Champagnat Marist Leaders’ Forum 2024
Over three nights, the leaders learned what it meant to be a servant leader and a servant leader with Champagnat Marist's charisms. They formed connections with other Champagnat Marist schools from across the country, from Sacred Heart in the north to Verdon College in the deep south.
We traveled from Greymouth over to Christchurch, arriving just in time at Catholic Cathedral College for the mihi whakatau. After the welcome, we had some kai and began some icebreaker activities with the other students from the other schools. There were forty-two of us all up; a lot of names and faces to remember, that’s for sure! In the early evening, we drove to the Blue Skies center in Kaiapoi, settling into our rooms and starting our introductory session, which mainly consisted of more icebreaker activities and briefings for the forum. Also, we did our presentation about JPII - including aspects like location, history, charisms, and LIGHT values. The main focus of our presentation was on the Catholic character in our kura, giving examples of previous events in Catholic Character in 2023 and 2024 so far. In addition to this, we included our future goals and aspirations for us as leaders at JPII. Verdon College from Invercargill also gave their presentation. Each night onwards, two or three schools would present for their school, too.
On Friday, all of our time was spent at the Blue Skies Center. Our day was split into sessions based on authenticity as a leader and also “leading from behind”. We had a guest speaker who gave a presentation on authenticity and also a frequent anecdote on how he never got a Prefect’s badge when he was in high school. He humbly reminded us that being a leader is not just about the badge, as everyone can be a leader in their own way and this is not limited to the ownership of a badge. We also looked into and reenacted some of the key events of the founder of the Marist Brothers: Marcellin Champagnat. This deepened our understanding of how these events influenced his works as a leader.
Saturday began with an early morning and quick breakfast before hopping on the bus to go to the Adrenalin forest at Spencer Park, about ten minutes out of Kaiapoi. After our safety briefing, and with our harnesses secure, we began to scale the treetops. This activity set a foundation where we had the opportunity to encourage each other in the face of fear or anxiety. It’s exceptionally reassuring when you are stuck on a high platform all by yourself, and suddenly you hear someone shouting for you, telling you that you can do it. This relates to the aspect of leadership where you raise each other up and support one another through rough times. We look after one another. This skill can be used in many other ways in life, whether it be at school, at home, on a sports team, or in the community in general.
After the Adrenalin forest, we had a short session back at Blue Skies, then walked down to Aqualand - an inflatable obstacle course on a body of water in Kaiapoi. Again, we could incorporate the skills used at the Adrenalin forest. Amid the game of pushing people off the inflatable, we made sure to check in on each other.
The highlight of Saturday night was the Youth Mass. We split into groups to organize different parts of the mass, such as the introduction, waiata, readings, prayers of the faithful, and liturgical dance. This dance was something new to us, and it was interesting to see it incorporated into the mass. Ciaran and Kyra participated in the dance, with Ciaran as the focus towards the end as he was the only male who put his hand up to do it. The dance was relatively short, and to the song “The Lord is My Light”, which also included pieces of traditional art movements of the Samoan culture. Sarah, along with around half a dozen others, did the mass welcome in multiple languages such as Mandarin, Greek, Te Reo, Tagalog, and Malayalam. Following the Youth Mass, after final school presentations, a quiz night was held. To top the evening off, we were doing Just Dance to songs like the iconic ‘Timber’ and ‘Rasputin’. It would be fair to say that we went to bed with a lot of energy that evening!
Sunday morning was pack-up day for us. We had our debriefing and said goodbye to everyone. One of the things we did during this time was go up to someone and say thank you for something that they had done for us over the weekend, however small it may have been. The drive back home was well received; we were exhausted after such an action-packed weekend! We are truly grateful to the organizers of the forum, and the staff Dr. Roberson and Mrs. Coulthard for taking us over to experience this incredible opportunity!