Growing in Faith

faith moves mountains

GROWING IN Faith

ENHANCING SPIRITUALITY IN OUR LIVES

Throughout this school year, we became more reliant on, and thankful for, our faith more than ever before. We started the school year strong, with a new format for our system-wide Faith Development Day. On this day, we announced our spiritual theme for the year: ‘I am with you always.’ This day in September was an inspiring and deeply spiritual event for our staff and really set the tone for the year. Catholic Education Week continued to play a major role in our growth, though it looked a lot different this year. Catholic Education week was bursting with faith-driven and inspiring events for everyone. This year, we really got creative in finding ways to include everyone and bring everyone together virtually. The theme was Igniting Hope. Throughout the week, students, staff and their families came together virtually to participate in activities for all ages which included prayer, reflection and other suggested activities to do at home. We launched a social media campaign and asked people to reflect and share a response to two questions: What does Catholic education mean to you? or how has Catholic education shaped the person you are today? People were invited to share their thoughts and pictures using hashtags: #mytbayCatholic #Igniting Hope. We also held our first ever virtual Catholic Youth Conference. Paul J Kim spoke to students in grades 7 through 12 about living for more and inspired them to live according to their values and their faith. We closed out the week with a board wide virtual prayer service. Throughout the week students were inspired to reach out in a variety of ways: from creative videos to posters and letters or cards to seniors to creating virtual bulletin boards; students and staff at Thunder Bay Catholic are true beacons of hope for each other and for our community.

Teaching Faith in our Schools

As part of our Growing in Faith evolution, we have encouraged various teachers to volunteer as “Faith Ambassadors”. These teachers attend workshops and champion new faith-based initiatives within their school communities. Our Faith Leader continues to visit schools when possible. Later in the year, we found creative ways to support staff and students with liturgies in schools. Our Religious Education Consultant continues to update and maintain a Religious Education website for Faith Ambassadors and staff within our system. The site includes resources for curricular support as well as resources to support faith activities, prayer services, school masses and news about events. Our Board has been investing annually in a new program produced by Pearson and the Canadian Catholic Bishops. The Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ Program was created to support teachers in delivering a comprehensive program that directly meets the expectations in the Ontario Religious Education Curriculum, grades 1 through 8. The digital resources within this program were an invaluable resource for teachers when we had to pivot to Learn at Home.