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Building Catholic Culture in Education [residential course]

CPD for leaders of Catholic schools & MATs

Building Catholic Culture in Education

Friday 12th - Sunday 14th May 2023

A weekend exploring essential themes
for a Catholic ethos in today’s schools

“[The Catholic school’s] proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity … and to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith”

Second Vatican Council, Declaration on Christian Education “Gravissimum Educationis”

Our weekend course is aimed at governors, trustees, chief executives, heads and senior leaders who wish to engage in a serious discussion around the fundamentals of Catholic identity in a secular, multi-cultural and post-modern society, and the challenges of creating and sustaining a Catholic culture in educational settings in today’s Britain.

Bringing together an array of experienced and insightful practitioners with a variety of backgrounds, the course will enable a deeper understanding of the theological building blocks of a Catholic culture. The course will examine the opportunities and challenges presented by the increasingly secular culture in Britain today, in order to reflect on the commonalities and differences that go towards defining Catholic educational institutions.

Keynote speech:

Cultural Challenges to Catholic Education

by Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali

Nazir-Ali, Mgr Michael2

        Sessions:

  • Why Catholic? The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ’s Church in a Pluralist World
  • Shifting Sands: Secular and Catholic Concepts of Person and Society
  • A Question of Nature: Created Male and Female or Genderless Creation?
  • Educating to be Catholic in Contemporary Society
  • Culture Wars in Catholic Schools: Feminism, LGBT and Critical Race Theory
  • Managing Culture Wars from a Legal Standpoint

This course is intended for those in positions of leadership or governance in Catholic multi-academy trusts and schools, whether as executives, senior leaders, governors or trustees.

The weekend is built around six sessions and a keynote speech, allowing for questions and discussion time with each speaker, as well as dedicated discussion and plenary sessions.

A framework of prayer will be offered with daily morning and evening prayer and Mass.

Evening socials and free time provide a great opportunity for networking in a relaxed environment.

Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali was the 106th Bishop of Rochester, for 15 years, until 1 September 2009. He is originally from Southwest Asia and was the first Diocesan Bishop in the Church of England born abroad. He was appointed in 1994. Before that he was the General Secretary of CMS from 1989-1994 and prior to holding this position was Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan. He holds both British and Pakistani citizenship and from 1999 was a member of the House of Lords where he was active in a number of areas of national and international concern. He has both a Christian and a Muslim family background and is now President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue (OXTRAD).

Rev. Stephen Morgan has been Rector of the University of Saint Joseph since 2020. Originally from Wales in the UK, he is an Associate Professor of Theology and Ecclesiastical History.

After a career in finance in the City of London and Hong Kong, he spent fifteen years as the CFO/COO of a large not-for-profit in the UK. Returning to academic work in 2009, he read for a DPhil in Theology at the University of Oxford, where he was a post-doctoral Research Associate of St Benet’s Hall between 2013 and 2015. He has been a member of the academic staff of the Maryvale Institute of Higher Religious Sciences since 2011.

Katherine Bennett has a BA in Theology and an MA in Philosophy, and has taught Religious Education for over 20 years in London schools. She is now a writer and broadcaster, running weekly conversations about the Catholic Faith on YouTube, writing for the Catholic Herald and working with Catholic Voices. She was commissioned by Archbishop John Wilson to be deanery mentor responsible for evangelisaton in Southwark. 

 

 

Ryan Christopher read history at the University of Cambridge before studying Philosophy at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas and Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
His passion for Christian anthropology is the result of years of experience in the field of teaching and evangelisation. Ryan held senior posts at Ampleforth College, York, and St Aloysius’ College, Glasgow as well as teaching in the state sector and providing private tuition. Ryan serves as director of ADF UK in London. He is the advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education and regularly engages with the Department for Education regarding Christian Education. 
 

Dr Gavin Ashenden studied theology at Oak Hill Theological College in London, and was ordained as an Anglican priest by + Mervyn Stockwood in Southwark Cathedral in 1980. He lectured at the University of Sussex for 23 years on the Psychology of Religion and Literature. He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England for 20 years, and served as Chaplain to the Queen from 2008 to 2017.

