What a week! I am blessed to be in a job that brings people together to celebrate, reflect and share great things.

Here are some recent highlights of our school’s Special Character…

Monday Te Wiki o Te Reo was launched with the Edmund Rice Prayer in Te Reo. New Zealand has a huge responsibility to use te Reo and celebrate its importance. I’ve lived in four countries and I appreciate what it means to honour the indigenous people.

We also welcomed STC old boy Tama Tukaki (one of the blokes in our ‘haka tutorial’ on Youtube) and he spoke to the school before Mrs Leo’o went berserk (in a cool way) on stage with “It’s in the bag”

Wednesday The Filipino community hosted Father Alister Castillo and friends and family from Villa Maria College in a night of celebration. Music, dancing and singing kept the crowd entertained as we ate some great food together.

A wonderful and generous community led by Mark Frayna.

His gift to the College is a map showing every Filipino student in the school. We’ll update it as a legacy to acknowledge the diverse but unified community.

Thursday I scrubbed Eddie… much to Mr Harts’ amusement.

The Weekend I helped Chris Leader (Edmund Rice Coordinator) and Marty Taylor (Edmund Rice Justice Aotearoa) coordinate the Edmund Rice National Conference. The ‘Gathering 2019’ welcomed members of the Edmund Rice Network from around Australia and New Zealand. Huge thanks to the staff who helped, who attended and welcomed guests. The highlight was hearing Imam Gamal Fouda; he explained our shared story (Cain & Abel feature in the Bible and the Qur’an) with our shared experience (the mosque tragedy in March).

From left to right: Imam Gamal Fouda (of Al Noor Mosque), Stephen Kennedy (DRS),

Hazim & Aya Al-Umari (Father and sister of Hussein Hazim Al-Umari), Cathy Harrison

(ED Justice Trust Aotearoa), Steve Hart (Principal), Patrick O’Connor (Director of PEETO),

Br Joe Lauren (Christian Brother)

Brother Damien Price led one of the many workshops for the teenagers in the Network.

Monday. I took a few of the retired Christian Brothers and Br Geoff Whitefield (from Melbourne) to Saint Kevin’s College in Oamaru. This Edmund Rice College has been gifted to the Diocese of Dunedin. I met with the Bishop of Dunedin and we toured the beautiful grounds of the College.

A moving Liturgy featuring beautiful words and taonga was held to honour the new chapter

of the College. (and yes, they have a castle!)

Wednesday. Our guest speaker was John Pridmore. His testimonial was of his liberation from crime and gangs in London to Catholicism. He was massive but not too scary: he led prayers, talked about hope and chatted with 12JUS afterwards…

Also, Brother Peter Clinch (Oceania Provincial Leader for Christian Brothers) visited the school with Brother Gerard Brady. They were amazed with our grounds and buildings but more importantly with the people they met and ideas they heard. I tried to get myself invited to their next conference in South Africa.

And yes, I had some meetings, read a few hundred emails and drank too much coffee. But as you can see, my job is about people. Relationships mean we can show love, care and yes, achieve things bigger than any one person. The best part of my week was definitely 11RE. I love exploring ethical issues. These cool students are crafting some beautiful writing about the injustices of the death penalty in Texas, using the work of Sister Helen Prejean (‘Dead Man Walking’) as a light to guide hopeful and engaged behaviour that shows respect and helps the poor. If you’re choosing subjects for 2020 and thinking about a career or job then definitely consider teaching as a way to have fun and serve people meaningfully. In this regard, I haven’t been to ‘work’ in years. Yours in Christ

- Stephen Kennedy Director of Religious Studies skennedy@stc.school.nz