The Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict (SGS) are an Australian order who have 10 Incoorporated Colleges throughout Australia. They are currently involved in a wide range of outreach ministries outside of education. By the mid 1990's they had delegated leadership of each of the Colleges to lay educational leaders. (Although they are the trustees of all of the schools and have a presence on all of the school boards.)
The Sisters had run their own induction and annual retreat for staff for all of their colleges over the the past ten years or so. However in 2004 a decision was made to pass this role into lay hands. From this decision, our role as Mission Coordinators was born in 2005.
Lucie and I work with the sisters in developing and implementing induction and formation opportunities for staff in our Colleges.
Each of the ten Colleges contribute $10,000 and this $100,000 covers our salaries for one day a week each as well as costs in running the programs.
We report to a Principals reference group, made up of three of the College's Principals (Heads.)
The other four days a week we both have our own roles within our own College.
Mark Smith
Mount St Benedict College
Pennant Hills
Sydney