By Adrian Pyle
Five compelling things I heard in the address from Rev Charissa Suli, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, to the Uniting Connections National Schools Conference.
1) The deepest question is not what young people know, but who they are becoming.
In an age where machines can increasingly provide information and answers, wisdom, character, belonging, purpose and hope become even more precious. Education has always been about formation, not simply information.
2) Every educator is holding threads they may never fully see.
… a word of encouragement … a second chance … a moment when a student is noticed rather than overlooked.
Years later, that thread may still be helping to hold a life together. Charissa’s own story was testimony to that.
3) Belonging is not a slogan. It is a necessity.
In one of the loneliest generations on record, schools are engaged in sacred work. Every child matters, not because of what they achieve, but because the Spirit of God is already at work in every life long before we recognise it.
4) Protecting dignity is not simply compliance, but Gospel work.
Child safety, inclusion and the protection of vulnerable people are not distractions from the participation in mission. They are indeed part of it.
5) Schools are not on the edge of the Church’s life.
Charissa challenged us to move beyond nostalgia and beyond simply rehearsing differences. Schools, congregations, agencies and the wider Church each bring something important to the shared work of forming young people for lives of wisdom, belonging and hope.
A compelling line for me from the whole address was: “The machine will make the answers, but you form the human beings.”
Adrian Pyle is Director Chaplaincy and Connections