THERE’S an old Slim Dusty song called Looking Forward, Looking Back, and its chorus could be an anthem for where Dr Bill Sultmann finds himself right now.
It goes like this: “Looking forward, looking back I’ve come a long way down the track. Got a long way left to go, making songs from what I know.”
His “track” has taken him from Brisbane to Bundaberg, back to Brisbane, then to Toowoomba, Cairns, and back to Brisbane and Noosa.
He might’ve thought after a long and distinguished career as a leader in education in Catholic and government sectors in Queensland and making major contributions nationally and internationally that his working “track” had come to an end when he and his wife Noelene retired to Noosa but the good people at Australian Catholic University had other ideas.
Professor Brother David Hall, a Marist who is dean of ACU’s La Salle Academy for Faith Formation and Religious Education, engaged him to do some work with the academy.
He’s been with the academy for about five years, becoming deputy dean two years in.
Bill is also ACU’s associate professor and director of Catholic School Identity and Mission.
La Salle Academy aims to train teachers and leaders of faith formation and religious education “in a way that extends their competency and efficacy, expands their theological literacy, and equips them with a new set of skills so that they can help the Church find doorways through which contemporary Australians can enter and bring faith and life into dialogue”.
“Our education and training opportunities develop teachers and leaders with professional efficacy, theological literacy and the skills to bring faith and life into dialogue,” the academy states.
So, like the late Slim Dusty, rather than spending long hours on the golf course at Noosa, Bill could be singing, “(I’ve) got a long way left to go, making songs from what I know”.
And he’s loving it as he draws on years of experience including time as a teacher, a guidance officer in state and Catholic education spheres, and administrator and director in Catholic education.
He’s been assistant director of schools with Brisbane Catholic Education (1989-95), Toowoomba Catholic Education Office director (1996-2003), Edmund Rice Education executive director for Queensland and Northern Territory (2003-2007), Cairns Catholic Education Services executive director (2007-2012), and Christian Brothers Oceania Province director of Mission (Formation, Ministries and Communications, 2012-2016).
So, after all of that, why did he come out of retirement for the La Salle Academy role?
“(It was) a combination of things … One is that I had a bit of a history in research, teaching and consultancy, and I thought ‘Hmm, …’, I didn’t want to forsake that and I’ve got to say, I was never really in the teaching line for very long, and I love the teaching; I really enjoy it,” Bill said.
“That was a big one … and then we got some consultancy projects (at La Salle).
“I think (it’s) just the enjoyment of it, and the feeling that you can give back a bit, and that the diversity of experience might be helpful.
“And the other thing, for me, it’s just continuous learning.
“I reckon I’m so much richer for the experience.
“I’ve learnt an amazing amount of things that I’d never thought I would’ve ever been exposed to.
“So it’s just been one of those itches to keep going, keep learning.”
Looking back, Bill, who joined the Christian Brothers as a young man and was in formation with them for a couple of years, said he believed a deepening of faith and an understanding of it emerged over the course of one’s life and career.
“And the essence of that faith as a relationship with Christ, becomes more important,” he said.
“It evolves … If we’re on about a wholeness to living and, if we truly believe that it is a gift, and if the compass is Christ, then it kind of works.
“And we think … I believe that value-adds to one’s life.
“And, to me, if faith doesn’t value-add, then it’s not contributing its fullness.
“So I’m in Catholic Education for probably two reasons – one is I think it offers a meaning system of faith, a meaning system for how we live our lives, and that value-adds to life.
“It gives us a sense of wholeness, a sense of who we are, where we’ve been, what we’re called to be and to do, and where we might go.
“So it’s a powerful thing.
“We follow the positive psychology stuff these days – meaning in life is the biggest factor that contributes to happiness.
“For me, it works, and I think Catholic schools offer that meaning system, and to have that opportunity to contribute to that is where I’m at at the moment.
