Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community
Vinnies Winter Sleepout
Last Friday night our Year 12 students participated in the Vinnies Winter sleepout. Their night consisted of a meal of various soups and bread, which was made and donated by staff, a talk from a representative from the local Lilydale St Vincent De Paul Society, a Liturgy in the chapel and a film in the Ministry Lounge. They then slept on cardboard boxes in the Quad on what was a very cold night.
Throughout the night they came to understand more about the plight of the homeless, poverty in our region and how at St Patrick's Community Centre was providing food and shelter to some 10 local homeless people on that very night.
They, and I, learnt a lot about poverty with some simple facts provided by the Vinnies:
- in Australia 2.9 million or 13.3 % of people live below the poverty line
- more than 725,000 of those are Victorian
- 17.7 % of children are living below the poverty line in Australia
- there has been an 11% increase in homelessness in Victoria over the past five years
- one in 56 people in Victoria received homelessness assistance which is higher than the national rate of one in 84.
The top three reasons for St Vincent de Paul Society clients seeking assistance were:
- domestic and family violence (44% in Victoria and 37% nationally)
- housing crisis (40% in Victoria and 44% nationally)
- financial difficulties (39% in Victoria and 38% nationally).
Clearly, there is work to be done. Let us continue to support organisations like St Vinnies and continue to educate ourselves about the need.
The Long Walk
This week also saw the College hold a student-led full College assembly. When it was originally planned it was tied to the concept of The Long Walk — which is tied to the concept of respect, that is central to our College theme this year and one of the six Mercy values. Do we actually respect our Indigenous brothers and sisters, their culture and their heritage? Michael Long, the founder of The Long Walk, did not think so.
Michael Long attended a funeral of an Indigenous colleague in 2004 and became so distraught that he took it upon himself to do something about it. He committed himself to get the plight of his people (both Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders) back on to the national agenda. He resolved to meet with then Prime Minister John Howard to discuss his many concerns. He was resolved to do this, even if it meant he had to actually walk all the way to Canberra. So he did. On 21 November 2004, Michael embarked on his historic trek from his home in the suburbs of Melbourne all the way to Canberra and Parliament House, which is more than 650km.
He did meet with Mr Howard and now The Long Walk is a substantial organisation committed to challenging us to action and to support the reconciliation process.
Michael would say The Long Walk is about walking the talk.
We would say respect for the Indigenous people of this country, their culture, their history and their plight is central to our belief system.
Time to Shine
In the last newsletter whilst congratulating all those students who performed in our College Musical, Back to the '80s, I neglected to congratulate one of our students who performed in the recent Time to Shine 2018 concert, which is the Catholic schools performing arts gala. Congratulations to Melanie Verhagen who sung in the spectacular event.
We Remember
Members of our community continue to suffer with the passing of loved ones and we keep these families in our prayers. We pray for and remember:
- John Peters, grandfather to Dylan Peters (Year 10)
- Gertrude Lowe, an Old Collegian who passed at the age of 89 years, grandmother to Rebecca Meyer (Year 10) and Angela Meyer, our Youth Ministry Officer
- Theodore Johnson, father to Colin Johnson and grandfather to Tynesha (Year 8), and Old Collegians Sam (2014), Simon (2005), Timothy (2007) and Freya (2013) who passed at the age of 93 in England.
Let us pray for the repose of the souls of John, Gertrude and Theodore. May they rest in peace.
God bless
Philip A Morison
Principal
