Yirara College

Yirara College in Alice Springs is ahead of the curve in ensuring education is delivered to its students who can’t attend school due to COVID-19 restrictions.

‘No gathering for Easter worship’. Is that a disaster? Not when we work together to find creative solutions.

Yirara College was honoured to be chosen to host His Royal Highness, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, acknowledging the 60th anniversary of the award in Australia.

After six years away from Central Australia working with the Uniting Church in Darwin, I have recently begun working as the chaplain at Yirara College. Beginning again in Central Australia brings new questions and new ways of seeing things.

Yirara College is a boarding school in Alice Springs for Indigenous students from remote communities. Our recent relationship with Civil Train in delivering the new Earth Tec program to students has been highly successful.

Ladies from the Alice Springs and Hermannsburg Lutheran churches shared their history and knowledge with Yirara College staff during professional development sessions earlier this year.

Sixteen Yirara students have publically confessed their faith in the Triune God before a large crowd. The class was the largest for many years, so the service was held in the basketball stadium.

In the 1990s, my family and I lived in Alice Springs where I was a motor mechanic for eight years. There I was first challenged by God to go to Australian Lutheran College.

The annual Yirara confirmation service is an important occasion in the worship life of the college.

On the 20 March students and staff from Yirara College and members of the community celebrated the launch of ‘The Yirara Mix Book’, a book of stories and poetry written and illustrated by students.