“I’ve kind of finished an administrative career in one sense and now I’m trying to do something or support something that I’ve believed in, but from a different perspective – a research, teaching and consultancy perspective.
“They’re the essence at the moment, and they each feed into one another.
“Not only do they offer or add value to the mission identity of the Catholic school, but each of those elements feed into one another.
“You can’t have research without some form of consultancy.
“You can’t just do consultancy if it doesn’t lead into some teaching.
“So there’s an interdependence in the aspects of the role, which is neat.”
Bill has broad qualifications spanning arts, education, psychology and leadership, with research doctorates in Educational Psychology and Pastoral Theology.
“As I look back, at every step in my career, I couldn’t see a pattern, but as I look back now the good God brings it all together,” he said.
“There’s that sense, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s relevant … Oh, yeah, that’s been valuable …’
“So the diversity and the experience kind of has meant that they are coming together and I say, ‘Oh, there’s a bit of relevance in everything’.
“Nothing is lost and I think, for me, that’s the Holy Spirit guiding.
“It’s an incredible thing where you don’t see it as you go through it.
“You see achievement and disappointment, and challenge and opportunity but you don’t see the whole.
“But when you look back you say, ‘Oh, okay, it was good to have …’
“I’ve had four executive leadership roles and a number of other senior roles, and you think, ‘Oh, God, moving around from place to place is a downer …’
“But when you look back, moving around doing different things all adds to a nice jigsaw puzzle in relation to those two dimensions (of faith and education).”
What had sustained his passion throughout his career, Bill said, was “the wholeness and the value-adding that that offers”.
“I think a lot of my earlier work was probably due to my ego and ambition, and I don’t shy away from that now but I think, now, I see that (connection),” he said.
“It was always motivated by the other … ‘Oh, this is a good thing to do … and the Church is important to me …’
“All of that is there but it did not come into prominence or significance until much later.
“Richard Rohr says, for the first 50 years of your life you’re ‘building your container’, you’re creating your career, you’re providing for the family … The next 50 years is understanding what it’s all about.
“And, I think, for me, that was the case.
“Yes, I was a very hard worker; yes, I was ambitious; yes, I was trying to do it within a faith context but I think, as I look back on it now, the good God uses that – ambitious drive – to give you experiences which leads you to say, well, what they’re about is it’s about faith, and about value-adding, it’s about the message of Christ for happiness and wholeness, it’s about flourishing humanity, and it’s about being humble enough to say that you’re a small cog in a very big wheel and you do what you do under the guidance of the Spirit.
“That’s where I’m at now.”
Bill said getting there had not been without challenge.
“I don’t want to gild the lily,” he said.
“A lot of the experience was hard-won.
“You work very hard and you pray very deeply at times and you seek God’s help a lot.
“It’s not a gravy train at all.
“There is a calling there; there was a definite calling there, and every day I try to renew that call.
“I think there is a call and a response, and the response is both in generosity but it’s also in terms of one’s own personal development and commitment.”
He said enjoying life as it was now was about balancing priorities.
He didn’t want to be “too religious” about it, but number-one had to be “a deepening relationship with Christ”.
“That’s probably number-one for me. Without that, I haven’t got much else,” Bill said.
Noelene and family were then above all else.
“Third one is work, what I’m doing in La Salle,” he said.
“The fourth one is a bit of golf, ocean swimming, a bit of tennis with the kids …
“That’s the order of priorities … and the ultimate goal is to balance them and to keep them in harmony.
“The biggest challenge to all of that is me, and not getting the balance right.
“If I can do that – absolutely fantastic.
“My own sense is I’ve been pretty gifted with a lot of opportunities, both opportunities and through supportive relationships.
“The other thing is, more and more, am I starting more consciously to be aware about all of that – about relationships, my relationship with people and processes, systems and organisations.
“That’s the goal, is to keep building on that but you know you never get there.
“You fall over every five minutes.
“But, you know, you just push in that direction … and you hope the pathway’s not too crooked.”
