Issue 38 - The Pilgrim - May 2015 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

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Education The Pilgrim May 2015 School governors explore key issues Stephen Bryan, deputy director:leadership and governance at the Education Commission, says the first ever diocesan conference for school governors was a big success. It was just an idea that took off, as they tend to, and ended with over 100 delegates spending a day networking and meeting fellow governors. It all started with the Excellence documents - the new five-year plan to guide the work of the Education Commission. I was given the remit for writing the documents for leadership and governance. And it struck me that we had a conference for head teachers, another for deputy head teachers, one for heads of religious education, forums for head teachers and local authority representatives, but nothing whatsoever for our governors. So it seemed a natural thing to do, host a conference. It was only then that I discovered how little we knew about our governors. We planned, we consulted, we drew up a timetable for the day, booked speakers, and organised workshops and catering, we even managed to secure Archbishop Peter. Given his current schedule of appointments, that was quite an accomplishment. The conference was advertised using our normal channels, the weekly mail out to schools, and on the Education Commission website, resulting in 30 bookings. So, after scouring the contact information held at the Education Commission and finding the email addresses we held for governors, we tried again. Did you know that Microsoft Office 365 has a limit of 500 recipients for a single email? No, neither did I until I tried. After sending several batches of email invitations, and receiving some rather interesting responses, the numbers started to grow, and grow, and grow. The seed had taken and the conference was sprouting green shoots. Our host school, St Michael’s Catholic College, Bermondsey, started the day off with a comprehensive tour of the school followed by the Head teacher Grainne Gabowski, giving delegates the opportunity to grade the school against the school development plan. The very open and powerful input from Archbishop Peter left the governors in no doubt about how much they were valued by the diocese. Dr Ann Bamford, director of the Education Commission, then followed with a summary of the Excellence documents and their relevance to governance. One attendee commented: “Both Archbishop Peter and Dr Bamford spoke from the heart and made clear their expectations for foundation governors. In both a serious manner, and light hearted manner, they were able to thank governors for what they have already done, whilst making clear the challenges ahead.” Then the hard work began. The emphasis of the conference was to enable our governors to reflect and renew their focus and to take away something practical from the day, and I am indebted to colleagues from across the diocese who agreed to run a series of varied and interesting workshops for delegates which focussed on: • The Ofsted inspection • The Section 48 inspection • The role of the national leader of governance • The role of the clerk • Outreach and the common good in education After working our delegates so hard, they had an opportunity to network with new acquaintances over lunch. Attendees then reassembled in the main hall to hear Fr Chris Gorton, from the Diocese of Salford on his work with the schools in his parish. One attendee said: “I thought Fr Chris was an excellent speaker weaving scripture and his own spirituality into an inspirational look at the mission statement. His personal experiences with children in both primary and secondary settings really lent a personal dimension to his presentation.” Overall, the feedback from the day has been phenomenally positive. All delegates welcomed the opportunity to meet and learn from fellow governors and valued the chance to identify as part of a diocesan family of schools. However, after hearing that delegates will be encouraging colleagues to “put it in their diaries when it comes up again next year” the next issue is, how do we improve on this? For further information about becoming a foundation governor, e-mail stephen.bryan@educationcommission.org.uk or visit the Education Commission website www.educationcommission.org.uk Choosing the right school By Lucy Russell I have a doctorate in education, but I sometimes get emails for another Dr Lucy Russell, a child psychologist. We have very similar email addresses. Her one is the same as mine, but for the fact she includes her middle initial (which, coincidentally, is also the same as mine). The emails that are intended for her that land in my inbox are usually from patients. So I forward them to her. We have never met. I used the internet to find her email address, and in so doing I found out that we have more in common than our names. We have both had our work reviewed in the education press. Lucy has written an online course for 10 year olds called Thinkerbud, to help them deal with the stress of the eleven plus. James was in Year 3 when he first spoke to me about these tests, “Mummy, what happens if you don’t finish it before the end of the time?” I took a deep breath. What did I want for him? “Do you know, if you go to