Futures Week

In Year 10 Religious Education, students undertake a unit on World Religions. This affords students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of faith in their life and have a clearer picture of the Catholic faith and values that we share with other faith traditions.

As part of Futures Week, Year 10 students visited a range of places of worship including:

• Dhamma Sarana (Buddhist Temple)
• Keysborough Turkish Islamic and Cultural Centre
• St Andrews Catholic Parish
• LIÊN LẠC BAN TRUYỀN THÔNG – Vietnamese Catholic Church
• Bright Moon Buddhist Society
• Aumsai Sansthan – Hindu Temple

The following is a Student Reflection from Bridgette Veneris:

“In the last week of the term, Year 10 students had their Futures Week. As part of the week we got to visit different religious places and immerse ourselves in their culture and customs. My group went to two places. The Bright Moon Buddhist Society was our first stop. This was a gorgeous, giant temple with lots of gold features on the outside. To enter we had to take off our shoes and everyone was bewildered while walking through the temple. There were enormous statues with food and water at each one as offerings. On the outside of the temple there was a lot of incense and I was lucky enough to be able to light one myself. 

Our second stop was Aumsai Sansthan, a Hindu Temple. This was a very small temple compared to the first one. However, this did not take away from its significance. Here, we learned about the word “um” and they told us that this sound is the vibration of the universe. Even today when NASA records the sound of the universe, this is what they hear. You may have heard this word chanted in meditation, which is exactly what we got the opportunity to do. We sat with our hands on our knees while we all chanted, this helped to bring positive energy to our bodies. In the end, we all blessed a Buddhist statue with candles. They were kind enough to give us a book about Buddhist culture and an orange as a fruit offering.”

Jane Ward
Assistant Principal: Learning and Teaching