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

Valuable Roles of the ARC

As a youth pastor, there are three invaluable roles that the ARC will help to address for my needs:

1) Materials, resources and curriculum.
Sifting through the available materials and finding that which is appropriate for the specific task is a time consuming and often very costly task. Very often I resort to simply writing my own because I don't have time to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge that already exists. Particularly difficult is finding materials that address teaching from an Anglican perspective. Maintaining a collection in a centralized location allows for many time and cost saving advantages.

As well comes the added advantage of,

2) Dedicated (Sacred) Space.
As a Church we believe in dedicated space. Not because dedicated space is necessary to perform any function, but because it is beneficial. By dedicating space to a role, we understand how our natures work. We understand that action shapes both being and thought, which is then a boon to the specific task. Separate yourself to pray, and you find yourself focusing more on prayer. Separate yourself to meditate, and there are fewer distractions to the meditation. Suddenly, the space itself starts to feed in and support the function.

And of course, when the space is dedicated to the task, you receive,

3) Communal support.
Space to meet, space to learn, and space to encourage, the ARC is a place for the mutual support and encouragement of each other's ministries. One ministry leader meeting with another and offering suggestions and feedback from their own experience. The social support helps build itself into the very fabric of the Church.

A place of learning, a place of gathering, and a place of support. We're all very excited about the progression of this vision.