Communio Calling
Communio Calling
15th Anniversary Episode
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Today, 22 July 2026, Good Samaritan Education celebrates 15 years as a ministerial public juridic person.
As we mark this significant milestone—and five years of Communio Calling—we bring together a collection of reflections from members of our community who have each played a part in GSE’s journey.
Through their memories, insights and hopes for the future, these voices tell part of the story of Good Samaritan Education, one inspired by a shared communio in the Good Samaritan Benedictine tradition. This is our communio calling is to mission.
Thank you to everyone who walks alongside us, contributing to God's mission. We are grateful for all that has been and look forward with hope to all that is yet to come.
Welcome to Good Samaritan Education's podcast, Communio Calling. My name is Gabrielle Sinclair and I'll be your host. The 22nd of July 2026 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of Good Samaritan Education as an ecclesial community in the Catholic Church here in Australia. Established in common accord with the Archbishops of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as the bishops of Broken Bay and Wollongong, this diocesan ministerial PJP, now called Into Faith in Mission in Catholic Education, were formed and are formed by the Good Samaritan Benedictine Tradition and the witness of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan who empowered and entrusted this new community with all the rights and obligations of their Ministry of Catholic Education. Welcome to today's episode. Today we are inviting you into a holy pause to stop, to celebrate, and reflect on the last 15 years of Good Samaritan Education and do to hold the hopes of all that we are still becoming together in Communio. We have quite a lineup of voices to share, their memories and hopes from the very outset of the beginnings of GSV to some newer voices, covering roles from governing council, school leadership, boards, and Good Samaritan Education Services. I invite you to listen to their stories. Indeed, they are our story. Take some time to pause and reflect on where we have been and how we are still becoming, and all the joys and challenges that are always on the horizon as we continue to walk with Christ on mission, bringing young people to the Gospel.
SPEAKER_10My name is Frank Pitt, and I'm the current chair of Good Samaritan Education. I have a long association with the Good Samaritan Sisters, having studied with them, worked with them and enjoyed their company. I spent 42 years as an educator, working in Catholic systemic schools, Good Samaritan schools, and as a sessional lecturer at Wollongong University. I hold master's degrees in special education, religious education, and educational leadership. I also have a PhD in special education. I first became a member of the Governing Council in 2021. I was elected Deputy Chair in 2022. This was followed by my election as chair in late 2025. The celebration of 15 years of Good Samaritan education is a wonderful milestone and one that we as the Good Samaritan Education community can feel justifiably proud. However, in doing so, we must acknowledge the trust and the faith shown by the sisters in transferring the ten schools to lay leadership. I remember this as a time of great celebration, new imaginings, and new beginnings. A first governing council was established, and new ideas and opportunities were identified. As a good Samaritan principal at the time, I couldn't help but be swept up by the euphoria and the great goodwill that was obvious on all fronts. We continue to acknowledge the wonderful gift that good Samaritan education is, and we will be forever grateful to the sisters for the trust they have shown on this journey. However, my journey with the sisters began much earlier. In 1980, I applied to undertake postgraduate study at the Gleave campus of what is now known as the Australian Catholic University. To this day, this remains the most valuable study I have undertaken. The quality of the lectures was outstanding, and I had the great privilege of being taught by Sister Verna Hollyhead, who opened my eyes to the study of Scripture and the practice of Lectio Divina. I also had the wonderful opportunity of encountering Sister Jeannie Heniger as a lecturer. Jeannie was a dynamic presence who opened my eyes to the plight of the poor and the marginalized. Jeannie was a wonderful teacher who focused her energy on the education of children with intellectual disabilities. This led me to undertake study in special education and ultimately to work at Marti Day with Jeanie. To say that I feel blessed to have been involved with the sisters and with good Samaritan education would be an understatement and would not do justice to the people I have learned from and worked with. Most importantly, I've come to an ever-deepening understanding of the parable and the great challenge that it offers. All from a simple question, and who is my neighbour.
