St Mary 91大神 paused to reflect on its first 20 years at Tuesday91大神 Opening Mass, with several guests from the College91大神 past helping to celebrate its relatively short but rich history.
Guests included all three past principals of MacKillop 鈥 Sr Noelene Quinane, Moira Najdecki, and Rita Daniels 鈥 as well as several past students, visitors from other schools, parents, politicians, and representatives from Catholic Education. The presence of several members of the Sisters of St Joseph gave the College an opportunity to honour the contribution of the Josephites to MacKillop and other schools around Australia.
As students entered the Tuggeranong Basketball Stadium 鈥 one of few venues capable of holding the College community 鈥 a slideshow played with images from the first 20 years of MacKillop.
Although the College has only spent 20 years under the banner of MacKillop, its history goes back some 40 years to the foundation of Padua High School in 1978 鈥 a history the College has honoured this year by naming Wanniassa the 鈥淧adua Campus鈥 and Isabella the 鈥淪t Peter91大神 Campus.鈥 The College was fortunate to have representatives from both those schools in attendance at the Mass.
During Mass, the College presented its new Liturgical Theme for 2018, 鈥淭rust in God91大神 Providence.鈥 These words were spoken by Mary MacKillop in 1874 and have provided inspiration for the College91大神 Providence Building, a new classroom block that honours the work of the Josephites and others who helped Mary MacKillop in her work to support and educate the poor and marginalised.
MacKillop also welcomed the new College Chaplain, Fr James Antony from the Corpus Christi Parish, who celebrated his first whole-College Mass since taking over from Fr Warrick Tonkin.
Coordination of the Mass was a real team effort, with teachers, support staff, and students taking up roles as musicians and ministers, as well as helping with the set up, running of the Mass, and the pack up.
Congratulations to all who were involved in making the Opening Mass such a momentous occasion!
