The wealthy businessman, Edmund Rice, in a sense gave up his business career and his wealth and chose to follow Christ, and serve the poor through providing them with an education. Today, in so many ways it is an enormous irony that the enterprise of Christian Brothers' schools that ended up being established in his name around the world rival, in capital value, perhaps anything that any individual might dream of starting on his or her own.

In Australia alone there are today 38 substantial schools and colleges as well as many other places of ministry. Few business entrepreneurs can look back on a legacy of that magnitude. While much of the capital of the Edmund Rice "enterprise" is locked away in physical assets that belong to all of us and can't easily be sold, the work of Edmund Rice continues both within Australia and overseas and requires the support of benefactors who fund the work of those do "give away their wealth" in the literal sense of that expression and dedicate their lives working at the coal face in the lives of those who have nothing.

Following is the full text of an address Province Leader and Aquinas Old Boy, Br Kevin Ryan, gave at the Aquinas Old Boys' Dinner on 15 July 2005 appealing for continued financial support for the endeavours of Edmund Rice around the world. Just as Edmund Rice himself and the early Brothers were highly dependent on the financial support of the wealthier sectors of Irish Society – both Catholic and non-Catholic – in the 18th Century, so also does the work continue to require such support today. In so many ways, the life of Edmund Rice gives much for all of us, affluent and poor alike, to reflect upon. From one point of view we might observe that the Christian Brothers'-Edmund Rice endeavour is one of acting as a bridge of brotherhood in society between the rich and the poor.

HANK YOU to Jonathan Murray and the executive for the invitation to be with you tonight and for the opportunity to address the gathering. I consider it a privilege to be able to address a gathering of former students of this great College. I also acknowledge the presence of Bob White the current College Headmaster.

I basically still think of myself as a kid who attended North Baandee Primary School half way between Doodlakine and Trayning. If you do not know where North Baandee is you would surely have to know where Doodlakine and Trayning are!

Let me begin by recounting three very brief incidents which put a basis for everything else that will follow.

This dining room is called the Hughes dining room. It is named after a man, a Christian Brother, Brother Regis Hughes, whose main role in the Christian Brothers for many years was collecting money for schools in Australia and for a House of Formation in the United States of America.

Indirectly you are here this evening because of his work. He, however, is not the main subject of this short story. In Australia he did a lot of collecting from miners and other people whose families would never directly benefit from an education from CBC Terrace for whom he was collecting, and therefore there was no direct benefit to them from the money they gave. I invite you to keep those people in your mind and hearts for the next five minutes.

Just recently the Headmaster, Bob White, told me a wonderful story about a former student of this College, a graduate of very recent years. He attended the College with the support of a bursary (or scholarship). He has worked as a labourer since leaving the College and is now entering tertiary education. Earlier this year he gave Bob $500 to help someone else to get an education at the College. I happen to know this young man. Let me tell you that his gesture was a wonderful and inspiring surprise! Please hold that young man in your mind and hearts as well.

Finally I tell you about a meeting of about 35-40 students when I was Principal of Clontarf Aboriginal College. As we had begun the College without a uniform, one of the issues we explored together at this meeting was whether we would have a College uniform. One of the students said that he wanted to have a uniform of some sort so that when he was walking through the city or was at a suburban shopping centre people would not assume he did not have a job or was not attending a school or TAFE. I wonder what it is like to grow up with the feeling that most people see you with eyes that make those kind of assumptions? "Learning for Life" is the motto of Clontarf Aboriginal College and I do not know what the students learnt but I certainly learnt a lot about life when I was there.

I will return to the miners, to the recent graduate of Aquinas and the student of Clontarf Aboriginal College shortly.

One of the questions I most get asked at these sorts of gatherings is, "What is happening with the Christian Brothers?". I will very briefly address that question tonight in slightly adapted form. As you know the man who started the Christian Brothers over 200 years ago was Edmund Rice. The slightly adapted question that I will address is "What is happening in Australia with the gift that Edmund gave the Church and the world?"

