Director of Schools Peter Hamill was farewelled from the Diocese of Broken Bay on Friday 2 August at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral. Mass was celebrated by Diocesan Administrator Fr David Ranson, and was well-attended by principals, teachers,Catholic Schools Office Staff, Chancery Staff and many parents. He begins his new role today, 5 August, as Deputy Director of the National Catholic Education Commission.
Acting Director of Schools Tony Bracken, Peter Hamill, Jenny Hamill and Fr David Ranson
Homily from Rev Dr David Ranson
Throughout the 20th century worked the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead. Margaret Mead was born in Philadelphia in 1901 and lived through until 1978. It is hard to imagine another anthropologist who has taught us as much about the nature of human community. Margaret Mead was once asked what sign we had about when civilisation began. The expectation was that her reply would concern the discovery of some ancient artefact such as a tool, or a weapon, or a segment of art. Instead, she simply replied, “a healed femur.”
A healed femur bone is the sign we have of the beginnings of civilisation.
Why did this famous anthropologist claim this? She claimed this because for the first time we had an indication that a community had cared for someone. Previously, there would be no evidence of a healed femur, for the person who had experienced a broken femur would be left to die. There comes a point in human history, however, when someone with a broken femur is cared for. Since a broken femur takes many months to heal, the person whose healed bone was discovered would have been cared for consistently for a good length of time. Their every need would have required attention. And for Margaret Mead the indication of this attention was the sure sign of the beginning of human civilisation. Human civilisation begins as the culture of care is evidenced, a culture in which human beings give themselves over to one another in care for each other.
Is it not for the formation of this civilisation to which Catholic Education is committed? Every one of our schools exists not simply as an educational facility but first and foremost as a community of persons. And not just as a social community, but as an ecclesial one, a sacramental one. And by this, I mean one that might intimate the possibility of what our Christian understanding of God most fully reveals – that we find ourselves most fully in and through our relationships with one another. As we read in some of the literature from the Vatican Congregation for Education,
The Catholic educational community is able to educate for communion, which, as a gift that comes from above, animates the project of formation for living together in harmony and being welcoming. Not only does it cultivate in the students the cultural values that derive from the Christian vision of reality, but it also involves each of them in the life of the community, where values are mediated by authentic interpersonal relationships among the various members that form it, and by the individual and community acceptance of them.
In this way, the life of communion of the educational community assumes the value of an educational principle, of a paradigm that directs its formational action as a service for the achievement of a culture of communion. Education in the Catholic school, therefore, through the tools of teaching and learning, “is not given for the purposes of gaining power but as an aid towards a fuller understanding of, and communion with [others], events and things.” This principle affects every scholastic activity, the teaching and even all the after-school activities such as sport, theatre and commitment in social work, which promote the creative contribution of the students and their socialisation.
This commitment to create a culture of community not simply a nice ideal but a pedagogical principle in all that we do gives to our students the truth that we owe them – the truth of themselves. This environment of community presents then, “as a privileged place for the formation of young people in the construction of a world based on dialogue and the search for communion, rather than in contrast; on the mutual acceptance of differences rather than on their opposition. In this way, with its educational project taking inspiration from ecclesial communion and the civilisation of love, the Catholic school can contribute considerably to illuminating the minds of many, so that ‘there will arise a generation of new persons, the moulders of a new humanity.’” Our educators are entrusted with this remarkable enterprise, moulding a new humanity, a humanity known by its capacity for care and for community. What a daunting but enthralling commission.
This evening we give thanks for the special contribution that Peter has made to this adventure. We give thanks particularly for his leadership over the last seven years. He shared with me last night as our clergy farewelled him at dinner that this had been the longest he had held the one position! But of course, we know that the last seven years are set against a lifetime of commitment to Catholic Education, a commitment that will now continue to express itself with a national character. We have benefitted by Peter’s presence with us in fact for 9 years, joining us as he did in early 2010 as the Assistant Director of Administration for the Catholic Schools Office. Throughout the whole of his time with us Peter has demonstrated with clarity and conviction his understanding of the identity of the Catholic school as reflecting the possibility about which we have been speaking.
Without doubt, you have been a most significant leader in our Diocese, Peter. As I shared with our priests last night, you have not only, through some very acute challenges, ably overseen our 44 schools, 16,000 students, over 1,500 teachers, and 120 staff of the CSO. You have been involved at every level of the life of our Diocese, actively participating in the development of our collective sense of mission in such a way that we will feel your departure very keenly. As one illustration of this, we note your unmistakable bravery in being a part of World Youth Day both in Krakow and in Panama and at which you have gone well and truly beyond the call of duty to immerse yourself in the hopes and aspirations of the young people of our Diocese!
The formation of a civilisation of care is not an easy undertaking. As Pope Francis points out to young people, a culture of the ephemeral dominates. He calls us to be revolutionaries, to swim against the tide, to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes we are incapable of responsibility, incapable of true love. Our Catholic schools must be agents of this revolution.
Tonight, Peter, we salute you for your involvement in this dangerous mission, for the magnificent contribution that you have made, and we thank you, especially, for your last seven years of unmistakable leadership. Do not forget us here for you will always be part of our story and in our hearts.