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HIS EDITION OF ERNN has a focus on Social Justice. There was nothing deliberately planned about this but it simply seemed that was the common theme in the many articles and reports that had been submitted for publication.

	MULTI-MEDIA: The multi-media productions featured in the last edition for Vocations and the Oceania Mission Statement are still available online. Click the foregoing titles to view them with sound.

It is a newsletter filled with a diversity of interesting perspectives. Perhaps the best starting point for this exploration of the Social Justice dimension of the Edmund Rice endeavour is Peter Hardiman's essay. In it, Peter seeks to explore how Edmund distributed his energies between dispensing charity and social justice activism.

From there you might wish to explore Province Leader, Kevin Ryan's, address to the Aquinas Old Boys a few weeks ago. An often under-acknowledged aspect of Edmund Rice's work – and, indeed, of many of those who followed in his footsteps – is the business of raising the money and resources that enable schools to be built and the charitable and educational works of the Congregation to be facilitated. In a tangible way all of us in Edmund Rice Ministries play a part in a "Robin Hood" type endeavour being a conduit between the affluent and powerful sectors of society and those at the margins.

But there's much more as the index below shows.

Brian Coyne

Finding the Balance: All of us, like Edmund for all his alleged wealth, have limited resources – including limited resources of personal love – so we need "to find the balance" and ourselves acknowledge our own need for love and for the constant recharging of the resources that enable the work of Edmund to continue. [more]

Funding the works of Edmund Rice: From one point of view we might observe that the Christian Brothers'-Edmund Rice endeavour is one of acting as a bridge in society between the rich and the poor. This is an address Province Leader, 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. [full story]

Edmund Rice: was he merely a charity giver or was he also a social justice activist? Peter Hardiman sets out to explore where Edmund Rice stands along the continuum between being a dispenser of charity and being a social justice activist. He sets his essay within the context of asking how we, the modern day followers of Edmund Rice, might focus our activities along this continuum. [full story]

The success of the Edmund Rice Social Justice forums: The Edmund Rice Social Justice forums are now an annual event where young people from all the schools and ministries are brought together for a day to jointly explore the Social Justice dimensions of the faith journey. Mark McGlaughlin provided this report and photos of the forum held in Adelaide on 25th July. [full story]

Social Justice in action — local projects helping provide resources to Africa, East Timor and the Solomons: We’ve had reports in of three separate initiatives around Holy Spirit Province which graphically illustrate social justice in action. [full story]

Stories to move any heart: Here are some inspiring stories that will surely move any heart from Laurie Negus in Arusha, Tanzania. They underline both the magnitude of the social justice task faced in Africa and give pause for those of us in places like Australia to thank God for our material circumstances. [full story]

A different kind of poverty in West Africa: Tony Shanahan reports from Northern Ghana about life there and his move back to Kenya. Like Laurie's stories above they provide interesting perspectives on the local culture. [full story]

From the Land of Coconuts and Cocoa: And from a completely different part of the world comes this letter from Andrew McBeath in Papua New Guinea including news of the visit of Congregational Leader, Philip Pinto and other Province Leaders to the country. [full story]

Also worth looking at — another angle on some aspects of the Edmund Rice mythology: One of the beauties of the internet is the lack of constraint on space to publish good articles. In recent days we’ve come across another interesting, but long, essay exploring another aspect of the attitudes of Edmund Rice. It has been written by Denis McLaughlin and published in the e-journal of theology published by the McAuley Campus School of Theology at the Australian Catholic University. McLaughlin’s research throws cold water on what he claims are some of the mythologies that have arisen regarding Edmund Rice’s motivations in establishing the Christian Brothers. McGlaughlin argues: "If the education Rice provided is to be genuinely understood, it is important to appreciate the motivations held by Edmund Rice, when he felt compelled to commence his initial education enterprise." Unfortunately space prevents us publishing any of his article here but we thoroughly recommend it to those who are seeking to understand Edmund Rice better. It can be found at this web address:
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt%5F5/denis.htm.

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