SPEAKER_11My name is Kay Hersey. I was the executive officer of the Education Council of the Good Samaritan Sisters when the Council was charged with the task of researching possible futures for the governance of the ten Good Samaritan Colleges in Australia. Sister Claire Condon, superior of the congregation at that time, charged the council with this task. Subsequently, I was the inaugural executive director of Good Samaritan Education from the time of its establishment as a public juridic person with responsibility for the governance of the ten colleges until my retirement in 2016. When I reflect on that time, my overriding sense is of the open-minded, thorough, consultative discernment process that took place. It was a time of unknowns, uncertainty, and concern for all involved. The Good Samaritan family of schools is made up of ten communities, each unique to its geography and history, but united by the charism and history of the sisters. I pay tribute to the commitment of Sister Claire and her council to a process that allowed the concerns of the various parties to be listened to and heard, as well as a commitment to the open sharing of the possible ways forward in governance and the relative benefits and challenges presented by each. This sharing occurred with the principals, directors, and members of the colleges, as well as with the broad group of the sisters. The ultimate choice of governance structure, that is, establishing a public juridic person with the support of the Archbishop of Sydney in concert with the bishops of the other diocese where the schools are located, was a new approach for Australian Catholic education. Other PJPs in education that had been established to that point by religious congregations had been done so under the auspices of Rome. Again, Sister Clare's commitment to clear and open communication, this time with the Archbishop and the relevant diocesan bishops, was instrumental to the successful negotiation of this new path. My abiding memory of that time was of the standing ovation that Sister Clare received when she announced the decision that Good Samaritan Education would be established as a PJP to assume responsibility for the governance of the ten colleges. This was done at the Good Samaritan Education Conference that took place at the end of the discernment process and was attended by Sister Clare and her council, a number of sisters, members, directors, principals, and leadership team members of the colleges and members of the Education Council. It was a spontaneous expression of joy and support for the new structure from both the sisters and the colleges and enabled necessary changes to occur in a spirit of support and cooperation. It was a complicated change, and to be as successful as it has been had to be based in goodwill and trust. I believe that the way the process was conducted was instrumental in the success.
SPEAKER_07My name is Sue Lennox. I was a principal at St. Patrick's College from 2007 to 2023, and prior to that I worked at Mount St. Benedict from about 1998 as a social justice coordinator and then an assistant principal. The particular memory that is most striking on me is the conference that we attended where this declared condom announced to all those gathered the board chairs, the members, leadership teams from all the schools. So that within that schools could continue to operate as a Catholic independent school. There's a great jubilation in response to that. People just jump to their feet clapping and really, very excited because any other orders are chosen to give these schools over to the devices, and in doing that, something would be lost. So the most significant impact of this declaration was the gift that we would be giving our communities and our students and parents so that they can enjoy the whole experience of being in the community, a good Samaritan and a dignity community going forward. The process moving from having been governed by the citizens to establishing a good summary education was a bit tricky, you know, like we had to think differently. But there was quite a lot of discernment opportunities to contribute, to the discussion opportunities to really try and establish something that was really functional, but also held on to the characters and what made our schools unique. And that was really very exciting. And you can see that present now. What Lizzie Mate Education offers now that you don't see in other organizations is a philosophy of education, the support for women in leadership, the philosophy of well-being, and as well, the schools of well-community. With the mote education is not being afraid to look at the issues that are happening in the broader community, and then taking a stand and supporting their schools so that they can really be impactful and make a difference in their communities. And in the current environment where we're all leading more and more to the right, it's really, really important. And it provides our communities a reassurance that how they experience their gospel, how they experience Christ in their community is actually authentic and is really inclusive.