daddy’s school, you don’t even have to do it? Daddy’s school is for everyone.” I could see the look of relief on his face, he smiled, “Well, I want to go to daddy’s school then.” Daddy is the head of humanities at St Edmund’s School in Dover. This is the same school I went to. In the write up about Thinkerbud in the Primary Times, it says, “Unfortunately exams make us stressed and the expectation around this exam in particular can be quite hard on such young children. Will they get to go to the best school? Will they get to go with their friends? Many parents buy in additional coaching for their children but to date there has been little to help children understand and cope with the stress of it all.” James and Edgar go to our local Catholic primary, but many of my Catholic friends are looking for a grammar school place for their children. Like my namesake, I worry about what we are doing to our children by putting them under such pressure. It is a pressure that extends to us as parents. We want the very best for our children. We want them to have the opportunities we didn’t, and to be able to achieve all we did and more. As an educationalist, I know that the best schools are truly comprehensive: they have a mix of young people from different genders, backgrounds and ethnicities. I want my children to be able to function in the world and to have the ability to relate to everybody. It is notable that when my brother moved from one department in the police force to another, he had everyone from the constables on probation to the Inspectors at his farewell drinks. At the time, his rank was constable, but he commanded the respect and comradeship of all ranks. He went to St Edmund’s, too. But the lure of the grammar school is strong in Kent. Shortly after James was born I started writing some pieces on motherhood for the Redemptorist news sheet, Sunday Plus. After Mass, a parishioner took me to one side, “I really like your writing,” she said. “Except that piece you wrote about faith schools. That’s okay for primary school, but if they pass to eleven plus the children should go to the grammar school.” St Edmund’s has produced academics, scientists, teachers, nurses, police officers, business owners. What our Catholic schools offer is more than the opportunity for our children to achieve their God given potential. They offer a grounding in social teaching and an education which acknowledges that exams are not the be all and end all. A good education is about something much bigger. Page 8
The Pilgrim May 2015 Features/Column How did early Christians view war? When grace and science meet By Fr Daniel O’Leary We were on our way back home after Benediction one bright night, many decades ago, my mother and myself, when she reached for my hand and suddenly stopped walking. ‘Look up at the sky,’ she said, “Look up and listen.” I still remember it as a mystical moment. Something inside us stands in amazement under the sky at night. There is a curious bond, a sacramental intimacy, between the universe of our heart and the heart of our universe, as they spin around each other in a web of wonder. There was a hidden hint of theology and cosmology in my mother’s remark that winter’s evening. We sense the cosmic connections by heart. Pentecost is taking place whenever invisible mystery is becoming visible, whenever the unknown becomes accessible, when incarnate divinity lights up our soul. It is taking place wherever life moves on towards its final goal, wherever the evolving universe is unfolding towards its ultimate realisation, because it is the Holy Spirit that is facilitating and enabling that compelling attraction. Theologian Karl Rahner deplores the poverty of our theology of the spirit, which deeply misunderstands its universal significance and primal potency. He reminds us that the Holy Spirit is revealed as the divine power in the deepest heart of each person and of this earthly world. This power is the graced centre of creation, divinely imbued with the evolving potential to reach its completion when God will be “all in all”. He writes, “And here the earth behind her continual development in space and time, sinks her root into the power of the all-mighty God ... his Spirit has already begun to transform the world into himself ... the new creation has already started, the new power of a transfigured earth is already being formed from the world’s innermost heart.” Our mystics, physicists and theologians are combining to provide images of a vibrant, utterly free and unpredictable Holy Spirit that transcends our current and misleadingly limited understanding of its dynamic presence. St Augustine saw the totality of creation as a huge sponge immersed in a boundless sea, each tiny particle of it saturated with the ocean of the spirit. “I set before the sight of my soul”, he wrote, “the whole creation (stars, earth, air and mortal creatures); yea, and whatever we do not see ... And thee, o Lord, I imagined on every part environing and pervading it, though in every way infinite.” We strive for something more because deep in our hearts the Spirit lures us to do so. The restlessness within is a divine one, the fruit of the enlivening, energising and empowering Spirit, the same Spirit that blows where it wills and that never ceases to amaze and surprise us. Pentecost reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a