REFLECTIONS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL CHARACTER 2011

I would like to begin this reflection with a scene from Matthew's Gospel. With the turbulent year we have had it seems appropriate.

Matthew 14.23-33

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, 'It is a ghost!' And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, 'Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.'

Jesus gathers the disciples and sets them in a boat -In the Early Church the boat symbolized of the church.

The scene shifts, and we take it up here, as the reading continues:

"Peter answered him, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.' He said, 'Come.' So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

This story is in three of the four gospels, but Matthew is the only one who includes this episode of Peter jumping out of the boat. But Matthew especially wants us to connect with Peter. Matthew is writing to a community in turmoil, undergoing persecution by those around them. Also there is internal conflict within the church or in this community over leadership roles, over who has what authority etc... In a very real sense the winds of change, conflict and disorientation were against them.

Tradition has it, that it is Peter is appointed to lead the Christian Community by Jesus. Ironically, Jesus calls Peter to leave the ship and risk his life by calling him to leave the boat. It is a rather odd request considering the circumstances.

Jesus, through Matthew's Gospel, is trying to teach us something about faith and leadership. Jesus calls Peter to leave the church, because it is caught up in affairs that it leads this community to be disorientated, some how Matthew's community / church has lost its sense of purpose and vision. If Peter had never taken the risk, he would never have learned the meaning of faith.

The story is a metaphorical one, within it; it has a depth of wisdom that we as a Catholic school need to reflect on. Our faith in God and one another can weather the storms of life. Building good relationships are not possible without taking risks. Martin Luther King, Jr. said "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the staircase." Faith is an active process of living a vital, full life - going places we would never go, loving people we would never love, living life to the fullest.

St Thomas of Canterbury is a College that creates Christian/ Catholic leaders who are prepared to lead others in times of storms. There were many examples of that happened this year. We try to instil this in our students to create a purposeful vision for them. That vision of life, for us, is centred on the Gospels but it is articulated in the example of Edmund Rice, who educated the poor and powerless youth in his society because he was moved with compassion.

As a Catholic Secondary Boys School there comes the acknowledgement and responsibility to nurture and to celebrate our Catholic Identity and to inculcate or share the intellectual and cultural traditions of the Catholic Faith; we do this in a myriad of ways, as well as nurturing and passing on the Catholic traditions. We give expression to our Catholic Identity through understanding and living out the Edmund Rice charism / gift. We recognise too that we belong to a family of Edmund Rice Schools      

'Edmund Rice schools are called to be places of evangelization, places where the priorities of the Christian Gospel are brought to bear on every facet of life. They are places where individuals form relationships with Christ, and hearts and minds are forever changed. The Jesus we proclaim described his mission as bringing life in its fullness to the whole of humankind. Our schools need to be places where students and teachers - all of the community - can experience Christ the Liberator and the power of that presence to make deep meaning of life.'

Extract taken from Dr Wayne Tinsey's address,

Executive Director EREA

EARTHQUAKE

It would be a mistake not to say something about this extraordinary event.

With natural disasters, ideas that may have seemed outlandish or even laughable, once upon a time, become reality. After the February 22^nd earthquake the Catholic Cathedral suffered extensive damage. Catholic Cathedral College which is sited next door to the Cathedral became off limits. The school itself suffered only minor damage, the fear was that the Cathedral may collapse if a severe aftershock were to happen. Within a week of the February earthquake it became obvious to the civil authorities that the staff and students would not be able to return to their school. A number of other state and catholic secondary schools suffered the same fate. Christine O'Brien (Principal) extended the invitation to Catholic Cathedral to come to St Thomas. The invitation was accepted.

The implications of two secondary schools sharing one site soon became obvious and the complexities of this situation had to be worked through. The Senior Leadership Teams of each school worked on their own and after a few days both teams met to work on the issues and logistics of hosting another school. Ministry of Education and the Diocesan Authorities worked closely with us to see this endeavour become a reality. One major decision to be made were what hours each school would operate. St Thomas took the morning shift and this meant very early starts and finishing just after midday. Catholic Cathedral operated in the afternoon, evening. The hours of operation presented a number of problems including arranging bus transport getting to and from school as some roads suffered major damage. In our situation it meant that we had to lease two vans to pick students up from the East side of the city. The Eastern suburbs infrastructure suffered particularly compared to other parts of the city.       

Both SMTs developed a process to inform our own staff, students, families and the wider communities. Once structural engineers declared the school buildings and site safe and the civil defence emergency was lifted by the authorities. We began the process of reopening the school. Christine called our staff together for a meeting, Bruce Henley (Catholic Cathedral College Principal) joined us. He spoke to us about their reality of being displaced. On the day of the earthquake all schools went through their emergency and evacuation processes, this meant that staff could not re-enter buildings. Catholic Cathedral came to us with nothing, all teaching, text books, furniture and IT resources were sitting where they left them... nothing could be retrieved. The reality of the situation made us realise that we had not only to share our resources but to do everything we could to make St Thomas' their school as well as our own.

As the day and weeks past other problems and issues a raised which we never foresaw and we dealt with them as they arose.

Catholic Cathedral College were given the ok to return to their own site in term three (2011).  One week into the term, it was announced that Marian College (Catholic Secondary College) which too suffered extensive damage and has been sharing with St Bedes College. In 2012 Marian will move and share the same site with Catholic Cathedral College. On behalf of St Thomas College, we wish Catholic Cathedral and Marian College all the best in this difficult time.  I am very proud about the way we worked together (students, staff and families) to make this situation work. The courage, generosity, faithfulness and goodness shown made what seemed impossible, possible.

Paul Donnelly, Director of Special Character