Catholic Identity & Mission News

A very warm welcome to all new and returning students and their families as in 2024, our St Peter’s College community will aim to ‘Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly’. All are welcome at St Peter’s – we are a Catholic school, but we follow the lead of our God, Jesus of Nazareth, who was radically inclusive, not ‘tolerant’, but inclusive – all are welcome.  We are a multi-cultural and a multi-faith school a ‘pluralist’ school and there is a standing invitation to recontextualise the scriptures, and the teachings of Jesus so that we bring them to life and have the opportunity to make sense of them and apply them in our own context today. The ways of God are timeless!  Our College should witness to a spirit of open dialogue – that following our ‘ROCKS’, we respectfully collaborate, listen and learn from each other – students, staff, parents and caregivers.  And guiding us, we have our College motto ‘Be Not Afraid’ – what a motto!  As I recently presented to our students at their welcome assembly, at a time in which the data tells us that more and more people express feelings of anxiety, ‘Be Not Afraid’ offers us comfort and the call to courage – it offers us comfort and courage. All of us start a new this school year – Be Not Afraid! Let’s support each other, care for one another, and make the most of the wonderful opportunities, the blessing, to gain a full and rich education. Education changes everything and provides the keys to make choices about one’s future. I encourage our students to do their best this year.  At St Peter’s, we endeavour to educate the whole person in all their dimensions –academically, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. We have an annual theme that is designed to inform and motivate our minds, hearts, and actions. This year, our annual theme is ‘Do Justice, Love Kindness, and Walk Humbly’. This verse is taken from the prophet Micah in the Hebrew Scriptures. The words of our annual theme are a summary of how our loving God calls us to live, it’s the way God wants us to live and if we lived this way, we would be living life to the full.  To do justice – so that all get what they deserve, justice for all.  To love kindness – so that love and kindness guide our thoughts, words, and deeds.  To walk humbly – to let go of selfishness and ego, to put God and others first.  So, do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly – it’s as simple and as difficult as that!  We’ll continue to unpack (and practise I hope!) our annual theme during this year including in our morning prayers, our RE classes, Social Justice Groups through the SRC, and in our liturgies – starting with our opening school mass.  I will write more on our opening school mass in the next newsletter but would just like to acknowledge the contribution of our College chaplains, the priests of St Agatha’s and St Thomas the Apostle parishes. Sadly we have farewelled Fr Joseph Abutu as Parish Priest of St Agatha’s but warmly welcome Fr Antony Rebelo as the new Parish Priest, and new

Assistant Priest, Fr Prabhu Antony. From St Thomas the Apostle Parish, we are still generously served by Fr Denis O’Bryan but he is joined this year by an Assistant Priest, Fr Jithin Anto. We look forward to working with our chaplains again this year and thank them very much for their loyal service to our College.  Finally, it was wonderful to be able to attend Fr Joseph’s farewell at St Agatha’s as they celebrated the Feast Day of St Agatha last Sunday, and I include some photos of the beautiful procession at the end of mass. Attending that mass and seeing some of our students with their families reminds me of that close connection between parish and school and I reflected again on the absolute privilege it is to be entrusted with the care and education of young people. 

May this year be full of blessings and joy for all at St Peter’s College.

Ms Fiona McKenna

Deputy Principal - Catholic Identity & Mission