All Are Welcome

Over the past few weeks have seen many powerful and moving responses from leaders across the sector to the tragic and senseless killing of three young children in Southport and the ugly and frightening scenes that followed this, as far right protests and protests targeted by the far right took place with alarming ferocity and violence (physical, verbal and online) in many parts of the country. It is something that, like many sector leaders, I felt the need to comment on, but I wanted to first pause to reflect on these events in the light of the words of wisdom that I have read from others; the first hand descriptions of the impact that these actions have had on individuals and communities, as well as my own friends and family and our school communities,  to ensure that anything I add to the dialogue is, hopefully, appropriately sensitive and can contribute to the wider mission and purpose of our Trust of schools. So as our schools prepare to welcome staff and students back to school, I wanted to share the following reflection…

There is a hymn that is a favourite in many of our schools, I think because it speaks to the very heart of our mission as Catholic communities. The Hymn in question is ‘All are welcome’, by Marty Haugen. It begins like this:

‘Let us build a house where all can dwell and all can safely live’

When I see this being sung in our schools enthusiastically by our students (and staff!), there is a sincerity in this message, which I do see lived out across the Trust. The events of recent weeks however reflect clearly how surface deep this sentiment is in parts of our country and potentially even within parts of the communities that we serve. I am acutely aware that in a couple of weeks’ time we will have some of our students and staff returning to our schools feeling that it may no longer be the case that all can ‘dwell’ and ‘safely live’ in their communities. Soberingly, as leaders, we must also face up to the reality that there may well be those in our wider school communities who do not, and maybe have never really signed up to the belief that ‘All are welcome’.

So first and foremost I want to be very clear that in our Trust of Catholic Schools whose mission is ‘An Outstanding Catholic Education for All’, that not only is it of vital importance in all of our schools that it be true that ‘All are Welcome’, but that it is a core purpose of our schools, by virtue of them being Catholic, to be places of diversity in which we actively seek to represent the world in all of the full glory in which God created it. The two parts of our mission statement do not work in isolation. It is not possible to have ‘An Outstanding Catholic Education’ that is not ‘for all’ or that is not welcoming to and accepting of all.  At the start of term, I will be reiterating this message to all staff, parents and students of our schools and sharing with them the steps that we are continuing to take to achieve more equitable and inclusive places of work, learning and faith across the Trust.

Returning to the hymn ‘All are welcome’ – there is another line in the song that stands out to me and a second point I wish to make:

‘Here the love of Christ shall end divisions’

I appreciate that this may seem like an easy sentiment to proclaim and particularly for me, as a white, Christian, straight, cisgender man. I am acutely aware that my personal revulsion over the acts of a portion of the British population this summer is not a fraction of the fear and rejection that will have been felt by many in our communities. However appalled I have been at the scenes witnessed and the slurs and insults being hurled, it is a privilege, by circumstances of my birth and that of my wife, that they do not personally threaten me or my children. That my family and I have not had to question this summer, how we have gone about our daily lives or had cause to doubt and second guess our safety, security and acceptance in the place that we live, is very different to the experience of many in our country. One of the great challenges of faith is to square the circle of how God created everyone of equal worth and value and yet put us into a world of so much inequality.  To love Christ truly however is to understand the innate worth and holiness in each person, created uniquely and yet at the same time in the image of God. To love God truly therefore is to genuinely love one another, seeing our differences as uniqueness and celebrating all that makes us special. We must all redouble our efforts to make sure that this is something that is a lived reality in our schools as well as something that we ‘say’.

So I am publicly restating our commitment as a Trust to continuing to build a house of God in which all are welcome to live their lives in safety, with their intrinsic worth and value recognised and celebrated. Will we always get this right? Sadly not. Can this be achieved overnight? Certainly not. Can we do more? Of course we can and we must. I look forward to working with colleagues from across our Trust this year to make sure that this can be the case in all of our schools.

 Stephen Wheatley, CEO

August 2024