#ANZMarist150 | The Last 50 Years: Br Edward Clisby Reflects on the Continuing Journey of Marist Education in Aotearoa New Zealand (Part 2)
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This week marks the 150th anniversary of Marist education in Aotearoa New Zealand. The journey began in 1876 when the Marist Brothers began teaching, laying the foundations for a ministry that has shaped generations of young people.
In the lead-up to this anniversary, we are sharing a series of articles and interviews featuring Marist educators, leaders and alumni who have helped shape this rich legacy.
In the first article of the series, historian and author Br Edward Clisby reflects on the first century of Marist education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Known for his seminal work Far Distant Shores, which traces the journey of the Marist Brothers from 1838 to the early 21st century, Br Edward offers a fascinating account of the foundations, growth and enduring legacy of Marist education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Read more. This is part 2.
The second half of the 20th century saw two events which were to have a profound effect on Catholic education in Aotearoa New Zealand: the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965) and the integration of Catholic schools into the state system (1979 – 1983). The wide-ranging reforms of the Council affected the religious teaching congregations in three areas: religious life, education and mission. In religious education, for example, it meant significant changes in both content and approach, with subsequent need for retraining and specialised courses, and the introduction of complementary services, such as the school retreat team in 1983 and youth groups, notably REMAR, coming from the brothers’ South American schools in the 1990s.
More crucially, in restoring the laity to their rightful place in the Church rather than upholding the traditional hierarchical structure of clergy, religious and laity, the Council opened to young people other ways of living their Christian commitment and serving the Church than the traditional paths of priesthood and religious life.
From the 1970s there was a significant decline in vocations to the Brothers, with the juniorate closing in 1974, the novitiate downsizing in 1978 and the scholasticate (the Brothers’ post-novitiate teacher training centre) closing in 1984. And professed religious were also profoundly affected. Between 1970 and 1979, 109 Brothers in the Aotearoa New Zealand province withdrew from the order.
Since this was happening in all the teaching congregations, it is not surprising that the Church was faced with an impossible situation in maintaining its school system. The dioceses simply did not have the money to pay the increasing numbers of lay teachers in the classrooms or to provide for the upgrading of premises or the building of new schools. By the 1970s, there was widespread acceptance of the idea that the Catholic schools could become, under certain conditions, part of the state system.
A government act was passed to this effect in 1975, and though the process was a slow and complicated one, by 1983 over 240 Catholic schools had been integrated into the state system. This meant the closing of some schools, the merging of others and the building of new ones. It also meant the closing of communities.
Those Brothers remaining in the schools found themselves with much less freedom than they had enjoyed in the past. They were less in leadership and more in teaching, remedial work, relieving, and serving on boards and committees.
Sacred Heart College, St Paul’s College and Marcellin College, all of which are owned by the Aotearoa New Zealand Marist Brothers’ Trust Board, were always among the ventures sustained as a priority.
In the meantime, the religious congregations had been responding to the Vatican Council’s calls for renewal. In many cases, this meant returning to their origins and finding new ways to implement their founding charism. General Chapters of the Marist Brothers recalled their founding for poor country parishes, a far cry from the wealthy boarding schools and universities that had evolved in some parts of the Marist world.
Provincial Chapters accordingly focussed on other options open to the Brothers which were more in keeping with their origins. In Aotearoa New Zealand, new communities were established in rural areas and poorer suburbs: Te Puna in Hawkes Bay (1980), Panguru in Northland (1983), Otara (1984), Moerewa (1986), Kawakawa (1989), Kaitaia (1993), Tolaga Bay (1997), Ngaruawahia (2000), Kaikohe (2014). Some of these were short-lived, others operated for decades. Some were ‘in class’ in new areas, others ‘outside class’ but aimed at school students and school leavers.
Separate ministries for young adults were set up in Lower Hutt (2000), Auckland (2011) and Palmerston North (2021). An Alternative Education Unit was set up in 1999, to respond to the needs of students suspended or expelled from schools, first at Hato Petera College and then in Glendowie. When these ministries closed it was not because they were no longer needed, but because ageing and declining numbers of brothers could no longer support them.
Such was, of course, the situation throughout the congregation. Provinces around the world had been restructuring since 1999. It had been expected that the provinces of Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne and Aoteraoa New Zealand would have merged by 2001, but it took 10 more years for the two Australian provinces to become one. Aotearoa New Zealand ceased to be a province in 2013 and became temporarily a District of the congregation. It finally joined the Australians and the countries of the Pacific as the Province of the Star of the Sea in 2022.
Yet even as numbers declined, something wonderful and even paradoxical was happening, also the fruit of the Council reforms and the renewal of the religious congregations. For, as the number of religious declined, the number of lay people attracted by their charisms and desiring a closer association with their spirituality and missions increased.
In the case of the Marist Brothers this was beginning as early as 1976, when delegates of the World Union of Marist Old Boys requested the General Chapter to approve the formation of a Marist Family Movement open to all who wanted to live their Christian life according to the spirit of Marcellin Champagnat. The Champagnat Movement of the Marist Family was established in 1990, and within the guidelines prescribed, each group joining could choose the form of association it wished, ranging from collaboration in ministry to support, material and spiritual, and simply social.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, with regard to the schools, the desire to maintain contact with and support those schools with Marist traditions lead to the setting up of Champagnat Lay Partnership in 2005. School visits, seminars, workshops, retreats, responded both to the spiritual needs of lay staff, board members, workers and students as well as promoting Marist spirituality and mission.
Thus, the three Auckland colleges and the Alternative Education School effectively became the nucleus for a network of schools, largely lead and staffed by lay people, capable of carrying St Marcellin Champagnat’s educational ideals into a new century.
Marist Schools in Aotearoa New Zealand through history:
Pic courtesy: Far Distant Shores by Br Edward Clsiby
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