SPEAKER_05Jerry Dalton speaking and greetings to all. This milestone, an invitation to reflect, does elicit a wide journey through one's memories and interactions with so many energizing colleagues over the years, plus a celebration of our growing confidence as an independent public juridic person in church parlance. I was privileged to be included as a member of the inaugural Good Samaritan Education that was commissioned in 2011. I was a member for some fourteen years and served on the governing council and the finance committee. Looking back, I reread the announcement to our Good Samaritan community as contained in the December 2011 edition of the Good Oil. The article recounted the commissioning of GSE in a ceremony at St. Scholastica's Chapel Glee. Sister Claire Condon, the superior at the time, stated at our commissioning that GSE's first task is to nurture this ecclesial communion, especially through the promotion of a spirituality of communion in keeping with the Benedictine tradition. Sister Claire gently provided guidance whereby she noted service in love is the way the work is to be done, service which proclaims the gospel message, both in word and in deed. The formal commissioning and very warm welcome to the members in that beautiful chapel remains deeply embedded. It reinforced the importance of ritual and solemnity. Our relationships are nurtured in the gentle flow of Lectio, psalmology, our reading and understanding of the rule of Saint Benedict, and the celebration of our past, present and future. I've been so enriched by the scholarship of our good Samaritan sisters. Our strength is that ongoing formation remains central to all who are involved in GSE, in our governing bodies and school communities. Fifteen years is significant, indeed the teenage years, with the excitement and challenges that we can remember. I recommend two excellent recountings of our pathway. They are the Road to GSE by Sister Mary MacDonald and Continuing the Journey by Jane Commonsoli. It is noteworthy that when we get two zeros, the number fifteen hundred is attained. This is very close to the age of the rule as first penned by Saint Benedict. The insights and plan for living a spiritual and spirited life still guiding us. We are a trusting GSE to carry on the understanding and guidance in spirituality and living our lives with care for others. My deepest thanks for our journey. It has been a gift to have had a small part and happy fifteenth birthday. Cheers.
SPEAKER_01Congratulations to Good Samaritan Education on its fifteenth year anniversary. What a wonderful milestone. I was presenting Glebe at the 2011 handing over ceremony from the Good Samaritan Sisters to Good Samaritan Education. I was invited to attend as the PNF president of Louis Hill College at the time. This was when I was first exposed to the Good Samaritan community. The significance of that occasion left a profound impact on me and has remained with me throughout my time as part of the Good Samaritan Education community. The wisdom of the sisters to make the changes in the governance structure and their courage and faith to entrust lay people to be stewards of their characterism and mission in education was most impactful at the time. To see lay people step up, so to speak, to serve as stewards of their mission was awe inspiring. I've personally drawn on this many times. As I reflect on the past fifteen years, it is this rich spirited community and the generosity of highly skilled people all stepping up to be stewards of the charism and mission of the sisters. And it is this which has remained strong throughout. This spirit is an immense credit to the vision of the sisters and to the work and dedication of the governing council, members of the Assembly, Executive Directors, past and present, GSC Corporate Services, and of course all of the principals and those in positions of governance across the ten Good Samaritan Colleges. Congratulations to all of Good Samaritan Education and Happy Birthday.
