Student Led Fundraisers

During Assembly last Friday, Student Led Fundraiser Groups concluded their competitions and distributed their stall prizes. The total amounts each group raised for their chosen charity was shared at Assembly today. Thank you once more for your support of our Catholic Education Week activities. Enthusiasm and excitement filled the hall as students from Foundation to Year 6 came by the stalls and encouraged each other's fundraising efforts. We should all congratulate the students and their families for planning, organizing, and cleaning up after every fundraising. We are really grateful to the parents that cleaned and swept the hallway. Your help was amazing! Our students activated student voice and agency through these Social Justice efforts, which showed their awareness, compassion, and outreach to those in need. Well done to all!

National Reconciliation Week

Every year on 26 May, National Sorry Day remembers and acknowledges the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, which we now know as ‘The Stolen Generations’.  National Sorry Day is a day to acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generations Survivors and reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for our people and nation. While this date carries great significance for the Stolen Generations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is also commemorated by Australians right around the country.

This Week is National Reconciliation Week & the theme for 2024, is Now More Than Ever, is a reminder to all of us that no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will —and must —continue.  Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  With this in mind we pray.... 

National Reconciliation Prayer

Creator Spirit,

All creation once declared your glory,

Your laws were honoured and trusted,

Forgive us our neglect as our country approaches

the most critical moment in its history.

Listen to our prayer as we turn to you,

Hear the cry of our land and its people,

Just as you heard the cry of Jesus,

your Son, on the Cross.

Help us to replace our national shame

With true national pride by restoring the

dignity of our First People whose antiquity is

unsurpassed.

May our faith and trust in you increase.

Only then will our nation grow strong and be

a worthy place for all who wish to make their home in our land.

Amen.

© Elizabeth Pike, September 1997

Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Melbourne.