Gavin resigned from the Church of England in 2017, then being ordained as a Missionary bishop to the UK and Europe for the Christian Episcopal Church. He has since been received into the Roman Catholic Church by + Mark Davies at Shrewsbury Cathedral. Dr Ashenden now writes as a lay Catholic, contributing articles to both secular and religious press, and continuing his well-established online ministry.

Stefan Kaminski studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and gained a Licentiate from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Life. He has worked in parishes delivering catechesis, and in a wide range of schools in various roles from chaplain to governor and Head of Theology. He has served as Director of The Christian Heritage Centre charity for four years, creating and delivering Catholic formation to a range of audiences.

Theodore House offers a wonderful venue for any residential course. The tranquil and beautiful surroundings of the Stonyhurst estate offer a peaceful setting with endless opportunities for walks. Guests will enjoy the comfortable recreational spaces and a beautifully lanscaped garden.

For more information about Theodore House, please click here.

  • Arrivals from 5pm (Friday)
  • Course commences with evening prayer at 6:45pm and dinner at 7pm (Friday), followed by introductions and the first session
  • Departures from 3:15pm on Sunday
Cost

Single room: £220 p.p.*

Twin room (sharing): £180 p.p.*

Non-residential, (includes lunches and dinners): £130 p.p.

*Includes full board from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch inclusive.

Bursaries of up to £70 p.p. are available to support with the cost of the course where required.

Please contact events@christianheritagecentre.com for further information.

“The lecture content was well organised and focused on practical situations – intellectually challenging, but stimulating and easy to follow. Presentation was great and brought emphasis on the important points.”

“Thank you so much for this conference and all the effort and hard work that has been put into it. The ability to gather and discuss with a framework of reflection and prayer/sacraments is truly precious.“

Please register below (includes £50 p.p. deposit payment):

Venue:

Categories
Media Video

Newman 101 conference

Newman 101: Why Newman Matters Today

Recordings of the online colloquium celebrating St Newman’s 10th anniversary of beatification and 1st anniversary of canonisation.

Introduction

***The recordings are made available freely with the request for a donation to support our costs.***

Please donate here:



Newman's Marian Turn

For more information about Dr Lamb, please click here.

 

Newman as Friend & Pastor
in the Work of Meriol Trevor

For more information about Mrs Caldecott, please click here.

Newman on Imagination:
Callista Revisited

For more information about Dr Pezzini, please click here.

Newman on Why Culture Matters

For more information about Dr Phillips, please click here.

Questions & Conclusion

Categories
Events Talks

The English Reformation & The European Renaissance [conference]

St John Henry Newman

The English Reformation
& The European Renaissance
[conference]

Saturday 28 March, 3:30 - 6:30pm

This event has been postponed due to Covid-19

An afternoon conference exploring the relationship between Reformation England and Renaissance Europe.

With Professors Peter Davidson (Oxford) and Gerard Kilroy (Academia Ignatium Krakow, U.C.L.)

The expulsion of Catholic scholars and the outlawing of Catholic education from Reformation England in the 1500s was intended to decisively detach England from the Catholic Faith. At the same time, the ongoing Renaissance on the continent was grounded in Europe’s profoundly Catholic roots. To what extent did Henry VIII’s reform succeed in severing English culture from Catholicism? And how far were the English removed from the influence of their Catholic European neighbours?

Professor Davidson will examine how the poetry of the famous Jesuit saint, Robert Southwell, reached and sustained not only its immediate and Catholic audience, but a rather more diverse section of English society.

Professor Kilroy will explore how English Catholicism was maintained and nurtured by exiles on the continent, and how a particular relationship between England and Europe continued as a result.

Conference schedule:

3:00pm Arrivals

3:30pm Prof. P. Davidson – Poetry and Fortress England: Southwell’s Literary Offerings to a Divided Nation

4:30pm Prof. G. Kilroy – Cosmopolitan Jesuits and a Culture of Catholic Exile

5:30pm Q & A session with Profs. Davidson and Kilroy

6:00pm Optional seminar: Practical Problems in the Study of the British Catholic Diaspora

Tea & coffee will be served throughout the afternoon, with breaks following each session.

