Damascus News - Term 1 Week 9
From the Principal
24 March By Mr. Matthew Byrne, Principal
As we move through the last full week of term 1, we are reminded by the media of the uncertainty and fear of this time last year when we first moved into lockdown. I am sure that there are people within our community for whom that trauma remains very real. We are fortunate to be in a position of relative safety compared to the rest of the world, but we also remember those who continue to struggle with that fear and trauma both here and abroad.
The fear and uncertainty that the pandemic continues to illicit resonates with the experience of Holy Week that commences on Sunday. Jesus life changed dramatically and tragically in a very short space of time. Jesus resurrection provides the ultimate expression of hope. We are people of hope, and the lifting of further restrictions on Friday could be seen as a subtle Easter massage.
For our community, Easter is the key celebration within our calendar. We mark the celebration of Holy Week and Easter in a variety of ways. The 30th anniversary of the production of The Final Hours is a wonderful expression of our Christian community. I congratulate those students involved in the production and thank Andrew Seeary and Nicole Burness and all those who support them for their facilitation of this contemporary retelling of the Holy week scripture.
We will also come together as a whole school community on Holy Thursday for our Easter liturgy. It will be the first time we have all gathered in the John Shannon Centre since the 2020 Opening School Mass, and I am excited that it is in the context of Easter that it will occur next Thursday at 1.45pm to conclude our term. I acknowledge the work of our Liturgy Leader, Cathy Prunty and Assistant Principal of Catholic School Culture, Tony Haintz, for their preparation of our liturgy.
This Friday, we will move to the Llanberris Reserve for our Athletics carnival. The athletics carnival is a great opportunity for our young people to team together in their Houses to compete. As with any school day, this is a compulsory school day for all students. There are a broad range of events to engage students of different abilities. Please make sure students have suitable sun protection and food and water for the day.
Our Year 7 students have been out on reflection days this week, supporting them to settle into our Catholic Christian community. I thank the RE team and Adrian Newman for their preparation for this week.
Yesterday, Jacob Hanrahan, Keira O'Beirne, Gemma Gale and Jack Sproull represented Damascus at the BAS Golfing championships.
I congratulate Gemma as she was crowned the Junior Girls 9 Hole Champion - Well Done! Further congratulations to all students on their participation during the day and thanks to Tony Haintz for facilitating the opportunity.
Just a reminder that immunisations will occur next Wednesday morning, 31st March, for Year 7's. All Year 7 students are to return their immunisation card to the College, whether they are being immunised or not.
A gentle reminder for parents of Year 10 students in core groups 5, 6, 7, 8. Work Experience arrangements for students need to be finalised by the first week back of term 2. If your child has not yet found Work Experience, please encourage and assist them in doing so over the coming few weeks. The school holidays may be a perfect time to contact and visit potential employers.
Spare Work Experience forms are available from the Careers Hub in the Library, or alternatively, the Damascus Web page has printable copies Work Experience and SWL Forms - Damascus College
Contact a member of the Careers Team if you have any questions
The annual STEM Career Expo will also take place this year on Monday 10th May from 9.00am – 1.00pm. The Science department are seeking past students, present and past parents, families and friends of Damascus College that work or study in the area of Science, Maths, Medicine, Allied Health, Technology or Engineering careers to chat to small groups of students. If you are interested please see the flyer here
This week Damascus students Alex Western, Caspian Linayao, William McKechnie and Riley McCarthy are in Tasmania competing at the Rowing Nationals regatta. The boys are competing in a range of different events for community clubs across the week, and we wish them well for their competition.
Our counselling team has been stretched over recent weeks, which will mean that their ability to support students in the preholiday period will be difficult. If families are looking for counselling support and it appears to be unavailable until next term, please speak with your House Leader or contact Kids Helpline.
Families are reminded that there is still a requirement for students to carry a mask at all times whilst at school and the further requirement that if they are travelling on public transport that they wear a mask; this includes any off-campus activities/excursion throughout the day.
I remind families that Thursday, the 1st April is the last day of term, and school will finish at the earlier end of term time of 2.17pm. We will work an adjusted, shorter lesson timetable throughout the day, with lesson 6 given to our Easter Liturgy.
