod bonum tenete}}. It is taken from {{bibleverse|1|Thessalonians|5:21|KJV}}: "Test all things; hold fast to that which is good" (A.V.)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Payne |first=Ernest A. |date=January 1978 |title=Regent's Park College, Oxford: The First Half Century |journal=Baptist Quarterly |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=225-232}}</ref>

===Grace and Hall===

The college grace is recited in the vernacular by the principal and runs as follows: ''For the gifts of your grace and the community of this college, we praise your name, O God. Amen.'' At the end of the Formal Hall, the [[Senior Common Room]] depart after the principal has said the words "The grace and peace of God be with us all. Amen".{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In the early days of the college at Oxford, there was a Latin grace which was thought to be composed by Aubrey Argyle:
{{lang|la|Agimus Tibi gratias, Omnipotens Deus, pro his et universis donis Tuis quae de Tua largitate sumus sumturi, Per Jesum Christum, Dominum Nostrum. Amen}}. This was allegedly swiftly dropped as [[Henry Wheeler Robinson]], then principal, observed a strict 'no-Latin' policy in Hall – in the old days, offenders were thrown into a bath of cold water. It has also traditionally been the case that there is no [[Loyal Toast]] at college dinners. Around the turn of the millennium, the dean even remonstrated with guests from a different college to prevent the toast from being proposed.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

Unlike many other Oxford colleges, the same menu is served to all members of the college and there is no High Table apart from in formal halls. It also observes a tradition that grace is said at every meal, with students and dons alike standing behind their chairs until it has been said.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

===Valediction===

The principal ceremonial occasion in the college year is the Service of Valediction, which takes place on the afternoon of the last day of Full Term in Trinity (always a Saturday). The most important part of the ceremony is the signing of the register by members of the Junior and Middle Common Rooms whose periods of study have come to an end.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Valedictory Service 2019 {{!}} |url=https://www.rpc.ox.ac.uk/valedictory-service-2019/ |access-date=2025-04-10}}</ref>

===Other traditions===

A tradition from the nineteenth century, which is now somewhat forgotten (despite having been common even in the early years of the twenty-first century) was that first-year students of the college are called "monarchs" and their elder colleagues are known as "regents". This was to remind older students that they had a duty of care to the younger members, much as a regent has a duty of care to an infirm monarch (the metaphor appears to have been drawn from the regency of [[George IV]], after whom Regent's Park in London, the college's namesake, is named).<ref>Robert E. Cooper, ''From Stepney to St Giles': the Story of Regent's Park College, 1810–1960'', page 25</ref>

Ernest A. Payne, a former alumnus of the college who attended Regent's during its move to Oxford in the 1920s, mentions in passing during a lecture delivered in the 1970s that there was at one time a college song, which was sung as the students vacated the premises in Regent's Park. The chorus of the song was cited by Payne to have been as follows: 
<poem>''So we raise, as time goes by,''
''Our Marseillaise, our battle-cry,''
''Forward Regent's!"''</poem><ref>{{cite web|url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bq/27-5_225.pdf |title=Regent's Park College, Oxford |website=Biblicalstudies.org.uk |access-date=28 March 2017}}</ref>