Education

• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary and Adult Faith
• Non-institutional

Tertiary and Adult Faith

A more recent development in our educational ministry has been in the area of tertiary education. In this, we are continuing the pattern of a vital concern for, and participation in, education, commenced from our earliest years in Australia. The extension of the work of the Sisters from primary and secondary schools into tertiary education was a natural one. The breadth of the involvement of the Sisters across a horizon of ongoing educational pursuits has meant that we have been represented in several tertiary initiatives.

One of the earliest contributors to the field of tertiary education was a Sister of Charity whose studies in Rome in the post-Vatican II era have enabled her involvement in theological education, in both New South Wales and Papua New Guinea. Through her specific love of scripture and her interdisciplinary competence she was involved at first in lecturing at the Catholic Teachers' College North Sydney. This was followed by a number of years teaching scripture at St Paul's Seminary in Kensington and the Catholic Institute of Sydney. At present, she is ministering in a minor seminary in Papua New Guinea. Her own interests have been further focused in Church History and her research and publications have played a part in our awareness of some of the shaping forces in the early church, and the significant contributions made by the Sisters of Charity in the early decades of Australian church life.

One of the first Australian Sisters to get a doctorate worked in tertiary health care education and consultation. Her influence spread through those institutions that are under the control of the Sisters of Charity, and then further afield, where her teaching competence was channelled into working in the Australian political health care scene in Canberra for many years.

Another has developed her doctoral research in the significance of self-esteem into programmes for personal development. This enabled her to be involved in multi-faceted formal and informal tertiary educational initiatives as she worked in health care mission projects and processes. Her educational work has carried over expansively from her initial work with primary school children into various adult educational and consultative activities with health care and other professional groups, such as the Sisters of Charity Education Council.

Yet another Sister of Charity has played an important role at the Australian Catholic University, originally at the Brisbane ACU campus, and currently at the Strathfield campus. Her scientific scholarship, along with her educational abilities, led her to write her doctoral thesis on, and to develop further expertise in, the training of science teachers. Her work in this area has opened up new initiatives and directions for science teaching for the future.

The Australian Catholic University was also a natural place for another Sister, a nationally recognised educator with the skills of both researcher and practitioner, to contribute to the Australian educational scene. In her ground-breaking work in educational leadership, she has travelled, lectured and published both in Australia and internationally. She has recently completed a series of tertiary educational programmes in South Africa, and been invited to present papers on educational leadership in the UK and USA.

Other international contributions have been made by various Sisters in both short and longer term projects in a variety of countries and cultural settings. A Sister was active in the teacher training programmes that took place in Samoa. She was able to bring her own experience in the mission context into valuable ongoing teacher education courses provided. Sisters have been involved in both health and educational activities in their work with professionals in diverse fields and in interdisciplinary projects where their help was requested.

The early initiatives of a Sister in theological education have been complemented by the work of another who lectured for several years at Yarra Theological Union. This Centre of theological and ministerial education, established by the collaborative work of both male and female religious orders, has been instrumental in the education of both religious and laity in Australia and overseas. She is now working as a member of the Jesuit faculty in the ecumenical United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne and is also Visiting Professor in the Jesuit University in Boston.

The love of scripture and spirituality has led another sister to develop her interests into completing a doctoral thesis, researched at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem and completed under the supervision of Melbourne College of Divinity. Her work has recently been published under the title, Women and Men in the Fourth Gospel. For several years, she has been involved in teaching and administration at the Centre for Christian Spirituality at Randwick, a member school of Sydney College of Divinity.

Another important area of tertiary education in the world of theology and ministry is that of Canon Law, previously an area reserved to ordained priests. One sister's expertise in Canon Law has resulted in her lecturing at the Pius XII Seminary in Brisbane where she blends her academic training along with her pastoral experience for the benefit of her students. She has recently been appointed Vicar for Religious in the Archdiocese of Brisbane.

Several sisters have been engaged in adult faith education at various levels. These have included CCD training and parish-based sacramental programs. Two sisters are currently engaged in adult ministry and educational programs at the Archdiocesan level where they are able to offer to hundreds of adults the fruits of their theological education and teaching experience.

Much has changed since those early years from 1840 onwards when the Sisters first engaged in evening classes for adults. This adult educational initiative has flourished, and formalised into academic education across a range of scholarly disciplines and ministerial activities on behalf of the church and society at large. Yet amidst all the changes that have taken place, there is as constant concern for excellence, and a deep commitment to Christian mission and ministry as a panorama against which all our educational activities are carried out. While the numbers in tertiary education may be few, the impact of each Sister of Charity is significant, and it is shaped by the motto, "the love of Christ urges us on".