SPEAKER_03Hello, I'm Pat O'Gorman and I had the privilege of serving for six years on the inaugural governing council of Good Samaritan Education as it began its mission as a newly constituted public juridic person. Those early years were filled with excitement, anticipation, and a deep sense of responsibility. We knew we were helping to establish something new within the church, entrusted with carrying forward the educational ministry and Good Samaritan charism of the Sisters into the Future. At times I felt overawed by the significance of the task and its canonical responsibilities. There were certainly tears along the way, but also plenty of laughter. What stays with me most is the extraordinary trust the sisters of the Good Samaritan placed in us, their courage in letting go, their willingness in relinquishing control and believing that the Spirit would continue the mission through others. This was both humbling and empowering. They entrusted us not simply with ten wonderful schools, but with a living charism shaped by generations of faithful gospel witness. We recognized the significance of that trust and the responsibility it carried, and we wanted to honour that gift. There was a genuine desire among us to be worthy custodians of the Good Samaritan charism, not simply to preserve it, but to nurture it, allowing it to grow, evolve, and find fresh expression in the life of our schools and communities. As the journey unfolded, I came to realize that GSC was never simply about governance, structures, or accountability. It was about building a community grounded in communion, a community where people could grow together in wisdom, compassion and hope. That commitment to building authentic relationships has had a lasting impact on me and I believe on the wider GSE community. It has shaped a culture and created a place where people feel valued, heard, and encouraged to contribute their gifts. As we celebrate GSE's fifteenth birthday, I find myself reflecting on what has always been at its heart, the call to seek God together. This is expressed not only through prayer and formation, but through respectful dialogue, shared discernment, and a willingness to listen deeply to one another. Seeking God together has meant trusting that God's Spirit is present among us and that wisdom emerges when we journey together. For me, GSE has always been profoundly Christ centered. The life and love of Christ shape both its identity and its mission. Inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan, members are called to recognize Christ in one another, especially in those whose voices are less often heard or those whose experiences differ from our own. GSE has always been called to embody compassionate presence, justice, hospitality, and hope. These values are lived not only in significant moments, but in everyday encounters, in conversations that build understanding, in the courage to face challenges together, and in the commitment to uphold the dignity of every person. It is in these ordinary moments that Christ's presence becomes visible and where the distinctive spirit of GSE continues to flourish. My own experience with GSE was so encouraging, so enriching, that after serving on the inaugural governing council, I was delighted to continue the journey as Director of Formation and Mission Integration. It was a privilege to spend the next five years helping to nurture the Good Smart and Charism before I finally retired from full-time employment. Happy fifteenth birthday, GSE. May you continue to seek God together. Live the gospel with courage and inspire generations to come.
SPEAKER_08I've been part of Good Samaritan Education since 2013. When I started as an Assembly member in November 2013, I knew only one other person in GSE, the then Executive Director Kay Hersey. A significant moment for me in my time with Good Samaritan Education was when I learned that there was to be a pilgrimage in April 2014, and I asked if I could join it. I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet people, to get to know something about the tradition and heritage of Good Samaritan Education, and to really begin to be part of the organisation. I didn't realise at all how audacious and presumptuous I was in making the request to join an event that had been a long time in the planning and that was so important as a first. On that Benedictine pilgrimage, the participants were the key people who had birthed GSE into being, along with eight principals, the GSE executive of the time, the mission team, four board chairs, and Sister Elizabeth Brennan was me. Wet behind the ears, all of five months and two meetings worth of experience, and totally ignorant of what a momentous journey that this was to be and the path to set me on, where two years later I joined the Governing Council and in 2018 took on the role of council chair. In my defence and with plenty of time to reflect, I can say that ignorance was bliss and that I did pay my own way for that pilgrimage. But the pilgrimage was life-changing for me. We were fortunate to have Sister Elizabeth Brennan as our tour guide, and what a terrific guide she was as she trooped us through Rome, Norcia, and Monte Cassino, introduced us to the great monasteries and schools in South England, and led us to sea life with the Stoic Sisters of Stanforth Abbey and the monks at Ampleforth. These experiences not only gave me a crash course in Benedictine spirituality, but also opened my eyes to what it meant to be part of the small, vibrant, connected community of committed people and really to be able to experience communio in action. That wonderful early introduction to Benedictine life and the welcoming community of GSE has been a constant in my experience of Good Samaritan education. And twelve years later, I'm very glad I had the audacity to ask to join the pilgrimage and to partake in the wonderful entity that is GSE.
