The Christian Leadership Formation Programme by Stefan Kaminski

Christian Leadership Formation

Stefan Kaminski

This month has seen the launch of an exciting new course for young people. The Christian Leadership Formation Programme is being offered to Lower Sixth formers who are committed to their faith and to a life of public service.

The programme is the brainchild of Lord Alton of Liverpool. In his long career in politics, he, as many others, came to appreciate the need for a greater preparation of potential leaders. At a time when increasingly complex ethical issues are being raised and require legislating for, and when an understanding of the fundamentally Christian philosophy which underpins our society’s structure and laws is increasingly lost, the provision of a certain formation for those who lead our society is all the more urgent.

When he founded the Christian Heritage Centre Charity, he dovetailed his desire for such a preparation with the charity’s objectives. The Centre is now delighted to announce the launch of its frst Christian Leadership Formation course. It has partnered with St Mary’s University, Twickenham and the Catholic Union of Great Britain to offer a course consisting of three residential modules delivered over a nine-month period. Organisations such as Alliance Defending Freedom and Catholic Voices, besides other independent Catholic academics, are also contributing to the course, so that participants will receive a variety of top-quality input from experts in different felds. ‘In an increasingly fast-moving and complex world where decision makers have to grapple with ethical challenges, which they feel ill-equipped to deal with, a course which provides formation, maps and sign posts will be greatly welcomed by many,’ noted Lord Alton.

The Centre is now welcoming applications for the course from Lower Sixth students. Applications remain open until the end of March, when 15 students will be selected on the basis of their personal statements, recommendations from their school, academic grades and references. The students who will be offered a place will be those who are motivated by their faith to help shape and create a society founded on Christian values: those who are driven towards public life by a love of God and of neighbour. The successful applicants will gather at the charity’s Theodore House in Lancashire at the end of July for the frst, fve-day residential session. Two shorter residentials will follow in London, during the October half-term and the Easter break of their last year of school. Each residential will have a particular focus. The frst will consider the prerequisite ‘Philosophical Foundations for the Common Good’, providing the students with a grounding in concepts such as human dignity, natural law and conscience. The course will seek to offer students the necessary vision and tools to engage both faith and reason in pursuit of the truth that is common to all people and the only source of a genuine and common good.

A Christian Leadership group on pilgrimage in Rome

The second residential will offer input on ‘Human Life and Ethical Considerations’, covering a range of issues from the basic defnition and understanding of human life, through stem cell research and end-of-life care. This second module will aim to instil in our future leaders a profound sense of the full dignity of life at all its stages, and a clear, moral framework to tackle the continually-growing feld of ethical issues around the existence and the nurture of human life.

The fnal module will focus on ‘Applied Political Leadership’. It will examine Catholic Social Teaching in the context of the current political feld, providing students with a clear, applied understanding of the purpose and role of politics as well as the essential principles that are necessary for a pursuit of the common good. One particular feld that will also be addressed, to which so many are particularly sensitive today, is that of the management of public fnances. Economic interests are often at the heart of political divisions, and yet the Church has long-since elaborated clear principles for the structuring of a fair and just fscal policy.

The charity has been securing sponsorships from various organisations and trusts to cover the costs of the participants, in order to be able to offer this course to any student, regardless of their fnancial means. However, the current pandemic has not made this process easy, and several places remain awaiting sponsorship. The charity will therefore not only be very grateful for any further support it receives towards meeting the costs of the course, but particularly for prayers offered for the course’s success. For more information about the course and the Information and Application Pack, visit www.christianheritagecentre.com/clf or contact clf@christianheritagecentre.com Stefan Kaminski is Director of the Christian Heritage Centre.