Meeting tomorrow: 4pm at SJYM

The ARC group is meeting tomorrow (Thursday) at St. John's, York Mills at 4pm. This is a chance for us all to reconnect from our summer wanderings, take stock, and make plans!

Note that Tay received a donation of eight boxes of Christian Ed. resources and a promise for a bunch more. Our little library is starting to grow...

-t

Meeting with Principal of St. John of the Cross Catholic School

On Tuesday June 30th Tay Moss and Catherine Keating visited Mary Ann O'Mahony, Principal of St. John of the Cross Catholic School in Mississauga. Since all publicly funded schools in Ontario are integrating Character Education we were interested in how this might impact or align with the local parishes.

Mary Ann told us how she works to incorporate what is happening in the schools with the church calendar and children's liturgy. She described a training program for Church School teachers and invited us to attend the next one in the fall.

We are looking forward to finding out more about what this in-service looks like and how it might be beneficial to us in the Anglican community.

-t

Peel District School Board Researches Character

The Peel District School Board is in the process of determining which character attributes to use to structure their character development curriculum. They are doing this with a survey in which they list 14 character attributes and ask participants to choose the six that are most important to be taught in school. It strikes me that character ought be based on more than just popular opinion about desirable attributes, but rather grounded in a comprehensive vision of human life and social well-being based on something like psychology, ethics, or (God help us) theology. This is part of the point of the Christ Centred Character Project that spawned the ARC!

-t

The First Books...

Here we are taking a look at the haul from the Diocese. The excitement of actually getting these boxes into the rooms for our Resource Centre made us a little gitty.





-t

Video Update from Friday's Meeting

Here is a short video in which some members of the ARC team reflect on the day's meeting at St. John's, York Mills.


-t

Moving Day...

Today several of us went down the Diocesan H.Q. to get about nine boxes full of books and other materials for the ARC shelves. These were formerly part of a resource centre that once existed and then they were part of the Diocesan Youth Ministry person's collection. Now they will once again be accessible. Tomorrow the ARC group will meet at St. John's York Mills to move these boxes into the room we will be using for the ARC. It is starting to feel very real now!

-t

Wanted: A Theological White Paper on Character Development

It seems as though one of the most important things the church can offer educators in the school system interested in character are some well thought out reflections on what character is, precisely. One of the reasons that the definitions and schema of character (or virtue) differs between school boards is that "character" is actually a rather vague term. It has become a catchall for all kinds of attributes which might be valued in our society, but not necessarily every society. Given the long tradition of moral theology in Anglicanism, it seems as though we ought be able to offer a valuable perspective on what constitutes virtue or good character. We have come across one short essay discussing this, but I wonder if anyone is aware of other thinkers who have written about this?

-t

Next Meeting Scheduled - May 1st

The Next meeting for the CCC (Christ-Centred Character) Group is Friday, May 1st, at 2 pm. We are meeting at St. John's, York Mills. Anyone is open to join us as we talk about the future of the ARC and related projects!

-t