About the speaker:

Peter Davidson is a Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford and a member of the English Faculty of Oxford University, formerly at Aberdeen, Warwick, Leiden. He was the general editor of the Oxford University Press Edition of the Complete Writings of St Robert Southwell. His writings include The Universal Baroque (MUP), The Last of the Light and The Idea of North (Reaktion), as well as editing early modern literature published by OUP. His general focus is on the exile and the culture of the British Catholic community after the Reformation.

For more information about Prof. Davidson, please click here.

About the speaker:

Gerard Kilroy is Professor of English Literature at the Akademia Ignatianum Krakow, and author of Edmund Campion: Memory and Transcription (2005), editor of The Epigrams of Sir John Harington (2009), and author of Edmund Campion: A Scholarly Life (2015). He is currently editing Evelyn Waugh’s life of Edmund Campion (1935) for a 43-volume edition of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh (OUP). In 2018, the Polish Embassy in London published a collection of his Poems. He has been attached to University College London for over ten years, first as Honorary Visiting Professor from 2009–2019, and now as Honorary Senior Research Fellow; he gives seminars there on editing from manuscripts, manuscript circulation and the smuggling of subversive books in early modern England. He has been Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, Oxford since 2015. He was a Visiting Professor at Masaryk University, Brno for three years. Much of his research was done in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, where he has had four Fellowships, and in Marsh’s Library, Dublin, where he had a Fellowship, and libraries in Oxford, London, Krakow, Warsaw, Prague, Munich, Dillingen and Rome.

For more information about Prof. Kilroy, please click here.

Cost:

Conference ticket: £29

Conference ticket, student discount: £24*

Student special offer: 5 tickets for £100*

Conference and overnight B&B: £65

Conference and overnight B&B, student discount: £60*

*Valid student ID will be required at the door

Please register below:

This event has closed.

Venue:
Categories
Articles Media

Culture is the dimension in which our faith is brought to life​

Pope John Paul II addressing UNESCO IN 1980

Friday 5th July 2019

The CHC @ The Catholic Universe

Culture is the dimension in which our precious faith is brought to life

Stefan Kaminski

The term ‘heritage centre’ carries with it a certain risk: that of associating it with old, even if valuable, artefacts, which do not necessarily have particular relevance to today beyond informing us of a bygone era.

 

Heritage, however, goes well beyond the material realm: in fact, the dictionary definition speaks of “cultural traditions that have been passed down from previous generations”. Of course, such cultural traditions find a certain embodiment and expression in works and artefacts; but to fixate purely on these as the sum total of our ‘heritage’ is to do a disservice to our cultural patrimony. When we do so, the concept of culture itself also becomes impoverished as a result.

 

When Pope St John Paul II addressed UNESCO in 1980 barely two years after his election, he emphatically reminded the organisation that the diverse traditions and eras of spiritual heritage and culture all have a common ground in our common human nature. Different cultures find their meeting place in the human being because culture “is a characteristic of human life as such”, he told the assembly. He went on to say that, “Human life is culture” because the cultural dimension is what distinguishes human life over and above any other animal life. Culture is therefore the societal expression of the spiritual and rational dimension of the human being: indeed, “culture is the specific way of man’s existing and being”.

 

This fact John Paul II traces back to the first accounts of humanity in the first two chapters of Genesis. There, the Lord’s entrustment of the earth to the dominion of mankind and His command to “cultivate the earth” is intrinsically linked to man’s (in the non-gender specific sense) creation in the image of God. From the relatively simple beginning of cultivating the soil, man’s God-given intellect enables the creation and nurture of a tradition of artistic creativity and scientific enquiry, forming the cultural dimension of the life of human society.

Pope John Paul II addressing UNESCO IN 1980

If John Paul II insisted on the unity of faith and reason, he similarly often repeated the mantra that ‘faith must become culture’. It could be said in fact, that culture is the primary dimension in which the unity of faith and reason should become visible. The fruits of our intellect – our work, our understanding of the world, our creative output – should be shaped by our faith, if indeed our faith is genuinely integrated as part of our lives. Such a culture will naturally be authentically human because it seeks what is good, beautiful and true: ultimately the Creator.

