“Let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works.” Hebrews 10:24-25
Dear families and friends of St Edmund’s College,
Last week I attended the Annual EREA National Principals Conference in Wollongong. The theme of this year’s conference was “Co-Creating Confidence, Agency and Freedom”. The keynote speaker was Emeritus Professor Robert Gascoigne from the Australian Catholic University, who spoke on the topic What Do We Mean By Liberation? Professor Gascoigne presented some ideas and concepts around a contemporary interpretation of liberation – in particular, what should we have freedom from and what is our freedom for? His discussion around what we have freedom from focused on being liberated from the constraints and limitations of commercial media, from ignorance, deception, self-abasement, fear and prejudice. These are of course important concepts particularly when we look the pressures and expectations placed upon our young people today. The discussion around what is our freedom for looked at some very strong ideas focusing on the sense of purpose and fulfilment we achieve when we work towards being liberated. Professor Gascoigne listed the following as those things that we should value in our freedoms – we need to maintain our freedom for …
- fellowship and solidarity (with ideas around service, community and citizenship)
- discernment (of traditions, of true and false, of our own calling)
- moral integrity and courageous self-giving
- a creaturely response to God and being made in God’s likeness (with ideas of awe, wonder, joy, delight in goodness and the beauty of creation)
- love (of neighbours, community, family, friends and partners)
Later in the day we were introduced to the new EREA Learning Statement, designed to provide a context and guide to what we value in teaching and learning for all EREA schools around Australia. In short, the EREA Learning Statement provides six liberating practices which schools consider when co-creating the conditions, dispositions and relationships in learning. I will share with you a little more detail for each of the liberating practices over the next few weeks. These six liberating practices are:
- liberating pedagogies
- liberating achievement
- liberating voice and agency
- liberating potential
- liberating learning design
- liberating spiritualities
We had two Year 11 students join us for the Principals Conference on the day in which the Learning Statement was launched. Damian Jelfs-Smith and Lachlan Vearing were asked to share their response to the Learning Statement from a student’s perspective. Damian and Lachlan spoke in a very confident, articulate and well-informed manner, sharing their thoughts and comments with all EREA principals across Australia. Congratulations to Damian and Lachlan for their very impressive representation of the College. Many thanks also to Mr. Tim Bibbens for accompanying the boys to the Conference.
Community Events
Please click on the following links for information for these upcoming events:
New Families Welcome Function Wednesday 1 June (evening)
Edmums – details to be issued shortly Friday 10 June (evening)
Heritage Day Saturday 30 July
Gospel Reading – John 14:27
Last week’s Gospel saw Jesus give his new commandment – that we should love others as Jesus loves us. This is a great challenge for all of us, especially where we often like to love others in our own way, with compromises and conditions. In a particular way, this week’s Gospel sees Jesus provide us with a guide to support us in loving others the way he loves. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you”. The Holy Spirit is a powerful part of who God is and is a support to the love that Jesus asks of us. We need the Holy Spirit in our lives as a conduit to become who God created us to be, and through the Spirit’s power we have aid in all situations. Without the Spirit, we are powerless.
Towards the end of this Gospel passage Jesus utters his famous words, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you”. But He explains that this is not peace as the world knows it; it is a different kind of peace. For many people, the definition of peace is the absence of conflict or trouble. Jesus’ sense of peace goes beyond this. The peace that Jesus was talking about means rest, quiet or a stillness in your heart. It is not the absence of trouble, but it exists in spite of trouble. This peace pushes through all the disturbing circumstances that life can throw at us. It gives us the ability to endure and be calm even in the face of turmoil. This peace doesn’t eliminate conflict or trouble, but gives us the ability or inner confidence to endure through it.
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Blessed Edmund Rice, pray for us
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever
Joe Zavone
Principal
Christus Lux Mea