Dear Parents, Carers and Friends of our College community,

A warm welcome as we move into the cooler months of winter. 

Champagnat Day

June 6 marked the feast of St Marcellin Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers. Our community celebrated Champagnat Day with a beautiful mass followed by our Champagnat Awards ceremony on Friday 7 June.

My sincere thanks to Father Arthur Givney, Vicar General of the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese, Father Ravi Muvvala, Assistant Parish Priest of St Laurence O’Toole, Forbes,  and Father Getulio Goncalves Parish Priest of St Joseph's Condobolin for leading our whole school mass. We very much appreciate the support and leadership of the priest of our Diocese. 

Champagnat Day was a wonderful day reflecting as a whole community with parents, staff, students and guests, giving thanks to God for the spirit that enlivens our community. Champagnat Day is a great day to celebrate all that is wonderful about our school. It is a day to remember that incredible man, Saint Marcellin Champagnat, who had a vision for the education of young people. A vision that spoke of making Jesus Christ known and loved and of loving them and loving them all equally.

When we celebrate our annual Champagnat Day at Red Bend, it is arguably the most important day in the college year. A day when we remember the founder of all Marist Schools and those who founded our College back in 1926. We value their legacy greatly, and we thank all the women and men who have contributed to the leadership and vision of the school since.

A special part of Champagnat Day is the Champagnat awards presented to students in each year level, acknowledging individuals who by their words and deeds live out the values of our Catholic Marist community, particularly the values held dear to us as passed on by St Marcellin Champagnat.

On the certificates presented to the students, it states:

In his life, Marcellin Champagnat displayed among others the qualities of

• Doing good quietly

• Hard work

• Being faithful

• Simplicity

• Humility

• Persistence

• Generosity

The recipients of these awards have shown, by way of example, these qualities that we aspire to have as Marists. My sincere congratulations to the students who received these awards and medals; we are all very proud of you. Congratulations also to Tracey Nolan our Canteen Coordinator who was presented with the staff Champagnat medal.

Dr John Robinson, our Marist Schools Australia Regional Director for NSW and ACT joined us for the celebration. I am most grateful to Dr John Robinson for his ongoing support and leadership for our community. Dr John  Robinson presented an insightful speech on Marcellin Champagnat and what it means to be Marist today. His speech is  below.

I am so happy to be with you to celebrate Champagnat day and the life of St Marcellin. St Marcellin may have hoped but perhaps not imagined in 1836, 19 years after he founded the Marist Brothers that the Holy Father would entrust the missions of Oceania, of which Australia is most certainly a part, to the Society of Mary. The Church at the time saw a need for missionaries living in the way of Jesus’ first follower, Mary, to bring the Good News to this part of the world. Today, as Marists this Star of the Sea Province now encompasses responsibility for eleven countries in Oceania.

This College is community that the Marist world looks to with great interest and pride. We can confidently say this from the work that we undertake both here and with Marists across the world. Red Bend is an important part of global family of over seven hundred schools and universities, educating over 700, 000 young people in eighty-one countries through the marvellous work of about 2500 brothers and 75 000 women and men, modern Marists. The world is wonderful, and the needs of our world are great. We believe that the best way to meet the many needs of our world is through education – that is by providing high quality learning and teaching and wonderful opportunities for people to come to know and love Jesus. This is the heart of our schools, as it was for St Marcellin.

He experienced the poverty and lack of literacy and knowledge of God, and he did something about it – he gathered young men, the first Marist Brothers, and helped them to learn to teach. There were no teachers in his time and place – a very real shortage of teachers!

These Brothers, the first Marist teachers, needed a place to live so he found them a home and he lived with them as their guide, not as a distant person. They needed to work together, to be a community so he built a dinner table – he ate with them and shared their lives much in the same way we gather around our family tables or eat together in boarding.

They needed to learn to teach and always improve their craft, so he gathered them all, from the many small schools in hilly country France. Each year they would all gather for the summer break to pray and learn. As their numbers grew together they built the Hermitage in France. We recently celebrated two hundred years since the foundation stone was laid there. This is still the place Marists gather to learn, pray, and come to know Jesus.

He sent them off, often in pairs, to remote villages near farms not the cities to begin with, to live close to people and through education make their lives better. I think those early Brothers and Marcellin would have been at home at a place like Red Bend. He wrote many letters and encouraged these teachers – he gave them heart – in the complex challenges they faced. He was a real presence to them.

Marcellin’s life was so incredible that this week we with all Marist communities we remember him. We reconnect with him. As a friend of mine said to me this week, many religious groups have Founders, but many are only historical figures, wonderful people but dead and buried. But my friend who went to a Marist school and became a Priest said to me that is not his experience of Marist schools. He said Marcellin is very much a living figure in the schools. We have buildings and statues named after him, houses, streets, schools, and social centres. He said we even talk to him when we say St Marcellin … pray for us. He jokingly said he would not even be surprised if Marcellin was to walk into an assembly or be sitting among the kids or on the staff!

In a few moments when we present awards, we will keep the spirit of Marcellin alive. I have seen it several time this week…at Joeys on Sunday as boys received their medallions, on Wednesday at St Gregs when we awarded boys and girls including kindy kids.

Your teachers have identified in some of you and one of their colleagues characteristics of St Marcellin. These qualities include:

•  having actions and attitudes that illustrate a strong mind and compassionate heart

•  being genuine, straightforward, and able to communicate what they believe respectfully

•  people who are honest and display friendliness with and towards staff and students

•  doing good quietly through their words and actions, is an example of making a difference to those around them and in the community

•  being able to influence their fellow students to be the best that they can be – both within and outside of the classroom

My friend was right. For us Marcellin’s spirit lives on in each of especially when we, like St Marcellin see a need and do something about it, when we commit to teaching and caring for students to the best of our ability, when we help a friend, when we stand up for what is right, and when most of all, by our example we make Jesus known and loved.

You see Marcellin’s whole life was not about him. It was about the people in his life especially those most in need. He saw needs and he did something about it. It was about Jesus. It is quite simple. It is our way.

Sorry Day

At our College assembly on May 24, we gathered together to recognise Sorry Day.  As a community, it is important that we acknowledge and continue to be educated around Sorry Day.

For many years, Indigenous Australians faced discrimination, dispossession, and forced separation from their families as early as the mid-1800s and continued until 1970. The Stolen Generations represent a painful legacy for many that still impacts individuals, families, and communities today. It is crucial that we acknowledge this past and its ongoing effects.

An important part of Sorry Day is about recognising the resilience and strength of Indigenous peoples, their cultures, and their communities. 

It's about standing in solidarity and committing to building a more inclusive and just society.

As a Marist community, each of us has a vital role to play in shaping the future. We all need to educate ourselves about Indigenous history and culture, to challenge stereotypes, to stand up against discrimination, and to advocate for reconciliation and justice for all. Sorry Day is an opportunity to listen, learn, reflect and act. Together, we can work towards a future where all Australians are treated with dignity, respect, and equality. 

May St Marcellin Champagant and Mary our Good Mother continue to enliven our community.