This is especially important in the home, the school and the parish, where faith is first handed on. If a good catechesis is not to find itself accused of hypocrisy, it needs be complemented by the promotion and nourishment of a culture that embodies the same principles. This requires Catholics who not only understand, believe and practice the tenets of their faith, but who have both the courage to challenge what does not lead to God, as well as the ability to speak their faith through what is true, good and beautiful in our culture. 

On the other hand, it is worth remembering the educative power of culture, regardless of its merits. The “primacy and essential task of culture… is education”, John Paul II reminded UNESCO. To disregard and dismiss as a fad those things in our culture that lead away from the truth and are objectively harmful is to lead astray our children. To leave at a distance that which is good and true in our culture is to deprive the next generation.

For this reason, part of the task that the Christian Heritage Centre has set itself is to promote an appreciation and understanding of the Christian influences in our cultural tradition. This heritage is not one that belongs to the history books or to a dim-and-distant past: it belongs to every modern-day Christian, since “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever” (Heb 13:8). Every Christian-informed cultural work is a potential catechetical tool, just as the highest creative achievements of the human spirit, be they Bach, Michelangelo, Shakespeare or Rembrandt, remain valid as exemplars of artistic and technical genius and as inspiration for the rest of time.

The Christian Heritage Centre’s first event is thus a study weekend on faith and literature, exploring two key themes in English writings: our place within the world and our own vision for ourselves. The Christian tradition has much to offer on both fronts: from the fundamental goodness of creation to virtue-based character formation, Chesterton, Austen, Green and Tolkien (amongst others) have all incorporated Christian wisdom into their writings.

The weekend will offer both lectures and guided group discussions, within a framework of prayer, to enable participants to have a deeper understanding of the Christian thinking behind some of the best-loved pieces in English literature. Alongside a broad selection of English texts, there will also be a certain focus on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Whilst it is offered with a wide audience in mind, the weekend will be of particular interest to parents and teachers concerned with the moral and cultural formation of their children and pupils, as well as to students of the humanities. Not to mention, of course, anyone simply wanting a weekend perusing literary classics in a beautiful setting!

Stefan Kaminski is the Director of The Christian Heritage Centre

Categories
Articles Media

China’s attacks on Christianity will fail while the spirit of Mateo Ricci lives on

Friday 7th September 2018

The CHC @ The Catholic Universe

China’s attacks on Christianity will fail while the spirit of Mateo Ricci lives on

Lord Alton of Liverpool

Last week, two Catholic priests, Fr Wang Yiqin and Fr Li Shidong were forcibly removed from their Chinese parishes for holding a youth summer camp that had not been authorised by China’s Communist authorities.

Increasing attacks on religious faith – against Chinese Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs – looks like part of a new Maoist Cultural Revolution. The shocking sight of bulldozed churches and mosques – including the obliteration of the  famous Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi Province – is reminiscent of Stalin’s destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries.

A Chinese church is destroyed by the Communist authorities.

Yet, where was the outrage to these events – including dramatic video of that 50,000 capacity church being dynamited?

This determined crackdown began in February when President Xi’s new religious regulations come into force. These require the registration of all religious bodies, which must be ‘Sinoised’ and freed from ‘foreign’ influences and rebuilt on ‘socialist’ principles. Intriguingly, the well cared for tomb, in Beijing, of a 16th century Italian Jesuit missionary, Mateo Ricci SJ – left untouched, on Mao’s own orders, during the Cultural Revolution’s desecration of the graves of foreigners – suggests that it must be possible for States to reach a proper accommodation with religion.

One of the rooms in the newly built Theodore House – part of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst (CHC) – celebrates the memory of Matteo Ricci. The Trustees of the CHC believe Ricci’s own story is instructive and should give encouragement in the face of contemporary persecution.

The Cambridge scholar, Mary Laven, in Mission to China, charts Ricci’s encounter with China and her people. She reminds us that Christianity is not a new religion in China. In 635, in the seventh century, Olopen, a Nestorian monk, travelled to the Eastern city of Changan (today’s Xi’an); and there were other sporadic, later attempts (including that of St Francis Xavier), to take Christianity to China.

