In the morning, long before
dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed
there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found
him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere,
to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that
is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee,
preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.
Mark 1:35-39
In the broadest possible sense, we are all
searching for Jesus. We spend an entire lifetime seeking the fullness of life
that so often eludes us. Some might name it nirvana, some self-fulfilment,
others maybe heaven-on-earth.
There was once a school of thought that
all non-believers were mistaken, and that the true search they needed to
undertake, was to encounter Jesus. We all accepted that our missionaries might,
in fact, never take the Gospel to the furthest reaches of the earth, and so
some would always live in ignorance. Vatican II’s declaration on non-Christian
religions long ago challenged that school of thought, indeed the Fathers
declared, The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of
Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their
race, colour, condition of life, or religion.
Searching for Jesus is the
search for truth, and even though all might aim to search, there is no
guarantee that we will find what we are looking for, for many are called, but few
are chosen (Matthew 22:14). After healing Simon’s mother-in-law, and then
responding to the needs of the whole town,
Jesus discerns his mission beyond Capernaum.
To do this Mark has Jesus rise long before dawn in order to pray.
Early morning might not be
for everyone, but finding some time each day to be in the presence of the God
who loves us is critical for the journey. A journey unreflected, unplanned,
unprayed cannot lead you to truth. For Jesus, discernment is the pivotal moment
when his mission is fully realised, when he
realises, that he has found the truth, when he is impelled to move beyond
the safety and comfort of what he knows. The Good News must be preached to all of Galilee, to Israel, to all nations.
We make decisions that
impact on others’ lives every day, be they big or small, life adjusting or
transforming. We have that in our hands. Only a fool would act without thought,
and nor should the Christian ever act without prayer and discernment.
Can I do
it? Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you
will find; knock and the door will be opened to you, writes Matthew
(7:7).
Peter Douglas
HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH
Welcome back
Thanks for all you have done in preparing for the new school
year. Tomorrow will bring excitement and energy
to the empty rooms and will make your buildings into a school for
learners.
Welcome and best wishes to Anita and Christina as they join a
special fellowship, a renewed welcome to Annette as she continues solo, and to
Rod as he begins afresh at Latrobe, and Michelle at Sacred Heart, Ulverstone!
Congratulations to Clynton and Melissa who welcomed a healthy 7lb
9 oz Toby Emmaus on Wednesday 14 January.
I am delighted to have caught up with nearly each one of you during week 1 (no matter how briefly) and look forward to visiting your
schools and you in the very near future. As John Mula indicated,
he will be spending three days on the North West and West Coast on his
'Progress'. A timetable is being finalised.
Digital technologies days wrapped up
I’m sure that you’d realise that days like
today don’t happen, they take time and it takes a team. The Mission and
Education Services Team, and our North West team have come together to bring a
day that has offered us information, insights, ideas, challenges and dreams.
Together with the workshops where we got to do stuff, get our hands dirty in
the practical spaces of our classrooms, we have had a day that will contribute
in some small or large way to opening ourselves to the digital technologies
that surround us.
Of particular note, I wish to thank Julie
King for her overview of the state of play for the digital technologies
curriculum and its relationship to the ICT capability. I loved how Julie
prefaced her conversation with Daniel Pink’s words: Most of our experience, our knowledge and our thinking is organised as
stories. As a religious educator, the story is the carrier of our deepest
understandings. Our learning is cemented and made concrete by the stories that
surround us. The Digital Curriculum enables us to construct new stories that help
explain who we are, solve problems by using new and renewed tools.
Thank you to Tim Bell for engaging us in
exploring computational thinking, in sorting, in playing with binary numbers
and for pushing us to think outside the rectangular screens of our laptops. I’m
sure you’d all agree that we wouldn’t use complexibility and tractability
programs to organise which of our children should be picked up first and where, nor in fact, to plan which errands
must be done in what order. Tim brings a passion to his work, passion of course
comes from the Latin root pati – meaning suffering. I suspect
Tim suffers from too much international travel and living the good life!
Thanks, Tim.
Katrina Falkner gave us a clear challenge:
We must help our young people discover what they really want to do. And she posed
a number of persuasive reasons why girls should be given every opportunity to
do computer science – because as Tim told us, they’re better at it. Her stories
of how people, young and old have the ability to relate DT to their real,
everyday lives – goes to prove how our worlds and our lives can be transformed
– through $350 braille writers, or digitally printing prosthetic limbs, 7 year
old game programmers, or tracking wombats. Just think of the possibilities. And to think
this can, should, and must begin in our classrooms.
Thank you to our workshop leaders:
Rebecca
Vivian, PhD, Research Associate with the University of Adelaide's Computer
Science Education Research (CSER) Group
Jo
Scalone, Project Officer Learning Technologies with Catholic
Education Diocese of Parramatta
Gary
Brown, Team Leader Learning Exchange, Centre of Excellence and Innovation,
Diocese of Parramatta
Melanie
Eggins, Apple Education
Peter
Lelong, Education Officer Digital Technologies, Statewide, TCEO
Glynis
Tully, Education Officer Digital Technologies, Southern Region, TCEO
Gretchen
Lane, Education Officer Digital Technologies, Northern Region, TCEO
Tony
Brennan, Team Leader, Mission and RE, TCEO
Gerard McNulty, Education Officer, Mission and
RE, Statewide, TCEO
Alison
Cornish, G&T advisor, TCEO and teacher at Larmenier School in St
Leonards.
Leeann Medwin and Bobbi-Jo Bailey, Education
Officers, Curriculum, North/NW
Also, thanks to our food and drink
providers directed by Carole, the Mission
and Education Service team that provided the back up and of course, to Peter
Lelong whose baby this day has been.
I began by relating my story with
technology, almost cave man primitive slates to our soon forgotten flip camera.
And what each of our speakers and workshop leaders have had in common with me
was the ability to keep telling THE story, the story about how we interact with
the world in which we live and how we use whatever technology we possess to
make our world a better place.
I ask you to give them all a round of
applause.
The lovely Gretchen Lane will be emailing
every participant in the next few weeks with
request to complete a Google Docs survey so we can get some quality data
about our PL today and then how you have been able to implement or think about
some of the ideas you have been exposed to today.
A final direction is a request to pack up
the tables and stack the chairs before you leave today.
I wish you a safe journey home and a
brilliant 2015 school year.
From
Fiona Labuschagne
Education Officer Well being North and North West
Last year there was a big focus on SWPBS
and the majority of our schools are now in their 3 or 4th year. SWIS data would indicate that there is a
positive trend in all our schools regarding behaviour and a proactive approach
to difficult situations is now the norm. This year the focus will be on Tier 2
interventions in our schools and this should further improve the environments
in which we all work and learn. I am looking forward to working with you all
again in 2015.
From Giles Fraser in The Guardian, 3 February 2015
I don’t believe in the God that Stephen
Fry doesn’t believe in either
There’s bravery
in the entertainer’s imagined confrontation with God – but in describing it he
shows that he misunderstands the nature of Christianity.
Someone once
told me that, when he was a young man, Stephen Fry thought about becoming a
priest. Now I don’t know if this is true, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
Because the way he expressed himself in a recent interview – calling God an
‘evil, capricious, monstrous maniac‘ – was almost biblical in its theological
intensity. And though I think there is a whopper of a mistaken assumption at
the heart of his answer, I nonetheless think it was an admirable one. …
REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
by
Kevin Treston
Community Map
An
appreciation of the elements of Christian community will give direction and
purpose to leadership. I propose that
the following features characterize authentic Christian community groups:
A
vision is shared and articulated
People
experience caring relationships
Celebration
of rituals and passages
Energy
is directed towards the goals of the agency
Significant
levels of participation
Open
to other communities
A
culture of mutual gain flourishes
A
vital spirituality of community
People
invest energy in building community
There
is a network of support
Effective
communications
Relevant
professional and personal development
Expertise
in the work of the agency
Creative
leadership
Pastoral
care of people
Skill
in conflict management
Proactive
in panning for change
A
culture of truthfulness in the Spirit
Decision
making according to a discernment style
The
community ‘map’ or overview of what a good Christian community looks like helps
leaders to affirm the elements, which are healthy, and to focus on areas, which
need improvement.
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Peter's whereabouts for the next week:
Meetings coming up:
Please forward any agenda items for meetings (with some indication of time required and context) to Carole at carole.goodwin@catholic.tas.edu.au or Tracie at tracie.clyne@catholic.tas.edu.au
NORTHERN SCHOOLS PUPIL FREE DAY
MONDAY 20 APRIL 2015
TERM 2
A reminder that individual schools are to organise their own focus and day.
Emmanuel Centre and the Labyrinth have been booked. Please notify the MacKillop Office if you would like to use either
From St Finn Barr's:
From Sacred Heart - Launceston:
St Thomas More's:
Larmenier:
Our Lady of Lourdes:
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