In October this year, nine Good Samaritan Education (GSE) participants travelled to Melk Abbey in Austria for BENet26, the international gathering of Benedictine educators, which had the theme Learning to Live: Stability and Hospitality, An Invitation.
By Gabrielle Sinclair*
At BENet26, we joined religious and lay educators from every continent in prayer, dialogue and study. Yet again we experienced the light and shade of the broader Benedictine education community, and we return able to reflect with gratitude upon the gift we have been entrusted.
For Rita Armen, Head of Mission at St Scholastica’s College, Glebe, what moved her most was “the profound sense of belonging to a global Benedictine community”. She recalled Mass, where “we prayed the Our Father together, each in our own language. It was a powerful reminder that we are part of something far greater than our individual school communities.”
A school founded in 1549
Before the conference, Rita (St Scholastica’s College), Kay Gleeson and Natalie McClure (Principal and Head of Middle School from Lourdes Hill College), Mark Zilich (Rosebank College), John Driscoll and I visited another Benedictine abbey and college, Stift Kremsmünster. We were hosted by Elisabeth Krenhuber, one of ICBE‘s German-speaking commissioners, and Abbot Bernhard Eckerstorfer.
Established in 777 by the last Duke of Bavaria, the abbey holds a rich history. Its school was founded in 1549 and today it has fewer than 300 students. Our visit included an evening dialogue with the Abbot, school liturgy, tours of the school and monastery, and conversations with senior and junior students, who bonded with us over advice about which Austrian desserts and cakes we must try. It was a gift to see Benedictine education expressed in a context so different to our own.
Learning to live
In Melk, Maria Haggett, Joanne Rock (Principals of Mater Christi and Santa Maria Colleges respectively) and Leonie Keaney (GSE Deputy Chair) joined the group for a full program of keynotes, deaneries, workshops, networking and hospitality, along with an afternoon cruise on the Danube to rival our BENet19 Sydney Harbour cruise.
Leonie recalled how the community of Melk “welcomed us all with pride and warmth. It was a delight to walk up the hill (well, sort of) each morning and into the spectacular surrounds of the famous Abbey.”
The days held a steady rhythm of lectio divina in deanery groups, and liturgy of the hours “in the most splendid Baroque setting, supported by Baroque music”, as Joanne described them. A significant highlight was the keynote of Sister Manuela Scheiba OSB on the conference theme. Rita was struck by her description of Benedictine schools as a “reliable presence” and by her words “a stability anchored in God”.
For Mark Zilich, after 14 years in a Good Samaritan school, the conference opened the familiar in a new way. “Attending BENet gave me a broader perspective on the Rule. It provided an opportunity to see it lived out by educators from different cultures across the world.”
GSE with students from Kremsmunster Abbey School. Photo credit: Good Samaritan Education.
The teachers panel
Natalie McClure received a scholarship to attend BENet as a member of the teachers panel. Natalie prepared over two months of online meetings with educators from Benedictine schools on four continents: Esteban from Colombia, Sister Ann Mary from India and Geoffrey from Kenya. In their presentations, each described a shift from delivering content to accompanying the whole person. Natalie named belonging, formation of the whole person, servant leadership and balance, and spoke of a movement from “me” to “we”.
Across all four voices, listening, hospitality and values lived rather than simply taught came through most strongly. Natalie said: “Benedictine education is not simply about teaching values, but about intentionally living them through hospitality, compassion, respect, listening and service.” She was an outstanding witness to the education of Lourdes Hill College and of Good Samaritan Education.
Our story of lay governance
Leonie, John and I offered a workshop on the Transition and Formation of Lay Led Governance. The only workshop on governance, it was oversubscribed three-fold, and as Leonie noted, “some who missed out snuck in anyway”.
It never failed to surprise us how far our structure and governance had come. Joanne observed that, along with the Manquehue community, “the Australian contingent was the only fully lay group of educators present. It felt like we were 30+ years ahead of many countries in that respect.”
Many eyes widened when we spoke of the Good Samaritan Sisters beginning their discernment in the 1970s. Many schools, with only a handful of religious remaining, are just now considering how they might transition.
These conversations invited us to see our own story with fresh eyes. Leonie reflected that it was “a time for all of us to reflect again on the great strength of what was created by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan and the founding Members 15 years ago through faith-filled discernment and visionary and courageous leadership.”
GSE BENet26 participants at Melk Abbey. Photo credit: Good Samaritan Education.
Places of hope
At the closing Mass, Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder OSB spoke of how Benedict created communities that seek God together, concerned with the everyday and the ordinary. We owe our students, he said, “more than jobs and academics but an education that enables them to face the future with courage, inner freedom and hope.”
He offered a better definition of progress, the enlargement of the human heart: “Let us give them something that no political crisis or cultural revolution can take away from them.” His words sit beautifully alongside our 2027 theme, Seeking God Together: In all things.
In the regional report, I shared our privileged experience of Benedictine education in a lay context established by strong women and named our delegation’s struggle with the lack of women’s voices at BENet26.
The Abbot Primate responded that, in future, ICBE would need to invite the head of CIB alongside the Abbot Primate, following their changing governance structure. All regions were invited to lead one of the liturgies, so when Australia led Midday Prayer in the Abbey Church, we made sure that every part was taken up by women.
We returned home with new friendships across the region and invitations to collaborate with schools in the Philippines and India. Rita reflected that she returned “with a renewed appreciation that the work of education is indeed holy work,” grounded in the invitation “that in all things God may be glorified”.
*Gabrielle Sinclair is the Director of Formation and Mission Integration for Good Samaritan Education.
