Emmanuel College Warrnambool eNewsletter

Introduction & Prayer

Welcome to our Catholic Education Week update from the Emmanuel College Faith & Mission team. The team comprises:

Jacinta Skilbeck - Director of Faith & Mission
Brigid Foard - Religious Education KLA Leader
Natasha Cummings - Social Justice & Service Coordinator
Brooke Jones - Environment & Sustainability Coordinator

The focus of our Faith & Mission team is varied and includes celebrating and facilitating events such as Opening College Mass, Emmanuel Day liturgy, Year 12 Valedictory Mass and other year level masses and liturgies, staff and student retreat and formation programs, Religious Education curriculum, outreach and guest speaker programs, strengthening connections between Catholic Social Teaching in the classroom and our extra curricular programs, Reconciliation Week, World Environment Day & Clean Up Australia activities, student environment group ‘Green Group’, recycling programs, Emmanuel Community Meals, Vinnies & Caritas fundraisers, Relay for Life, social justice student group, and much more, which all contribute to enhancing the Catholic identity of Emmanuel College.

Catholic Education Week is an opportunity to reflect on the determination and sacrifice of those who have gone before us and to look forward with hope for the future. The Sisters of Mercy & Christian Brothers, along with staff, students and local Catholic families, have forged a path based on the common good and compassion for others. The theme this year is guided by the following scripture: 'BE JOYFUL IN HOPE, PATIENT IN AFFLICTION, FAITHFUL IN PRAYER'. (Romans 12:12)

BE JOYFUL IN HOPE - invites us to find happiness and positivity in the future.
PATIENT IN AFFLICTION - asks us to respond calmly and with forgiveness.
FAITHFUL IN PRAYER - whether we are people of faith or not, how do we take time to reflect and think more deeply about the world around us?

In Catholic Education Week, we acknowledge and give thanks for the privilege of educating our young people within the Emmanuel College community.
We hope you enjoy reading our update, and that it provides an insight into the Catholic life of our college.

PRAYER
Loving God,
We give thanks for the imagination and courage of those who have gone before us.
We are grateful for the inspiring efforts and dedication of our founders, Catherine McAuley and Edmund Rice, and those who followed in their footsteps, who helped to create a lifelong journey of learning for generations of Emmanuel students.
May we continue to shine a light on this journey for each other, and for future generations.
In the words of Catherine McAuley "We should be shining lamps, giving light to all around us".
May we find joy in every day and in our hopes for the future.
May we be patient with others as well as ourselves.
May we be open to a prayerful journey centred on faith.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
May the spirit of Catherine McAuley & Edmund Rice guide us in all we do.
Amen.

Ms Jacinta Skilbeck
Director of Faith & Mission

Faith & Mission

As a Catholic school, we value the opportunity to engage in the development of our Catholic faith, with contemporary experiences of religious education, liturgy and outreach.

Year 12 Retreat was facilitated by Sam Clear who detailed his amazing journey, ‘walking for unity’. Sam’s goal of trying to unite people in the Christian faith by courageously travelling over 15,000 kilometres through numerous countries, mostly on foot, enabled him to engage students and staff with personal stories that were amazing, sometimes unbelievable, and very inspiring. The aim of the day was to provide students with an opportunity for reflection, on their own journey ahead, on their interaction with their peers, and on the lives of others, from a Catholic perspective.

Masses and liturgies are celebrated throughout the year, and began with our Opening College Mass celebrated by Fr. Bill Lowry. Mass is a special and important event, and allows time to gather together as one to reflect on who we are as a school and to celebrate and learn more about our Catholic identity.

Communion was celebrated differently with a small group of students, staff, parents and guests, with a focus on educating everyone about the importance of communion to the Mass.
Throughout his Homily, Fr Bill Lowry explained how faith is a lifelong journey, just like education, and encouraged students to pursue their faith with the same rigour as they pursue their education.

The professional development of staff is also a very important part of developing our Catholic identity, and our most recent Faith & Mission staff professional development day focused on the theme of ‘Mercy in action’. We explored the life, words and actions of our founder, Catherine McAuley, and looked at ways to explore ‘mercy in action’, but in particular, through digital inclusion.

Staff members Jacinta Skilbeck and Justin Houlihan provided a different perspective on ‘Mercy in action’. Justin delivered a really interesting presentation on his recent Mercy immersion to Dublin, while Jacinta presented excerpts from her Masters research project, linking social justice and design. The day was facilitated by two wonderful guest speakers, Sister Karon Donnellon rsm and Brendan Fitzgerald, a CBC alumnus. Karon discussed ‘Mercy as a culture of encounter’ and helped us explore the myriad ways we already do this, and how we could introduce this to our daily interactions. Brendan’s key focus was digital and social inclusion and its ability to reduce social isolation and loneliness in the community.

Year 12 RE staff and students plan and participate in Caritas Ks annually - a fun activity where they carry buckets of water around a course on the oval, to gain a deeper understanding of the hardships many people face with everyday tasks and access to basic human rights such as water. This also links strongly with their work in RE classes, discovering more about the life and actions of Jesus, and how we can apply his example to our lives as global citizens. Recent Year 9 immersion days highlighted social justice, exploring local charities such as Vinnies, Mackillop Family Services, WDEA, Brophy and our own Emmanuel Community Meal.

