Faith and Mission 

The recent Federal election result has placed a spotlight on a variety of issues for our country.  The Prime Minister has left us in no doubt that the plight of our first nations people and the Uluru Statement From The Heart are priorities for the Government and ourselves.

Earlier this year a number of staff and students were inducted as Fire Carriers, people within the College Community who are deeply interested in discovering ways to ensure the story of our indigenous brothers and sisters is acknowledged, heard and that reconciliation becomes an actuality and not just empty acts and words.  This small group of students and staff are passionate about “Closing The Gap” and honouring the nearly 60,000 years of Dreamtime, understanding of Country and to listening to the collective wisdom of the Elders.

The Fire Carrier programme is supported by the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry of Melbourne and through our involvement, we join a group of many Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools throughout our great Archdiocese.  This is a very practical way in which members of our College Community can live out our 2022 College Theme:  Take The Way Of The Gospel.  We invite you to share with us this great work, even if it’s just keeping in mind the following acknowledgement of the land which we use at all our gatherings. This acknowledgement may also be a prayer for deep and lasting reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Peoples and those of us who, in the past 200 years or so, have made this great country our home.

At St. John’s Regional College, we acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land - the Bunurong and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, for they hold the memories, traditions, culture, and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. We remember that underneath the buildings and classrooms of our College, underneath the concrete and asphalt - that the land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land; another’s Dreaming.

Many thanks for your careful reading and please keep our Fire Carriers, and their work, in your prayers.

St John Baptist de La Salle:  pray for us.

Ven Nano Nagle: pray for us.

Live Jesus in our Hearts:  forever!

John Rhynehart, Acting Director of Faith and Mission.