But it was Matteo Ricci’s arrival which would lead to more than 2,000 conversions and to the widespread dissemination of the Christian narrative. And it is Ricci’s intelligent approach – based on friendship and respect – which should inspire us today.

On reaching China the Europeans initially shaved their heads and dressed as monks but soon realised that by identifying with Buddhist and Taoist idolatry they were failing to reach the literati – the educated Confucian elite. So, Ricci chose instead to dress and behave as a Confucian scholar – engaging China’s culture and leadership through science, books and reason – fides et ratio.

Matteo Ricci's statue still stands proudly in Beijing (below) – out-lasting Mao’s cynical Cultural Revolution, a symbol of China’s Christian heritage

‘The Chinese have a wonderful intelligence, natural and acute,’ he wrote, ’from which, if we could teach our sciences, not only would they have great success among these eminent men, but it would also be a means of introducing them easily to our holy law and they would never forget such a benefit.’

Unlike his more aggressive Portuguese and Spanish counterparts, whose presence in Macao became a source of conflict with the Chinese authorities, Ricci’s admiring embrace of Chinese culture, language and customs, gradually gave him a following in many circles.

Ricci’s publication of his world map, the Mappamondo, along with translations of Western classical scholarship; his knowledge of astronomy and mathematics; his decision to import hitherto unknown musical instruments, such as the harpsichord, along with Venetian prisms and mechanical clocks, all gained him acceptance and, despite occasional attempts to close the missions, the ultimate forbearance of the Emperor.

His reasoned approach also bore spiritual fruit – with the Jesuit’s work blessed by healings and miracles. In his diary, Ricci wrote: ‘From morning to night, I am kept busy discussing the doctrines of our faith. Many desire to forsake their idols and become Christians’.

Ricci brought the hugely admired Plantin Bible to China – eight gilded folio volumes with printed parallel texts in Aramaic, Syriac, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. His True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven was printed and distributed widely, drawing heavily on Aquinas but also appropriating Confucian ideas to bolster the Christian cause.

He brilliantly repositioned the important Chinese custom of ancestor worship by tracing everything back to ‘the first ancestor’ – the Creator, the Lord of Heaven. It was a later repudiation by the Holy See of this interpretation which would end the Emperor’s patronage of the mission and the expulsion of Jesuits.

Ricci’s legacy includes some of the oldest astronomical instruments

In 1742 Pope Benedict XIV terminated any further discussion of the issue; a decree which was repealed only in 1938. Pope John XXIII, in his encyclical Princeps Pastorum, rehabilitated Ricci’s methodology and reputation saying Ricci should be “the model of missionaries.” Ricci’s other 16th century writings were his Catechism and a treatise On Friendship, building on Confucius’ belief, expressed in the Analects, that ‘To have friends coming from distant places – is that not delightful?’ Simultaneously Ricci introduced his readers to Cicero’s assertion that “the reasons for friendship are reciprocal need and mutual help.” Amicitia perfecta – perfect friendship – was, for Ricci, the highest of ideals. Certainly the Chinese came to value him as a true friend.

On his death, on 11th May 1610, he was uniquely accorded a burial site in Beijing by the Emperor – which, according to Laven was “an extraordinary coup, which testified to the success of nearly 30 years of careful networking and diplomacy.”

His legacy included astronomical instruments and installations brought by Jesuits to Beijing, which – like his tomb – remained untouched even during China’s disastrous Cultural Revolution.

An even more enduring memory has been Ricci’s admirable willingness to find ways through difficult situations and his innate respect for Chinese culture and civilisation – something to inspire both the Church and the Chinese authorities. Chinese leaders should study the story of Matteo Ricci but they should also study compelling research that shows that those societies that respect religious freedom are the most prosperous and the most stable.

China is a great country with much to offer the world – but it needs to think more deeply about the self- inflicted damage it is doing by trying to eliminate religious freedom and by suppressing Christianity. A country built only on materialism will become a country without a soul – and that, in turn, would be an unhappy society lacking in harmony or respect – values every society needs.

Alienating millions of religious believers, rather than harnessing them in Ricci’s spirit of friendship, is both wrong-headed and short-sighted.

The Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst will be playing its part in telling the story of China’s persecuted Christians and in ensuring that they are not forgotten.