Mission Team LITURGY @ SJC At the heart of every Catholic community is the Eucharistic celebration. The roots of this Christian ritual are entwined in the Passover as the very first Eucharist celebrated was at the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples. At St Joseph’s College we celebrate the Mass on many celebratory occasions – Edmund Rice Day, Mother’s Day, Graduation Mass and the final day of school. Yet liturgies also play an important role at our school especially for Ash Wednesday and Easter. For the Ash Wednesday liturgy all students were encouraged to “shed a skin” during the Lenten season in order to bring about new life. They were asked to make three commitments: to their family, to the St Joseph’s community, to the earth and global community. These slips of paper were burnt and formed the ashes that marked the cross on their forehead.These ashes reminded us that everyone in our school community has negative layers that need to be shed and we are all striving to be people who benefit the communities we live in. Our Easter Liturgy focused on Jesus being the great includer. He welcomed everyone to his table, he sat with them at the table and he invited them to the table. The original vision of an Edmund Rice school in Australia was a school that ‘… is open to all who wish to avail themselves of it without distinction of creed, colour or nationality. No child can be refused admission on the score of religion or payment”. Our school community was asked, “Who do we invite to sit at the table?” The liturgy encouraged us to change our behaviour, to open our hearts and minds, to continue to shed our negative skins which will help us undo the act of crucifixion. Student Leader, RE PBL Pilot Rhys Hegyesi With excitement and some trepidation, three distributing the ash year 8 RE classes began the very first Project on Ash Wednesday Based Learning projects as part of a pilot program. They were challenged by the driving question: How do PBL group loading the Second we as Catholic-school students Bite van after collecting food mobilise our community to meet at Aldi the need for food assistance? The students were inspired by the entry event which included Richard Slevin (a person who has formerly experienced homelessness) and Bill Mithen (CEO of Give Where You Live) imploring the boys to
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PBL project group Oscar Mazaraki, Jacob Stevens, Will Dawson, Michael La Spada,Teague Ryan and Finn Spence
help them help those in need in our community After researching the current need for food assistance in Geelong, which was greater than anyone thought, the students identified an organisation which they wanted to support including the Geelong Outreach Van, Geelong Food Relief Centre, Secondbite, St Mary’s Parish Pantry and Give Where You Live. Once in groups the students developed a plan to seek support from their local community for their chosen organisation which they put into action. For some this meant raising awareness of the organisation and for others seeking donations of goods, food or money. The main criteria for their action plan was they had to find out what each organisation most needed and develop a plan to meet this need. Following the actioning of the plans, the groups presented their plans, results and evaluations at a marvellous showcase. Representatives from the organisations and the St Joseph’s College leadership were invited to come and see the displays, speak to the boys about what they had done, and to award gold stars to the most effective groups. This event was an exhilarating way to end the project and certainly gave the students an opportunity to present their work and be proud of their achievements. Rachel Roche, Vicki Mills and Jo Hart Below are some responses from students in 8C following their evaluation of the project: What is one thing you’ve learnt through the PBL RE project? I have learnt that a lot of the community of Geelong are really committed to making a change because everyone we stopped they listened and donated and passed the message around to support Secondbite. Jordan Fama The most important fact that I have learnt about my community is that the organisations don’t just need volunteers and donations but what they really need is for the word to be put out for everyone to know about them and how they can support people in hard times. Lachlan Stonehouse How would you describe this project to a new group of Year 8s? That it is an interactive way to talk to others and get work done in a fun way, and you get to talk to big companies and make change happen. Michael La Spada
College Captain, David McNeel welcoming every one to the table at Easter