In upcoming events, Year 7 & 8 students will participate in Faith and Formation workshops that explore relevant themes linked with Catholic Social Teaching, our RE curriculum, and the Mercy Values of compassion, courage, hospitality, justice, service, and respect. These days are a great opportunity for our students to explore, respond & reflect on relevant themes linked with our RE curriculum, in ways that we can’t always facilitate in the classroom.

Religious Education

Throughout Term 2 at Emmanuel College, all Year 7 students study a unit titled ‘Fight For Fair’.

The unit introduces various social justice issues, which are explored through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. The Year 7 team are currently developing their ideas for focus and fundraising for 2024 (in collaboration with students). In 2023 Mrs Schrama’s two Year 7 RE classes, raised a significant amount of money for the Leila Rose Foundation. The focus for Mrs Foard’s class was supporting the Indigenous Literacy Foundation through a class readathon.

On Tuesday, Mrs Foard's Year 7 Religion class held a liturgy in the Chapel to celebrate Catholic Education Week. Well done to all of the students for their wonderful participation.

Social Justice

Community Meal @ Emmanuel
In 2022 Emmanuel College, as part of our Social Justice initiatives, began providing a welcoming space for people in our community to come along and have a nutritious and delicious meal each Tuesday evening.

Our 2024 Community Meals @ Emmanuel, commenced Tuesday 5th March. Each Tuesday throughout the school year in the Emmanuel Café Space we will continue to provide a meal to those in need. We are currently serving between 25-40 meals each tuesday (dinner and dessert) to anyone in need.

The Community Meal @ Emmanuel is available each Tuesday evening during School Terms, excluding public holidays, from 5.30 pm to 6.30 pm. Our Community Meals work in conjunction with similar facilities that already operate in the Warrnambool community.

All of this is only able to be actioned with the help of volunteers, both Emmanuel staff and students, and with the amazing support of McMahon Catering.

Relay for Life
Saturday 17th February, Emmanuel College had the privilege of being part of the 21st Warrnambool Relay for Life out at Deakin. Our team joined 26 other teams to walk laps around the oval from 12.00- 10.00pm only breaking for a very moving Candlelight ceremony at 8.00. Our team of over 20 yr 12 students and 15 Staff carried and pushed our totems around the oval to activate our team motto of CELEBRATE, REMEMBER and FIGHT BACK and FAITH, HOPE & LOVE. Our Totems – a rainbow clown wig, rainbow wings and a wheelbarrow- represented aspects of the journey of cancer for all that the dreaded illness affects. It is with much thanks that we walked and for all involved it was a meaningful experience. Well done team Emmanuel and well done Warrnambool Relay for Life- we look forward to being part of this amazing community event for years to come.

Project Compassion/ Caritas
Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. This year as well as raising awareness amongst our community both within our classrooms and across our school shared spaces we participated in a free dress day where students made a contribution to the PROJECT COMPASSION boxes raising $1250.35. We also coordinated the Athletics day BBQ and raised an additional $932.84. Combined we have been able to send $2183.19 to Caritas to help vulnerable people around the world, now and for all future generations.

Caritas Australia is able to assist communities around the world through income generation, water and sanitation, food security, education and disaster risk reduction programs.

Project Compassion 2024 reminds us that the good we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow.

Social Justice @ Emmanuel Group
Social Justice@ Emmanuel is a group aimed to empower students to recognise, reflect and respond to causes of human injustice through advocacy and action in their local communities.

We meet regularly to explore ways of achieving a more just and compassionate society, develop leadership skills and engage with the wider community to address and take action with various Social Justice Issues.

We welcome ALL students Year 7-12 that would like to be part of making our communities more aware and supported through our actions.

Environment

2024 has been a great year for sustainability at Emmanuel College. With our Green Group @Emmanuel meeting Fortnightly on Friday Week B and planning some great events. Including:

Clean up Programs and Clean up Australia Day
In Year's 7 & 8 a roster has been created where each homeroom takes turns to clean up our yard. In Year's 9 - 12 teachers and students have access to equipment and several classes have completed their community service by cleaning up our yard. Homerooms have also been responsible for emptying our new recycling bins. On Clean up Australia day, the Green Group and many others worked together in their free time to ensure the yard was clean.

Copy_of_Year_7_and_8_Bucket_program.pdf

Ride to School Day and Earth Hour
On the 22nd March the Green Group @Emmanuel co-ordinated both Ride to School day and Earth Hour. For Earth Hour, the Group organised for the lights in the library and staff rooms to be turned off at lunch time. They made book marks and posters, organised live music and African Djembe drums, ran a rubik’s cube and chess workshop, co-ordinated a coloring competition and gave out prizes for attendance and also for riding to school.

We also introduce a new initiative where we are collecting plastic bread tags and batteries at the library.

2024 is going to be an exciting time in Sustainability and Emmanuel College. If you are interested in joining the Green Group @ Emmanuel, email bjones@emmanuel.vic.edu.au