Seeds of Justice 2022

‘People of Mercy hear the cry of the poor’

Along with Ms Ventra and Mr Haintz, six students from Damascus College attended a Seeds of Justice event in Anglesea last Thursday 1^st September. The theme of the event was ecology and environmental sustainability which coincided nicely with the beginning of the Season of Creation. There were seven other Mercy schools in attendance. Throughout our time at the camp, we had two guest speakers, Anthony Leddin, the founder of the NGO, Plant Breeders Without Borders, and Sister Veronica Lawson, Sister of Mercy and former principal of St Martin’s in the Pines.

Anthony Leddin, a former student of Mercy School Emmanuel College, began his speech with a visual demonstration of the benefit of wealth that Australia has and the disparity between us and impoverished countries. He then spoke to us about his experiences working in disadvantaged countries around the globe. Anthony sent us away in small groups containing members of different schools to attempt to solve a hypothetical situation. Along with other criteria, we had to think of different ways to successfully develop a community driven organisation that would be fair to all members and ethical in its operations.

After lunch, Sister Veronica Lawson spoke about the need to care for our common home by referencing Christian scripture and the Catholic tradition, in particular Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si. She spoke about the new mindset that Pope Francis was trying to convey; humans are not superior to the environment but must appreciate all element of our world. Her key point was that the natural environment mercies us and that we are the mercied. It challenged us to think about how we need the environment to live.

Following on from this, a walk to the beach to observe the beauty of nature, as well as enjoy each other’s company and make friends with the students from the other schools in attendance, made a positive conclusion to the afternoon.

There were more activities that helped us to apply the teachings from the two guest speakers and taught us an awareness around other social justice issues. Through these activities, we also discussed improvements that might be made in our own school and wider community. You should hopefully be seeing some of these soon!

Tom Hall, Paris Govan, Lucas Wells, Haylee Vanderkley, Emmerson McHenry and Kaitlyn Handreck.