SPEAKER_02I joined Good Samaritan Education in January of twenty sixteen as Executive Director. Later I joined the Assembly in two thousand and twenty three after I'd finished as Executive Director and became a member of the governing council in two thousand twenty five. I'm now the deputy chair of Good Samaritan Education. My earliest and very happy memory from when I began at Good Samaritan Education is of Sunday morning prayer in the oratory at Pennant Hills. It was a very special sacred time where we gathered in that very beautiful small room. We sang the psalms, we listened to unpacking of the readings of the day, often from Elizabeth Brennan. And what it gave me as someone who was completely new to the Good Samaritan Benedictine tradition was a sense of the ancient and the new in the world that I had joined as the executive director. The beauty of the singing of the Psalms, the ancient tradition that that represented, but also the lively contemporary and incredibly relevant nature of the rule and of the great tradition of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan was an enlivening and it was a sacred thing, the likes of which I had not experienced before. It was a whole new thing for me. My other thought is about looking to the future of Good Samaritan education, and I think we're in an interesting time at the moment as a PJP that's been in existence for fifteen years. I think there is a time of great transition now where the reality of the responsibilities of taking up a place of leadership and authority in governance in the church, and in our case specifically in Catholic education, is challenging us. It's challenging us to be alert always to the conversations we must have, to the consultation that we must embark upon, and to the things that we do not want to move away from, the pillars that are the bedrock of everything that has enabled Good Samaritan education to flourish the way it has. If I do go back to the beginning, I wasn't part of GSE when it was founded, but I've read a lot about it, and I am always really struck by the amount of time, the years and years of consultation, the dozens and dozens of conversations that the sisters, their leadership and individual sisters had over a period of time, and also with all of the other people who were part of their community, the schools, the principals, the education council as it existed at the time, the conversations they had with those people were deep and multilayered and frequent, and I think we have to keep remembering that. We have to keep that as a practice. That in looking to the way forward and the things that challenge us now, it is in consultation and in conversation and in time that the wisdom will come and continue to enable us to take good Samaritan education through its next few years and be in a place where the next generation of leaders of Good Samaritan Education will be very happy to move in and take up the reins.
SPEAKER_12I began the role in 2023 and I'm currently in my fourth year. Lewis Hill College is a year 5 to 12 Girls' College in Brisbane with over 1200 students. This is my first Good Samaritan Education School. However, my husband's family have lived in the area for about 110 years and have a long connection with the college. We feel very connected to Good Samaritan Education and our calling to seek God together. For us, the formation opportunities from Receive for Our New Staff, leadership retreats, and to the pilgrimage that explore our history and our Benedictine traditions. These enable our staff to grow, develop, and understand what it means to be a good Samaritan and what it means to teach in a good Samaritan education school. The formation programs also extend to our long-term staff, enabling us all to be connected in our common goal of living the parable and being Christ-centered. The desire for all stakeholders truly to listen, to discern, to challenge, and to take the time in the messiness has built communio and enabled each of our school communities to be linked and similar, but unique, allowing each to meet needs of their communities. Looking forward, the calling as I see it now for Good Samaritan Education is to respond to the needs of this time, a time of complex relationships and family types, of advancing technologies and unstability in our world and in Australia. It's time to reflect on the rule and the story of the Good Samaritan to provide insight, relevance, and hope to our time today. My hope for our students in Good Samaritan Education is that they be people of Benedictine presence, inspired by the parable, and that they have the confidence and the skills to challenge and transform our world into a better place.