In our prayers this week, we remember those who are affected by the floods. Many within our community have connections affected up the east coast, and we keep the members of those communities in our prayers. In our prayers today, we remember staff member Jessica Wong and her family as they commemorate Jess' mum's life.
Until next week …
MATT
College Information & Events
24 March
College Information & Events
24 March
Halima is raising her two children in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, while caring for her mother who has a disability. Widowed at 21, Halima fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, arriving at the camp with nothing.
Caritas Australia, through Caritas Bangladesh, helped Halima with shelter, cooking equipment, hygiene and sanitation training. She took on the role of community trainer herself, organising the cleaning of washrooms, wells and toilets.
Halima aspired to “Be More” and is proud that she is able to earn a small income, while maintaining the health of her family and the cleanliness of the camp community.
Watch a short film about Halima’s story here.
“Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au
Student Achievement
24 March
Alex Western (Year 10 – Wendouree Ballarat Rowing Club), William McKechnie (Year 11 – Ballarat City) and Riley McCarthy (Year 12 – Ballarat City) are rowing at Lake Barrington in Tasmania at the 2021 Australian Rowing Championships this week. This is Australia’s largest rowing regatta which attracts rowers from around Australia from school rowers to Olympians. We wish the boys all the best this week in representing their respective clubs. If you are interested in watching the live stream, click here https://livestream.com/accounts/7329366
College Information & Events
24 March
With Easter fast approaching, so too is the Damascus College Final Hours production - the story of the final few hours of Jesus' life.
We thought our community would enjoy learning a little about how this unique performance first began, especially this year as we celebrate it's 30th anniversary year.
Well done to the 40+ students listed below that are part of the cast and crew, it is great to see a wide range of year levels participating.
We look forward to seeing our beautiful campus transformed for The Final Hours.
Who would have thought when a group of senior drama students at the then St. Martins in the Pines stepped up onto a small wooden platform in 1989 that they would be starting one of the college’s most memorable traditions. This year the biannual production of “The Final Hours” is back for its 16th season with a new cast and crew and a few new surprises.
This longstanding Easter tradition at Damascus began from humble beginnings with two lights and a simple raised stage in 1990. It has now grown slowly into the very complex theatrical event being produced this year.
From its humble beginnings 30 years ago this Passion play developed by director, designer Andrew Seeary has grown into a complex and technically challenging theatrical event. The performance which utilizes both interior and exterior locations around the Mt. Clear Campus involves over forty students in both acting and technical roles. The play tracks the final hours of Jesus of Nazareth before being put to death on the cross. The structure and script focus on the gritty realism and raw emotions of a range of characters that witness the event.
“It is one of the most recognizable and well-known stories of the world and it has been told for generations in so many forms” said Andrew who has been involved in the production continuously since its inception. “Like at Christmas time, Easter’s true origin is founded in an event, one that sometimes gets lost amid holidays and commercialism. The production has always been an attempt to reconnect with the true message of Easter.
One of the great joys of the performance has always been in seeing students from all year levels working as one in a great spirit of purpose and collaboration.
As we journey towards the celebration of the event’s thirtieth year, we still feel the power of this unique production. Its capacity to reflect through drama on the fundamental stories of the Christian faith still inspires and creates opportunity for reflection.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
The Damascus College motto “To Live By The light of Christ” is never better highlighted than by our commitment to “The Final Hours” production. This is the 16th season of this incredible and moving performance, portrayed with all the passion and sensitivity we have learnt to experience from a hugely talented cast of young people. This story of Jesus’ final hours on earth is the heart and essence of our Catholic faith tradition.
We are immensely proud of our reflective Easter production and I commend it to all families as a tradition that has preceded the College’s inception and is the lived expression of Catholic Christian identity.
