Last week, members from the team of Understanding Faith (UF) Team and representatives of The Francis Retreat attended the 2019 Religious Education Symposium at the ICC in Darling Harbour.

Understanding Faith

Shelley, Janita and Pat were present at the exhibition stand, demonstrating the Understanding Faith resource to symposium attendees.

The UF team also attended keynote addresses and workshop presentations, all of which highlighted the importance of what actually happens in the classroom during Religious Education lessons. Topics such as ‘Deeper Learning in religious Education’, ‘Strategies in Teaching Catholic Thought’ and ‘Science and Religion’ were highly informative and engaging.

The symposium also provided an opportunity to engage with others from the Religious Education community, from all over Australia. They also had the pleasure of joining Fr Paul at the symposium dinner, which was the highlight of our experience.

The Francis Retreat

In October 2018 ‘BBI – The Australian Institute of Theological Education’, provided a governance training workshop at The Francis Retreat for various Board Members and CEO’s from across our Lismore Diocese for a week. The CEO, at the time of BBI, Catherine was very impressed with our Parish facility and when the Symposium this year was scheduled made contact with us again to ask if we would exhibit.

A significant proportion of our school groups come from Catholic Schools and it was a great opportunity to support religious education in Catholic schools across Australia and connect with Religious Education Leaders who are interested in retreat venues.