SPEAKER_09I've had the privilege of a close relationship with three of our colleges, Stella Maris, Mount Saint Benedict, and Santa Maria. I was born in 1950, and in my life I've seen enormous changes. Through it all, I think that underpinning this was a sense of social stability and predictability, even though the rate of change has continued to accelerate, particularly in technology. We recognize that change is a constant, but I suspect that we are now entering a period of seismic change that could overturn many things that we have become familiar with in society, the economy, the environment, politics, and international affairs. All of these now seem to be in a simultaneous state of crisis, and it's very difficult to predict where it will all end up. So, in the midst of all this, what are the challenges for GSE and its schools? Well, I've just been reading Pope Leo's encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and he outlines three particular challenges for schools, which I think are very relevant to us. The first, he describes as socio-political. He points to the increasing inequities in access to education. Here in Australia, many factors, including government funding policies and social change, have led to our schools becoming less and less accessible to so many families. That's a real worry. The second challenge Leo outlines is pedagogical. How can our schools keep up with change while supporting the integral development of students? I guess for a long time we've imagined that schools can shape the future, and there must be some truth in that. But at the moment we can see that schools are increasingly very much at the mercy of the major forces that are buffeting us. The third challenge, he says, is the intellectual one of maintaining a love of truth. As knowledge becomes increasingly fragmented and contested, our schools need to continue to engage with profound questions about meaning, to help students develop authentic, critical and creative thought, to connect information with deeper knowledge and to maintain a sense of purpose. Add to all this GSE's identity as part of church. I can see that the church twenty years from now may well be scarcely recognizable from what it is today. That's telling me that GSE and its schools are going to be tested by fire in the years ahead. So what to make of all this? I can do no better than to echo the words that Pope Leo uses in his encyclical in relation to our own patron. He says this we can understand the great intuition of Saint Benedict of Nurcia, who united prayer and work, showing daily activity to be a part of the human response to God's call. Created in the image of the Creator, our own work in some way continues his, for thereby we can contribute to the progress of society and the common good, put to good use the capabilities we have received, improve and beautify the world, support our families, engage in cooperative relationships, and through listening and dialogue learn to build together something that no one could achieve alone. These words of the Pope are surely an inspiration to us and a clear exposition of the ongoing mission of GSE. My prayers are that we will remain faithful to the legacy of Saint Benedict and the sisters in the way that Leo outlines My name is Tesh Richman.
SPEAKER_06I'm currently the principal at St. Scholastic as a Gleb. I've had the fortunate experience of being associated with Good Sam Education over the last 15 years as a board member, as an Assembly member, and previously as a staff member at St. Patrick's College, Campbelltown. As Good Samaritan Education enters its 15th year, our hope is that the schools can continue to be lighthouses and centres for support for the growing well-being needs of students, families, and staff. But also provide learning opportunities that equip students for collaborative environments in the future. We need to be lighthouses of Catholic education. And with such a strong community of schools, I think we can continue to grow on the great successes that we've had, but continue to respond to the needs that we see in the community and in the broader Australian society.
SPEAKER_04I hope you've really enjoyed listening to each of our guests' reflections. They certainly sparked a number of memories in me. The first being after Good Samaritan Education hosted the International Benedictine Education Conference, Bennett, in 2019. I remember hearing Claire Condon talk about it being a real coming-of-age moment for Good Samaritan Education that we got to showcase our story on a very large stage, the international stage, and it was quite a moment for us. The other memory it sparked for me was once while facilitating one of the many induction sessions for our new staff for Good Samaritan Education, I was again profoundly struck by the promise and gift of Good Samaritan Education, not just for our students, but all who are ultimately part of this communion and this endeavour and adventure of Catholic education and our staff, that our charism names and frames how we hold and share and ultimately accountable to the story of Jesus, the person of Jesus in all we do. And in regularly presenting this framing to our new staff, I either at the beginning or at the end of our sessions, I explicitly say that if you come here as your first school or perhaps your twelfth role in a school, you are welcome here. If you work in the classroom, the garden, the front desk, or part of the leadership team, you are welcome here. If you come with a faith tradition or none at all, you are welcome here. That you are now part of a larger, extended family that is Good Samaritan education. And may it be a place to call home for however long you are here, as you are welcomed into and now part of our story to share in and celebrate because you are part of this story too. And as we continue to undertake this role of Catholic education in the Good Samaritan Benedict tradition, we continue to try and ensure that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from, from the rule of Benedict. Good Samaritan Education from courageous beginnings in 1861. We are this continuing story. But in November, at Good Samaritan Education's Eucharistic community will gather again to celebrate almost to the day, 15 years where Good Samaritan Education was launched. Gathering in faith at the table that binds us in love, hospitality, and communion. It's a wonderful time to continue our holy pause this year in our year of living discernment. I want to offer a big thank you to all those who have contributed to this special episode and to all those who have helped form Good Samaritan Education and continue to walk its path, providing a unique Good Samaritan Benedictine education that prefers nothing whatever to Christ. So as you continue along your day, may the table of hospitality be wide, inviting you with mercy and compassion to go and do likewise.
