On Monday all staff of St James Lutheran College gathered to retreat, spend time together & consider again what is central to our identity as Lutheran Education communities. We considered hospitality as a metaphor for how to be community with and for one another.
Beginning the day with stories of hospitality from scripture, there was time for personal reflection and connection as well as time to listen to one another’s’ stories, practicing being present and coming as guest.
We collaboratively considered the Service-Learning concepts as a frame for living hospitably in community. There was lots of energy and ideas around how to grow Service-Learning practice.
It was also great to be working with teachers at St Andrews Lutheran College as they were finishing their Connect journey. It is energizing to see teachers expressing their understandings of why we value Restorative Practices and have a focus on community. Teachers expressed their appreciation of the opportunity to be able to think through what is important to Lutheran Education, and where they can find their place and passion also.
Our school communities are rich and diverse in nature. In the words of Emma Pavey, as creatures made in the image of God, we have an innate, created capacity for hospitality, a potential to make room for the other, to create free invitational space…through accepting the risk of vulnerable love.
Let’s keep growing together as we welcome new staff and make space for them to find their place and their identity as part of our Lutheran educational communities.
LEQ Identity & Formation
