Response to Bishop’s Vision

Bishop Patrick

In November 2018 our Bishop Patrick McKinney asked that all schools parishes and chaplaincies become more outward looking and missionary. He set a challenge that over the next three years we build a strong spiritual foundation for this work focused on the themes of encounter, discipleship and missionary discipleship.

At CTK, encounter is already a central theme to our mission statement but we reflected on the ways in which we could develop the opportunities for prayer across our community, ensuring that all students and staff had the chance to experience different types of prayer.

We used the liturgical year to guide this so that during Lent, students prayer is focused on the Stations of the Cross. In May and October we pray the rosary, and during our liturgical prayer at the end of each term there is a period of Eucharistic Adoration.

To ensure that the community understands that this deeper encounter with Christ then calls us to respond, we use our Catholic Character Education to help to shape this work. Students are taught through our curriculum about the virtues (qualities) that they need to develop to become disciples of Christ. They will learn the importance of compassion, perseverance, stewardship and love in their daily life and they will be encouraged to bring this message to others in the example that they set in the wider community.

This has then supported them in the task of missionary discipleship, where we are called to make known the love of God for all through our actions in the community. We have always worked to encourage students to put their faith into action but this year we have chosen to do this through the work of Mission Champions. Each House group has chosen a focus for this missionary work and they are working with the Director of Catholic Life and their House Leaders to create opportunities for acts of charity, prayer and teaching so that we all know how we are called to respond to the challenge set by Christ to “Go, make disciples of all nations”.

House Projects

There are five houses within our school and each house has a house project which runs for the Lent and Pentecost term:

Canterbury House – focused on the environment. We should recycle for our future generations because if we don’t act now things will be too big to act in the later years.

Holywell House – raise awareness of immigration and the struggles faced by people settling in our country.

Iona House – raise awareness of the pressing issue of food poverty in our local community.

Lindisfarne House – raise awareness and take action against Youth Homelessness.

Walsingham House – raise awareness and provide support for local care homes

Click here to learn more about our House Missions.