Faith, Justice and Formation 

SPC Joint Justice Afternoon 

During the last Wednesday of term, students from the three social justice groups across the College participated in the inaugural ‘Joint Justice Afternoon.’ This event saw the senior school justice group, SJAG (Social Justice Action Group), the middle years justice group, FIAT (Faith In Action Team), and the Junior School justice group, JSJ (Junior School Justice) come together for an afternoon to talk about significant social justice issues and problems that exist in modern society and ways that we can play our part as a College community.  

The afternoon was planned with the EREA Climate Change Response (Ask the Earth and it will teach you) as the foundation of our work. As a group we went through the response and paid particular attention to the positional statements. It was made clear that our four touchstones challenge the EREA network to commit to the positional statements in response to the climate crisis.  

After that, a few boys from SJAG, FIAT and JSJ presented a summary of some of the main initiatives their group does when we are at school as well as some of the activities they have been doing whilst in remote learning. It was clear to see that although we have transitioned to an online setting, the work for social justice hasn’t stopped and students have still been committed to doing their bit at home.  

Finally, to end the afternoon, students across all three groups were mixed into smaller groups and discussed various points raised in the Climate Change Response. From there, groups created their own positional statement and planned how we can enact them both at school and in wider society. 

Overall, it was a very successful afternoon and a wonderful opportunity for boys across the College to collaborate and work towards something we are all passionate about. Thank you to the number of teachers who joined the meeting throughout the afternoon to see how we were going and to all the students for their great participation and ideas. Thanks to Mrs Smith who created the graphic below to summarise the afternoon. 

Blake Timillero 

Year 11 Student/SJAG Member 

Migrant and Refugee Sunday 2021 

Refugee Sunday celebrated on 26 September in the holidays, is a pivotal day in the strong humanitarian activism which surrounds the topic of the global refugee crisis. Migrant and Refugee Sunday is a Christian event which seeks to follow the grace of Jesus’s selfless and truly humane life to help and guide refugees to lives of safety and security. At St Patrick’s College, we have been truly inspired by this issue leading us to try and tackle humanitarian and refugee crisis issues as a school community, especially via our Social Justice Action group, Faith in Action Team and Junior School Justice which all stand in solidarity for refugee awareness and safety.  

Back in June, as part of Refugee Week, the whole College community sat in unity when listening to the heart-wrenching and traumatic backstory of Zaki Haidari, a refugee from Afghanistan. He was persecuted for being a member of the Hazara ethnic group, specifically targeted by the Taliban for their appearance and cultural beliefs. Zaki shared his most terrifying memories, which included the fear of being beheaded if one is found to be seeking an education in Afghanistan. As a school, St Patrick’s College was moved by Zaki’s story and pledged to support refugees across the world. With the recent Kabul Refugee Crisis in Afghanistan this year, St Patrick’s College decided to make a hard stand to fight for Refugee safety and asylum, especially seen through our Director of Identity, Ms Daley who set up a petition page “Recognition for Refugees & People Seeking Asylum In Australia- SPC Strathfield” which sought to fight for the safety and rights of refugees such as Zaki whom face the brutalities of being a refugee, starved of their essentials to live. SJAG also wrote letters to our local Members of Parliament to encourage the care of refugees from Afghanistan. 

Migrant and Refugee Sunday is about bringing the Church into connection with the world on this matter.  The theme for 2021 is ‘Towards an Ever Wider WE.’ You can read the Pope’s message and prayer for this day here - Pope Francis’ Message for the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees – Catholic Outlook . St Patrick’s College’s involvement in initiatives such as Refugee Sunday echo the values of our College which seeks to fight for freedom, safety and above all lives away from terror, violence and anguish. We encourage each of you to do the same. 

Joshua Chander 

Year 11 Student/SJAG Member