power at work in a continually renewed universe, and is present in the innermost mystery of all things. Grace and science come together to offer a fuller picture of what is true: that God’s love is embodied in all humanity, and in the evolving world itself. The light that appears in Jesus is none other than that which had already shone forth in creation. Maybe my mother’s silent wonder on that winter’s evening in 1947 arose from a sense of being held by a Spirit of connecting, belonging and intimacy. Fr Ashley Beck, assistant priest at St Edmund of Canterbury, Beckenham, and lecturer in pastoral ministry at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, continues his series exploring Catholic teaching about war. The Great War came to an end on 11th November 1918, a day which we therefore call Armistice Day. There had been many delays in agreeing the ceasefire, but as far as I know the date was not agreed on because of its significance in the calendar of the Christian churches, in this country called Martinmas since the Middle Ages, the feast day of St Martin of Tours. Martin was a Roman soldier in the fourth century who in late childhood had converted to Christianity against the wishes of his parents; although some of the details are uncertain he reached a stage where he realised he needed to renounce the use of force because of his faith. He refused to fight before a battle, saying, “I am a soldier of Christ. I am not allowed to fight.” For this he was imprisoned, but later released after which he became a monk and a bishop. Martin’s witness against fighting represents a significant part of early Christian tradition following the injunctions against violence in the New Testament, which we considered last month. It is not likely that many of the earliest Christian converts were to be found in the Roman army, but by the end of the second century and the beginning of the third century Christian theologians needed to explain why the disciples of Christ would not fight. Three examples show this. The great mystical theologian Origen wrote: “Christians could never slay their enemies. For the more that kings, rulers and peoples have persecuted them everywhere, Christians have increased in number and grown in strength.” These words should surely be recalled by those who call for military force and air strikes against those killing Christian martyrs in the Middle East in our own time. At about the same time St Clement of Alexandria wrote: “Above all, Christians are not allowed to correct with violence the delinquencies of sins.” Again, and most forcefully of all, St Hippolytus of Rome wrote: “A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate must resign or be rejected. If a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God.” Clearly the picture was constantly developing and these major figures would not have addressed the problem if by this stage Christians had not been in the Roman army; in some places this must have been tolerated by local bishops. In the New Testament period and the decades following Christians all over the empire were clear about how their moral lives, as well as their refusal to offer divine honours to Roman emperors, set them apart from their neighbours. We can see from the New Testament itself and from the early post-biblical text known as the Didache. Difficulties in moral teaching became greater as the price of success, as Christianity became stronger and more influential by the third century. The witness of St Martin is part of how some tried to keep to this after Christianity had been legalised by the emperor Constantine in AD 312, and some scholars think that by this time there were many Christians in the imperial army. Next month we will examine how theologians responded to this in the later period. But surely we have something to learn from the period when refusing to fight or serve in the army seems to have been a characteristic of mainstream Christian belief? In many theological studies in the last century, Christians of all traditions have tried to go “back to the sources” and recover something of the beliefs and practices of the early Church (the order of Mass we have used since Vatican II is a product of this). In developing our theology of peace and war we need to do the same. Christians, and particularly Roman Catholics, are not dominant in society; while we are not persecuted we are increasingly marginalised. We can draw on the witness of the earliest Christians to see how love of war and militarism is a sign of how far the country has abandoned authentic Christian faith. We can recover authentic Christian resistance to war in a radical and uncompromising way - but this will not endear us to many. For Christians to raise the issue of war before the General Election this month (for example, in relation to the renewal of the Trident missile programme, something repeatedly condemned by our bishops in England, Wales and Scotland) will lead many to accuse us of treason in the same way as early Christians were accused under the Roman Empire. For all the latest Catholic news visit www.thecatholicuniverse.com Page 9
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Issue 38 - The Pilgrim - May 2015 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

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