Dear Parents and Carers,

It is with a great sense of sadness that I inform you of the sudden passing of Travis Southby, who was a former student at St John’s, who was in Year 8 at John Therry Catholic High School. Travis passed away over the weekend from a heart condition.

We particularly remember Travis’ parents, his older sister Olivia, and his brother Michael who is in Year 2 at St John’s at this time of great loss. As a school community, we continue to remember the Southby family in our prayers at this time of great sadness. May Travis rest in eternal peace.

Next Sunday, we celebrate one of the most important feast days of our Church, the great feast of Pentecost. The word ‘Pentecost’ in Greek means, the ‘fiftieth day’. It marks the 50th day after Easter Sunday and the end of the Easter Season. In the Jewish tradition, Pentecost occurred fifty days after Passover and was a time of celebration after the harvest. After Jesus’ death the people he had been intimately connected with on a daily basis for the three years of his public ministry, his disciples, returned to their normal lives. Fear and the absence of a clear understanding of the mission ahead sent them back to the default safety of the lives they led before they met Jesus. They became people frozen by fear and uncertainty.

On the day of Pentecost, all this changed when the Holy Spirit descended on them as they were gathered together in Jerusalem. This gathering was the beginning of the first Christian church. The Holy Spirit gave to these frozen disciples the gifts of courage, wisdom, understanding and knowledge so they could finally understand their role in continuing the mission of Jesus. The feast of Pentecost is a celebration of the harvest of the seeds of faith, because the disciples finally came to understand the significance of Jesus’ teaching. As a teacher, this can be liked to the moment when our students finally put the pieces of learning together and are able to transfer this learning to a new situation. Jesus understood the fragility of his followers and knew that would need these gifts if they were to be able to go out to all the nations and spread the good news. New believers in Jesus were baptized as they joined this church. They, along with the first followers of Jesus, shared life together, focusing on teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. They shared their belongings so that no one was hungry or needy. All this was done in keeping alive the memory and mission of Jesus. Jesus began his work of mission and after Pentecost he had a church to continue the mission he had begun ~ to make present in the here and now, the kingdom of God.

The church of Jesus Christ is a place where every single person matters, where every member contributes to the health and mission of the church. Pentecost presents us with an opportunity to consider how we are living each day through our daily interactions with one another.

We pray that as a school community the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Right Judgment, Courage, Knowledge, Reverence, Wonder, and Awe of God, are present in our lives and the lives of our children. We pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can all play our part transforming the world into a better place.

This begins in the here and now and is played out through our interactions with our family, friends and community, especially our community here at St John’s.

May the Holy Spirit guide our hearts and minds so that we continue to spread the mission of Jesus, to reach out in service of others and build the kingdom of God.

Wishing you many blessings over the coming week.

Jane Webb
Acting Principal