Mr. Matthew Byrne
Please see Below the Cast & Crew List:-
Crew
Crew Coplin -Jasmine McBride, Year 12
Romany McKay, Year 12
Nick Kottulo, Year 12
Rose Spencer, Year II
Wes Carter, Year 10
Zoe Noakes, Year 9
Cendrine White, Year 9
Gemma Gale, Year 9
Aurora Mulcahy, Year 8
Aida Cater, Year 8
Cast
Narrator - Elarin Johnson, Year 10
Jesus - Charlie Norman, Year 9
Pilote - Gabriel Blake, Year 11
Pharisee - Eliza Kerslake, Year 12
1st Centurion - Caelan Mason, Year 9
2nd Centurion - Drew Smith, Year 10
Peter - Declon Eden, Year 9
Barabas - Thomas McKay, Year 12
Woman # 1 - Jessica Dechene, Year 9
Woman #2 - Liana Canfield, Year 10
Gaoler - Kiama Perry, Year 12
Husband - Brady Lucas, Year 11
Ruth - Eloise McGifford, Year 11
St. John - Georgia Newman, Year 12
Simon - Gemma Angeli , Year 12
Veronica - Zoe Newman, Year 9
Neighbor - Sage Seeary, Year 10
Woman of Jerusalem • Montana Forster, Year 12
Employee • Payton Overall, Year 12
Roman Official - William Hollit, Year 9
Mary - Amy Wells, Year 11
St. Joseph • Mikayla Montgomery, Year 11
The Crowd
Sinead Sugars, Year 11 • Caleb Inglis, Year 9 • Khyl Edward, Year 11 • Arielle Wotson, Year 12
Matlida Marlin Block, Year 11 • Lucy LeviSlon, Year 9 • Sophie Leviston, Year 11
Niomh Seore, Year 9 • Reese Watson, Year 9
College Information & Events
24 March
What Makes This Week Holy?
In the Christian calendar Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. During this week Christians are asked to reflect on the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross, an event that took place nearly two millennia ago at a place which remains the epicenter of religious and political violence today.
The festival of Pesah, or Passover, the most celebrated Jewish holiday of the year, occurs at around the same time of year. Passover commemorates God's deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover with his disciples when he was caught in the web of events that led to his death. While most Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the New Testament weaves the central events of this week into one overarching story of redemptive history. As St. Paul put it, "For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7).
But what makes this week HOLY?
The Christian tradition declares that the eternal God of creation has come into our world, has stepped into our time and space, in the person of a Palestinian peasant named Jesus. The events of Holy Week mark what T. S. Eliot called "the point of intersection of the timeless with time." What happened one Friday in Jerusalem was not "once upon a time," but once for all time. As Jews re-enact the mighty act of God in saving his chosen people at the Exodus, so Christians are called to follow Jesus on his lonely trek from the Upper Room through Gethsemane to Calvary.
But what makes this week holy is something else. It is the fact that something happened back then and there, in space and in time, something so shattering that the grinding wheels of fate were stopped by it and death is now no longer allowed to have the final word.
Good Friday does not permit the kind of unscrupulous optimism usually found on our Easter greeting cards. But it does declare that at the heart of the universe there is a personal presence, a God who has chosen not to remain in his heaven, cocooned within himself, but who has become a part of the world he has made, and taken upon himself the burden of loving it back to himself. This he has done as a humbly born baby in a manger, as a suffering man on a cross.
We are invited by this holiest day of Holy Week to believe that decisions we make here and now can have consequences that will last forever, that time is a God-given opportunity to learn to love, and that love is the one thing we experience in time that remains in eternity.
Adapted from an article by Timothy George
http://www.christianitytoday.c...
And so we celebrate …
At School
Tuesday 30th March 8:00 p.m. Final Hours
Wednesday 31st March 8:00 p.m. Final Hours
Thursday 1st April 1:40 p.m. Holy Week Prayer; 10:00 p.m. Final Hours
Friday 14th April 8:00 p.m. Final Hours
In the Local Catholic Church
Sunday 27th March
Palm (Passion) Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem. Sunday Liturgy in Parish Churches.
Monday 28th March
7:30 p.m. Mass of the Oils. St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Blessing of the Oils for use in the sacramental life of the Diocese of Ballarat.
The TRIDUUM
Thursday 1st April
HOLY THURSDAY (Last Supper)
Friday 2nd April
GOOD FRIDAY (Death of Jesus)
Saturday 3rd April
EASTER VIGIL (Resurrection) / Sunday 4th April Easter Sunday
See below for Liturgy Times
Steven is an innovative and passionate leader and his leadership style is one that is highly relational and visible. His personal educational vision is to work in relationship and in partnership with all members of the community to create a faith learning dynamic that celebrates, affirms, and challenges people to achieve personal excellence.
Damascus College wishes to thank Mr Christopher Grant, Interim Principal for the leadership he has given to the College, since the departure of Mr Matthew Byrne at the end of Term 1 2022.
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