Welcome to the commencement of the 2026 school year. I hope that you had a lovely summer, full of rest as well as adventure, good health and time with those you love.
I also trust that all are ready for a year that we know will be filled with both successes and challenges. Our chosen symbol for 2026 is the Butterfly. Pia Lawrence, one of our students and designer of the symbol, writes that the butterfly reminds us of new life and how God helps us to grow and change. The red circle shows God’s love that surrounds and protects us. Together, they teach us that faith means trusting God, staying close to him and believing he will guide us.
I am very confident that our way of being, the charism of St Angela Merici, and our values will help us navigate whatever comes our way this year. They will inspire us to be faithful to our beliefs, ourselves, each other, our community and the world.
I will always start a year by reminding you about what wise members of our community, including students here at the College, identified as our non-negotiable values.
They are:
Fidelitas
We are a faithful community.
Integritas
We are a principled community.
Communitas
We are an inclusive community.
And
Spes, the Latin word for hope
We are a hope-filled community.
Each of these values are integral to our theme for this year, Fidelitas. As the children of God, we are called to faithfulness – faithfulness to our mission, to one another and to the dignity of every human person. Our trust in God and each other offers us strength as we quest for fulness of being and work to make the world a better place. Fidelitas is thus about faith in action: we must being present, kind, loving, courageous and in right relationship with our selves, each other and our God.
Our colour for 2026 is red, which is deeply resonant across many of the world’s cultures. It points to love and passion, good fortune and purity, courage and sacrifice, importance and power. Red can also indicate danger, be a hue of warning, anger and war. Red in our culture must come to represent the positive aspects of our College and tradition: faithfulness, energy, passion, integrity, strength, courage, radical optimism, generative action, creativity, warmth, and security.
Each and every one of us are on different life and faith journeys and thus have different perspectives on what we might mean by fidelitas. The ancient wisdom of our tradition gives us a hint about what it means to live a faithful life.
In Micah 6:8 it is written:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”.
Let’s break that up a little.
To act justly means to be fair, righteous, and equitable in everything you do and thus work to ensure that others are treated morally and honestly.
To love mercy is to show deep compassion, be kind, and loving, especially to the vulnerable. To be informed by fidelitas is to delight in helping those in need. We are people of service at Merici College who work to make the world a better place.
To walk humbly with your God is to acknowledge your dependence on God, to live in right relationship with Him, to know you are loved unconditionally and to avoid pride – you are NOT God. Knowing and acting with fidelitas grounds our actions in justice and mercy. You can accept that the world is not just all about you. Remember the African notion of “ubuntu”, “I am because we are.”
None of this is easy! St Paul helps us in his letter to the Philippians,
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” None of us are ever alone as we seek to live faith filled lives. Love with a capital L will always be there to cherish you, support you and guide you so that you not only live, but live well and for eternity. The Bengali Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, writes “Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.” Trust in the God of Love will help all of us face into the darknesses of our lives and the world.
Two incredible woman are illustrations of faith-in-action. Both work to improve the lives of the suffering, especially that of women and children, fleeing Myanmar.
Professor Rose McGready (2026 ACT Australian of the Year and Merici College Alumna) has spent three decades providing health services to displaced people in the border region between Thailand and Myanmar.
Arriving as a young doctor, Rose discovered that refugees who had fled persecution in Myanmar had difficulty accessing medical assistance in Thailand. In response, Rose established training for local staff to focus on services for expectant mothers and in the critical period of childbirth. Over the past 31 years, she has built a network of locally run clinics and out-patient services which have saved thousands of lives.
Rose’s research has also led to new treatments being developed to tackle maternal malaria. Her findings have been adopted by the World Health Organisation as the global standard for combatting the disease, helping to treat millions of women around the world.
Rose’s commitment, compassion and clinical expertise provide life-saving aid to some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.
Noor Azizah is an award-winning Rohingya human rights advocate, academic, educator, and refugee leader with more than a decade of experience shaping international policy conversations, leading community-driven responses, and speaking on global stages. A survivor of the ongoing Rohingya genocide, Noor was forcibly displaced from Myanmar’s Arakan State as a child. She endured statelessness, homelessness, hunger, and life-threatening journeys through jungles while fleeing military violence. At the age of eight and a half, she resettled in Sydney, Australia. These lived experiences are not a backdrop to her work—they are the foundation of her authority as a global voice on displacement, gendered violence, and justice.
Her leadership has been widely recognised. For example, in 2025, Noor was awarded Marie Claire Women of the Year – Voice of Now, recognising her national and global influence. She was also a recipient of the NSW Young Women of the Year Award (2024)
Both of these women exemplify what it means to live lives informed by fidelitas. You might like to take some time to look them up and read about their stories. They might help you to focus on your response to our theme in 2026? How might you deepen your faith and live it through action?
You might like to meditate on the following questions, you could keep a journal…
- What beauty has God created in my day?
What small beauties has God placed in our lives to remind us He cares about our unique details.
- How did God shower grace on me today?
Have we met with just the right person today or somehow met the need of another? What happy little “coincidences” have happened and how have I seen God’s loving kindness in my day.
- Where did I see God’s mercy?
How might my day have gone wrong but didn’t.
- How is God using my struggles to help me become more wise?
Did the loving transcendent walk with me in more difficult moments?
- Where is God directing me?
Did something happen in the day to guide me? Do I have a sense of where to next?
- What can thank God for in my day? What can I look forward to in the coming day?
I am privileged to welcome so many new members into our community: Year 7 and new students Year 8-12 started with our Seniors yesterday. We also welcome new staff to Merici College:
New Staff
| Kathleen Garvie | AP Development |
| MJ Logan | Teaching and Learning Centre Coordinator |
| Naomi Wicks | Visual Arts and RE Teacher |
| Amer Salman | Sociology and Geo Politics Teacher |
| Alexander Heagney | RE and English Teacher |
| Tara Blake | English Teacher |
| Isabelle McLennan | Uniform Shop Facilitator |
| Kirstin Jackson | Mathematics Teacher |
| Cameron Dean | Science Teacher |
| Rebecca Scollen | Literacy Coordinator and Science Teahcer |
| Kirstie Gibson | English Teacher |
| Kylie Blyton | Learning Support Assistant |
| Georgie McPhail | Learning Support Assistant |
| Yin Shean Tan | Learning Support Assistant |
| Kate Bettison | Drama Teacher |
| Libby Sorensen | Classroom Assistant – Hospitality and Textiles |
Current Staff Changes
| Nicole Commins | Coaching and Staff Development Coordinator |
| Milanda Roxas | Numeracy Intervention Facilitator |
| Joseph Mickleborough | Co-curricular Facilitator |
| Bianca Porcheddu | Balgo House Coordinator |
| Alyssa Markmann | Brescia House Coordinator |
| Andrew Diessel | Data Facilitator |
Long Service Leave
Welcome back to:
Nikki Paschier
Damian Borgia
Dora Chen
Left or leaving
Megan Huckfield
Emma Hillsdon
Xavier Borgia
In conclusion, you might think about this piece of wisdom from Alan Watts:
“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead, you relax, and float.”
Thus, we are called to trust in a loving God who will help us swim, relax and float as we stay true to our mission, to each other and to the dignity of every human being. This trust in God and each other will offer us the strength symbolized by red and the circle in our 2026 symbol. The waters of faith will offer us courage as we quest for fulness of being, emerge from the chrysalis as butterflies and work to make the world a better place.
Welcome to 2026 at Merici College.
