Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
I hope and pray that others observe my boldness for Christ and that they see me as a companion of Jesus.
I hope that this can also be said of you and your schools - that others observe your boldness for Christ and that they recognize you as companions of Jesus.
This does not mean that all of us must act and speak in exactly the same ways. In fact, St. Paul reminds us that though we have unity in the same Spirit, we have unique gifts in how we live out our faith, "But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift...And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:7, 11-12).
In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity...and clarity.
As we lead our Catholic schools, we must provide clarity about the essentials that require unity, the non-essentials that afford liberty, and how charity - love - must permeate all that we do.
First, we provide clarity about areas of unity: our missions, our beliefs, and our values/pillars/charisms. These foundational statements must inspire all that we do and say. As leaders we must continue to point our communities - and ourselves - to these directional aspects of our schools. Act vigilantly in aligning all that happens back to these core identities of our organizations. Flip the necessary tables to root out ways of operating across our campuses that do not connect, align, or flow out of our missions, beliefs, values/pillars/charisms. Communicate over and over and over and over the importance of ensuring all aspects of our schools relate back to who we are and hope to become.
Put another way, areas of unity act as the ways in which our organizations are tight, including but not limited to core instructional practices, hiring processes, maintaining a balanced budget, celebrating the Eucharist, wearing school uniforms, ensuring safety and security, facilitating board meetings.
Second, we provide clarity about the non-essential areas that allow for liberty. Whether that takes place on the building, classroom, or individual person levels, we must clearly communicate the ways in which leaders, teachers, students, and community members can act autonomously. From deciding to host daily, school-wide morning gatherings to facilitating student-led conferences to empowering students to serve as ambassadors to using PowerPoint to providing students with graphic organizers to having students sit in rows or groups, many aspects of our schools can be nuanced - or loose in comparison to tight - and accomplished in a myriad of ways.
This unity-liberty, tight-loose dichotomy can ebb and flow in certain areas over the life of an organization, school year, or even smaller chunks of time. A timely example pertains to ensuring that drop-off and pick-up take place according to plan. Doing so takes on various levels of importance (unity-liberty, tight-loose) based on the time of the year (e.g. the first few weeks of the year) or even on particular days (the first snow fall or early dismissals).
Calculators, word processors, computers, laptops, tablets, devices, and artificial intelligence stand as powerful illustrations of this dance between unity and liberty/tight and loose over the course of time. In these examples and others, as we gather information and learn about what works and what doesn't, we should adapt in data-informed and mission driven ways.
Which brings us to charity. In all things - no matter where a certain part of our school lands on the spectrum of unity and liberty - we must act with love. Whether reminding the community of the importance of being of one accord (tight unity) or allowing freedom and flexibility (loose liberty), others must recognize us as companions of Jesus by our love. All who come into contact with our schools should echo the words of Tertullian's comment about the early Christians, “See how they love one another."
Unity, liberty, clarity, charity.
Tight, loose, clear, love.
And the greatest of these is love.
