From the Rector

Next week we are having some consultations with parents about the College’s next strategic plan. The plan developed by the College Board five years ago involved a similar consultation process with our families, staff, students, and others. View the 2019-2023 College Strategic Plan HERE.

A strategic plan motivates a community or team to work together to reach some shared goals. It gives direction about what we want to become. At Saint Ignatius’ College, we draw on the sources that make us who we are such as discernment, faith, justice, and sustainability in our shared journeying with young people, and we look to how we will contribute to a future yet to be revealed.

The process of strategic planning allows us to consider what is our purpose. What are we doing for the greater good? What do we do? What matters most if we are doing our job well? What are we aspiring to become? Whom do we serve? How do we serve them? Whom are we inspiring?

If you wish to participate in our ‘dreaming nights’ about the next strategic plan, please register attendance via TryBooking at https://www.trybooking.com/CIJPL for 7.00 pm Wednesday 31 May in the Kranewitter Hall at the Senior School, or 7.00 pm Thursday 1 June in the Tappeiner Gymnasium at the Junior School.

This week we have been celebrating Laudato Si Week. We are grateful for the work of Nick Hauschild and Alice Chigwidden in leading initiatives in this area. It is the eighth anniversary of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Care for Our Common Home. Laudato Si brought together science, theology, economic ideologies, views on human flourishing, and a spiritual vision. It linked integral ecology with justice. Exploitation of the environment is related to the exploitation of persons. The film The Letter: Laudato Si is a remarkable film about the challenges we face and what we can do to help future generations.

National Reconciliation Week occurs between 27 May and 3 June. There will be a range of activities across the College including visits by Uncle Ivan Tiwu Copley and Alex Houthuysen (Hill). Thank you to Victoria Coxhill and Kate Westland for curating these experiences with our staff and students. Reconciliation of any kind involves first recognising the life of other people, appreciating the history of our connection with them, acknowledging injustices in our relationship, and moving together to set these right so that we can live and work together harmoniously. The coming referendum on the Voice invites us to acknowledge in the Constitution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a special place in Australia as our First Peoples, and to ensure that they will be consulted in decisions that concern them.

Click HERE to watch John Lochoviak, chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council discuss the Voice with Fr Frank Brennan SJ. This interview was recorded in March with assistance from Oscar Whatson in year 12 and Warren Bradley.

Fr Peter Hosking SJ
Rector

OREMUS (Let us pray)

We remember all in our College community. May our prayers comfort those suffering at this time. May God’s blessing be a source of support in their sorrow and loss, and bring courage, patience, and hope.

“Ask and you shall receive … knock and the door will be opened unto you.” (Matt 7:7)

If you would like someone to be remembered by the College community in prayer (even anonymously), please provide details to the Rector, class or Mentor Teacher, or House Leader.