Religious Education
St James Feast Day Celebration
On Friday 24 July, due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, the College community was unable to gather physically to celebrate the feast of our patron as we had hoped. We were however, able to assemble in a digital sense. Every homeroom ran a special St James Day Liturgy via ZOOM as part of their morning homeroom. The Year 10 students celebrated this occasion as a year level. Many non-homeroom teachers, other members of staff and also some parents were in attendance. We were very pleased, particularly as we are celebrating the 50th Jubilee Year of the College, to still be able to commemorate this very special feast day.
The First Reading recalled the words of St James, “faith without good works is dead”. In his letter, St James challenges all of us to be companions to each other and to emulate the commitment that St James demonstrated in the living of his life. What an appropriate time to reflect on this scripture, given the current challenges that we are all facing together.
“So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works."
Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
In the liturgy, the message of the Gospel encouraged us to become more aware of how, just like Jesus, we can use our own talents to serve others.
Our special liturgy provided an opportunity for us to thank God for continuing to enhance the lives of young people through the ministry of the St James College community.
Curriculum Update
Here is a brief overview of the work being done across the year levels during the current period of Remote Learning. Please feel free to get in touch with your son’s Religious Education teacher if you have any queries or concerns regarding the Religious Education Program.
Year 7
Our unit is titled “Ways People Pray”. In this unit, the young men will learn to value the role of personal prayer. They will look at the Church in the context of a community who worship together. They will identify a variety of ways in which people pray and they will also explore different ways to both prepare and to participate in prayer. We will use “Traditional Prayers” to model the writing of the students own prayers. Throughout the unit, we will begin to share the personal prayers that are being written in the individual Prayer Journals that each student will create this term.
Year 8
Our unit is titled “Beliefs of Early Christian Communities”. In this unit, the young men will come to understand the commitment and vision of the men and women in the early Christian communities through the description of important events and personalities of the early Christian communities. They will explore the journeys and ministry of St Paul and reflect on his many letters, whilst placing these letters into a modern context.
Year 9
Our unit is titled “Teachings, Commandments and Beatitudes”. In this unit, the young men will share reflections on teachings relating to God the Creator/Father/Spirit/Church. They will locate and examine statements within the Nicene Creed relating to God the Creator/Father/Spirit/Church. They will also classify the key beliefs of the Nicene Creed. They will look at the key values of The Ten Commandments and explore these same commandments in a modern context while aligning these teachings to those of the Beatitudes.
Year 10
Under the broader concept of Society and Ethics, our unit is titled “Church and Community”. This unit provides the opportunity to appreciate what Christians share in common and also a greater understanding of quest for Christian ecumenism. Students will compare the different beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations via the prism of the Eight Aspects of Religion. Students will also be able to describe a variety of ways in which particular Christian communities express their collective identity and how they interact with other denominations and the wider society. This unit will also encourage and foster inter-faith dialogue. In this unit it is intended that students should be able to describe the origin and development of selected texts which express a tradition’s relationship to society. Using the template of the Eight Aspects of Religion, students will then move on to provide a comparative study of the texts, core beliefs and practices of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism.
Martin Callanan
Religious Education Domain Leader
Let us remember we are in the Lords Holy Presence
Dear God,
We have lived in a world during a pandemic
We have seen masks and hand sanitizer beyond reason or understanding.
We watched on as they stocked up on toilet paper.
We hid with them,
Feared with them,
Struggled with them
And when the remote learning was finally done
We have survived.
We have been asked many questions of what work? When is it due? When’s the zoom?
For which the answer is clear and on IT IS ON TEAMS.
We have questioned our strength thinking we could not endure another ZOOM.
But a flame inside refused to die.
We could not throw away what we know the students have achieved.
In the end we choose success
We have trudged across the internet silence the bridge between can you see my screen….and the “my camera isn’t working”
We had to stretch, extend and rebuild a unit of work or completed a new job that changed course in an instant.
BUT
We zoomed with them,
Connected with them,
Collaborated with them,
Created with them
And ultimately we EMBRACED with them the semester one 2020 future history chapter…
We have survived
With another victory!
Amen
Rachel Urquhart
Performing Arts Domain Leader