CEW 2020 Banner depicting theme Igniting Hope

Catholic Education Week

#IgnitingHope

During the week of May 3 to May 8, 2020, the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington (PVNC) Catholic District School Board will celebrate the significant contribution that Catholic Education has made to the community, the province and to Canada. Our Catholic Graduate Expectations challenge students to articulate in society those fundamental values that underpin Catholic education.

The theme for this year’s Catholic Education Week is: Igniting Hope/Allumer la flamme de l’espérance

The theme for CEW 2020 was inspired by three sources:

  • The recent Papal Exhortation, Christus Vivit, by Pope Francis following the 2018 Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment
  • The recent Ontario Bishops’ pastoral letter, Renewing the Promise (2018)
  • The Ontario Catholic School Graduate Expectations by the Institute for Catholic Education (2011)

There are five sub-themes, one for each day of Catholic Education Week and they are aimed at helping staff and students to reflect more fully on what Igniting Hope means to them.

The five sub-themes are:

Day 1:              Our Hope in Christ / Notre espérance, c’est le Christ

Day 2:              The Hope Within Us / L’espérance en nous

Day 3:              The Hope Among Us / L’espérance au milieu de nous

Day 4:              Hope for the World / L’espérance pour le monde

Day 5:              A Future Full of Hope / Un avenir rempli d’espérance

A PVNC virtual choir performs Chris Rait’s Catholic Education Week 2020 theme song ‘Hope’. Sheet music and a timed ‘guide track’ was provided to choir members by Janina Kraus, whose musical leadership gave direction to instrumentalists and vocalists so that they could simultaneously listen to the guide track and record themselves playing or singing their portion of the song. Most choir members used cell phones to record themselves. The layers of music were then woven together through the tech savvy of Jonathan Berlingeri who used video and audio-editing software to mix the song and provide visuals of the singers throughout. The goal of the choir was to come together virtually in a time of global pandemic to articulate, through both word and action, how Catholic School communities can innovate, create, and ignite hope in challenging times.