In Western Australia, the Christian Brothers own and operate five schools: this College, Christian Brothers Agricultural School Tardun, Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon, Christian Brothers College Fremantle and Trinity College. While we do not own and operate Clontarf Aboriginal College we initiated its foundation, continue to provided substantial support and it is formalising its status as an Associate Edmund Rice School. Other schools are in conversation about that status as well.

We also conduct Edmund Rice Camps for Kids WA, the Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice in Fremantle and Edmund Rice Centre Mirrabooka which provides community-based education for adult refugees, education and recreation activities for teenage refugees and after-school activities for Aboriginal children. In conjunction with that Centre we conduct Eddy's Carpentry Shop for young people struggling with education or unemployment and the well known Olly's Wheelchair Workshop producing wheelchairs for victims of disease and war in many areas of the world.

In South Australia we conduct three schools: St Paul's College Gilles Plains, Christian Brothers College Adelaide, and Rostrevor College, as well as a very alternative education program for 13-15 year olds called FAME, and Edmund Rice Camps South Australia.

We have two Brothers working in education in Papua New Guinea, three in Africa in both education and the formation of new Brothers, and two Brothers in the United States of America. One of those in Africa is my predecessor, Br Tony Shanahan, and the other is Br John Carrigg, a former Headmaster of this College. One of our Brothers in the United States of America is Br Pat Carey, a former staff member of this College.

A key ministry of three of us on the Leadership Team of this province is to continue to monitor services that we fund which support former residents of our institutions and former students of our schools who have been hurt in any way. Our services in this area are being adjusted to lower demand but they will continue for many years. We also participate in mediations with former students in what is known as the Towards Healing process. While our experience in this area has been challenging and painful, and while I wish that no one had ever been hurt by any Brother or staff member I firmly believe that our openness and honesty in dealing with these matters over recent years has served the men, their families, the Catholic Church and Australian society well.

It has also brought the Christian Brothers to a new place of humility, and not so full of ourselves. When you are not so full of your self there is more room for God in you. That is a big help!

Along with all the other Christian Brother Provinces and Regions of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea we have just called for volunteers for our new project in the Philippines. We would hope to have three or four Brothers in language school and in cultural immersion by early 2006 and to be on a ministry site by mid-2006.

There are three other processes in which the Christian Brothers are involved which are of critical significance and which I wish to share with you.

Of most critical importance to those of you who have a continuing association with this or any other school owned and operated by the Christian Brothers, is that all the Australian Provinces of the Christian Brothers are working together to establish a new governance body and structure for the 38 schools of which we are currently the governors. This will ensure that they are able to continue as Catholic schools and to retain and develop their Edmund Rice tradition. This is a complex matter and I believe the planning process is being done professionally. The planning process will take about seven years. It was begun in late 2001 and will, if all goes well, be brought into implementation in 2008. Bob White is on that planning group. I was on it but retired to move on to another committee.

The committee I moved to involves representatives from the Christian Brothers' regions and Provinces in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the four Australian Provinces of the Christian Brothers and is exploring new structures for the organisation of the Congregation of Christian Brothers in Oceania. In short, the five Provinces and one region within which we currently work in Oceania will disappear by early 2007 and new structures will be put in place to support the future development of the Christian Brothers and the Edmund Rice Network in Oceania.

The Edmund Rice network ... what is that I hear you ask? We are still exploring what it is and what it means. But throughout the Church there is a growing number of groups inspired by a gift of the Spirit, or a charism as we call it. Edmund Rice is now formally recognised by the Church as a person who inspired others in special ways with his gift. Initially it was the Christian Brothers only that claimed that gift, but now that gift or charism of Edmund is way out of our control.

Many employees in our ministries have been taken over by his inspirational story. Many volunteers in our Edmund Rice Camp movement and other projects have been touched to their core by it, many men and women who gather in Edmund's name to reflect on how they are living their family and work lives, have also been touched, as have many current students in our schools.

