Townsville Catholic Education’s success with introducing Christian meditation and contemplative prayer as everyday classroom practices is attracting interest from dioceses around Australia and overseas. Journalist ROBIN WILLIAMS spoke with the program’s instigator Ernie Christie at Brisbane’s recent Pray 2010 gathering where he was a presenter
TOWNSVILLE diocesan Catholic schools have added the three S’s to the three R’s when it comes to classroom learning.
Townsville Catholic Education (TCE) assistant director Ernie Christie, who was a presenter at Brisbane’s recent Pray 2010 gathering, said Stillness, Silence and Simplicity were the foundations of the north Queensland diocese’s program of meditation and contemplative prayer introduced into all 31 of its schools.
“We’ve systematically brought in contemplative prayer with all our schools in a whole system with remarkable success,” Mr Christie said.
“It is something that has really transformed the way that we teach prayers and, in that simple practice, it’s opened up so many other avenues to explore prayer.”
Mr Christie said all students from Prep to Year 12 were involved in the program, with students meditating or praying for one minute for every year of their age.
“It’s a simple rule of thumb, if a child is five years old, we want them to be still and silent and meditating for five minutes, up to seventeen minutes for seventeen-year-olds,” he said.
He said the introduction of the project followed a pilot program about five years ago and was now practised by more than 12,000 students in 31 schools.
“Our bishop, Bishop Michael Putney, and our (Catholic Education) director Cathy Day have been very supportive in getting this right across all our schools,” he said.
Mr Christie was in Brisbane in July to present a number of workshops on the Townsville schools’ contemplative prayer program during Pray 2010.
His workshops attracted secondary school students, teachers and parishioners who were impressed with the prayer method and keen to see the Townsville model spread throughout the state.
Mr Christie said the TCE had chosen to introduce contemplative prayer into its schools “because students and teachers can understand it, and it’s simple, it costs nothing and we find it’s the most inclusive kind of prayer”.
“Even students with learning disabilities can pray this way. Even if they can’t read they can be still and silent and get that divine sense of God.”
Mr Christie said the spiritual pursuit and teaching meditation bore many fruits such as reduced bullying in the schoolyard.
“There is fruit of the spirit – compassion and peace – all those we find are manifested in the kids and they treat people better,” he said.
“They are more calm within themselves.”
The program and Townsville Catholic schools were “guinea pigs” at the moment, Mr Christie said.
“We are guinea pigs at the moment for a lot of research and the research is indicating that it has all these other benefits but we don’t do them (contemplative prayer and meditation) for those reasons,” he said.
“For us, the primary concern is that spiritual dimension, that depth of who we are as human beings and then from that is that blossoming of our humanity.”
Mr Christie said the TCE meditation and contemplative prayer program had partnerships with individuals and organisations around the world, including The World Community for Christian Meditation director Benedictine Father Laurence Freeman.
“In particular he collaborated in the book that I produced and he continually works with our diocese.
“We also have a partnership with Boston Theological School with … Fr Michael Himes (professor), and we have four people in Boston at the moment working with (Franciscan Father) Richard Rohr and (Benedictine Sister) Joan Chittister and Michael Himes.”
Mr Christie said contemplative prayer and meditation heightened other forms of prayer such as the Mass.
“To me as a Catholic who loves the Eucharist, how much richer the Eucharist is and how much richer the prayer is and, even in reading the Gospel, how much richer it is when you approach it from a contemplative way,” he said.
Mr Christie and TCE director Cathy Day have been invited to take their program to London at the end of the year to work with various dioceses in England, Ireland and the Netherlands.
“From here, (Pray2010) we’ve been invited to go to New Zealand – Christchurch and Wellington.”
“It’s been amazing the way it’s taken off.”
