The Catholic Leader Flipbook - Issue 5577 - November 10

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The Catholic Leader, November 10, 2019
News
By Joe Higgins
CHANCES are you know someone
in Generation Z.
They are digital natives who are predicted
to work 18 jobs in six careers and live in 15
homes in their lifetime.
Generation Z was also the least religious
generation.
Two staff at St Thomas More College,
Sunnybank, have taken on this challenge by
publishing the 95-page Gen Z Prayer Book.
St Thomas More assistant principal religious
education John Thomas and campus minis-
ter Marnie Hewitt both wanted a resource to
engage Gen Z.
Everything out there was from the 1970s, Ms
Hewitt said.
What the pair ended up with was a sleek,
modern book that aesthetically was closer to
an Instagram feed than a volume of the Summa
Theologica.
It retained a Catholic feel with traditional
prayers – from Our Father to Salve Regina –
filling the front section and prayers written by
St Thomas More students, teachers and parents
filling the middle.
The last section was prayers for life events
like birthdays.
Ms Hewitt said many young people had
never been spiritually nurtured or experienced
sacramental care.
The book would help with that.
“It’s a big step for them to be open to
(spirituality), because if they’re not raised to
be open to spirituality, it’s quite foreign,” Ms
Hewitt said.
“That’s why journeying with them is so
important.
“Because you get them comfortable and you
get them familiar with you, and once they’re
familiar with you, they’ll be open to what the
source and summit of your life is.”
Mr Thomas said if you wanted to build young
Catholics who were connected to their faith, it
took investment – both time and money.
Mr Thomas found it was cheaper to print 600
copies of the Gen Z Prayer Book than budget
Prayer book for the next generation
‘…Once they’re
familiar with you,
they’ll be open to
what the source
and summit of
your life is’
for photocopying similar limited-use texts.
It took some persuasion, the pair agreed, but
Mr Thomas had inroads and relationships with
the right people and he was “very persuasive”.
“We have the attitude, if we’re sitting around
doing nothing, then there are opportunities that
we should be taking,” Mr Thomas said.
Ms Hewitt said the benefit of students being
able to take the book home and put in the book-
shelf was beyond anything a photocopy would
ever achieve.
“If I had a resource like this when I was at
school, I’d appreciate it, because someone put a
lot of effort into that,” Ms Hewitt said.
“We’ve had a lot of traction even with people
wanting to give them as graduation gifts.”
Mr Thomas said St Thomas More had an
edge when it came to ministry.
“We’ve actually got a larger proportion of
students who are actually engaged in Church
than many other parishes,” he said.
“Our Lady of Lourdes at Sunnybank is really
vibrant and busy and we’re connecting in with
that.”
While the book wouldn’t find a proper place
in curriculum, it was invaluable for the school’s
prayerful devotions.
St Thomas More College has a “big bell
tower” and each Wednesday morning two
Year 7s, who Mr Thomas affectionately calls
“Quasi” and “Modo”, go and ring the bell for
the Angelus.
The prayer book has the Angelus in it.
Also, during last month as mission month,
the staff have been doing the mission rosary –
all the prayers are in the book.
The contemporary prayers were then on a
needs basis.
Were you stressed before an exam, Mr
Thomas said, then flip to page such-and-such.
The pair already had a new book at the
printer, a retreat journal for school retreats.
Mr Thomas said having a long-term view of
what you want to do was essential.
“We don’t get everything right – that’s the
other thing – and we spend a lot of time reflect-
ing on the things we do and what didn’t work
and why it didn’t work,” he said.
It has paid off.
The pair said many Year 12 leaders next year
were involved in their faith and were already
youth leaders this year.
“So that’s going to be really exciting to see a
lot of leaders are going to have… a faith, which
is going to be so unique,” Ms Hewitt said.
To buy a copy of the prayerbook, contact
John Thomas at:
Next gen: St Thomas More College, Sunnybank, assistant principal for religious education John Thomas and campus minister Marnie Hewitt with a
copy of the Gen Z Prayer Book.
We’ve actually got a larger proportion
of students who are actually engaged in
Church than many other parishes.
Called to share the GospelThe Church ‘exists in order to evangelise’ – St Paul VI
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