Edmund was a business man who knew how to turn a dollar. He also knew that educating and empowering the poor of the world required money. Similarly he knew that changing the unjust legislation in the Ireland of his time required a mass movement. He and his followers helped to create that mass movement. If the work of Edmund in helping to create the dream that Jesus expressed on God's behalf, that is a just and loving society, is to continue it needs committed and generous people like you and me to support it. It will require a mass movement.

I have worked alongside and benefited from the generosity and expertise of many old Aquinians over the last nine years. That is, in the nine years I have been deputy leader and then leader of this Province. Edmund Rice ministries in this State have also benefited enormously as well. I know also that Old Aquinians individually and corporately have been extremely generous with finance and with sharing of their expertise for the benefit of this great College. And that will need to continue in the future.

The challenge that I give you tonight, as both individuals and as an Old Boys' Association is to do what Edmund did, to do what the miners did and to do what the recent graduate of this College has done. They all gave generously, perhaps some may even say recklessly for the gain of others and not themselves, nor for the longer term benefit of their families.

If the Edmund Rice network is to flourish ... if the gift of Edmund is to continue to touch the hearts of people in Australia, in Africa, in East Timor or in Papua New Guinea, it needs people who will reflect and pray about their economic and social privilege in this country in the light of the Gospel and to share their expertise and finance to help others. There are Edmund Rice projects in this state, in this country and in many other parts of the world which need the personal involvement and financial support of Old Aquinians. There is also a project to redevelop the places in Ireland that record the story of Edmund Rice in various parts of Ireland and which people visit to gain inspiration. I am available to explore with you how you may wish to support any of the above.

I have played a lot of sport in my time. I have experienced losing, I have experienced drawing and I have experienced winning. I like winning best. However, the success of the work of this College is not judged on its sporting wins. Nor is it to be judged on the success of the orchestras, the musicals, nor the success of the College in the academic "premiership" tables. I am not saying that these things are not important. Young men need to be challenged to achieve their best, and assisting young people to do that has always been a source of great enjoyment to me. However, they are of relative importance. The success of this College is to be judged against the charism, the gift of Edmund Rice who was driven by the Gospel of Jesus. That gift of Edmund is currently described in these words:

Edmund was moved by the Spirit to be aware of the providential presence of God in his life, and to open his whole heart to Christ, present and appealing to him in the poor.

Gentlemen, I left this College 38 years ago. In those years I have tried, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to look into the eyes of the student doing least well wherever I have taught or worked, into the eyes of the Aboriginal people with whom I spent time, and into the eyes of the Sudanese teenagers who make our Edmund Rice Centre in Mirrabooka such a wonderful place. I have endeavoured with the help of my Brothers and a lot of other men and women to see the eyes of Jesus in their eyes. And I have attempted to understand how those most at risk in our society and world experience it. The story of the Clontarf Aboriginal College student is one small example of a different experience of the city in which you and I live and work!

I have done a lot of good things, I have made some bloody awful mistakes, I have had a lot of fun and I've shed many tears. It's been an exciting journey as I have tried to be a follower of Edmund. I invite you to join me, and to join the Christian Brothers and the wider Edmund Rice network as we continue to recognise Jesus appealing to us in the poor.

I am clearly seeking to discuss with you the matter of financial support for local and overseas projects. However, more significantly I am inviting you on to a journey of the heart, a journey that many of you have already gone on, a journey of letting your heart be touched in the same way that Edmund's was touched.

I figure I might never get another invitation to address a dinner like this!

Thanks for listening … have a great night … remember Edmund was an Irishman who liked a good party. Don't forget the miners who made it possible for you to be here and don't forget the young graduate who gave $500 of his labourer's wage to Bob and don't forget the students from Clontarf Aboriginal College who experience this city very differently from you and me.

Br Kevin Ryan cfc
Province Leader