Welcome to STC!

I’d like to take this chance to introduce myself and my role here in the College community. My name is Stephen Kennedy and I am the Director of Religious Studies. As a Senior Leader in the school, I organise the Special Character decisions and actions in the school. I work alongside many different groups of people but we are all unified in our understanding of the Gospel message and service for the staff and students of the college.

The Special Character of our college is our Catholic faith. This is anchored in the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Edmund Rice Network to which we belong. And the sails are often adjusted to move with the times.

We offer a Sacramental Programme for students who wish to be baptised, make their First Holy Communion or Confirmation. It’s a highlight of the school year when the Bishop leads our Mass for them to join the faith.

We also drive a robust and Christ-centred Restorative Justice system. Teenage boys make mistakes and need the skills, respect and vocabulary to be empathetic, compassionate and hopeful about repairing relationships.

The mentoring classes will be focusing on prayer, recognising the dignity of everyone and building the brotherhood.

As you can see, the college strives to be both Christ-centred and student centred. These two aims are closely linked.

Week 1:

On Monday the staff worked with Andrew Lines from Australia to explore concepts of masculinity and the boys’ need for a rite of passage on to manhood. After that I led the staff through an understanding of how the Bible can deepen our understanding of what it means to be a mentor teacher.

We met the new parents on Tuesday night. It was great to welcome you all to the College.

On Wednesday our powhiri was amazing. We know we have a great responsibility to protect Maori language and culture. I did the College haka for the first time in my 16 years here. I was very nervous but it was the right thing, and a cool thing to do. After the powhiri I met with my mentor class and we had a laugh. Then we had our College Mass. It was celebrated by Father Michael Therese Scheerger, the new parish priest for the upcoming Christchurch West parish. He spoke of boys’ needs for a rite of passage into manhood. He gently spoke of Kobe Bryant’s journey as a man. In the evening I attended the Pasifika BBQ. The families are always so welcoming and caring… for each other and their sons. It was a big day but I loved it.

I’d like to leave you with this prayer. Please read it carefully. Please consider printing it out and sticking it on your fridge.

Yours in Christ,

- Stephen Kennedy, Director of Religious Studies

- skennedy@stc.school.nz

Build Me a Son, O Lord (by General Douglas MacArthur)

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”

Saint Thomas of Canterbury. Pray for us.

Blessed Edmund Rice. Pray for us

Ki te ingoa o te Matua, o te Tamaiti , o te Wairua Tapu. Āmene 

In the name of the Father † and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen