The long-time principal of Warrnambool’s St Joseph’s Primary School will study a six-week religion course on the outskirts of the world’s holiest of cities, Jerusalem.

As part of the Catholic Education Office Ballarat principal enrichment leave program, Mr Gray will live-in at the Tantur Ecumenical College from June 4.

The offer comes after Mr Gray reached 20 years of service and is designed to ‘keep principals vital in their role’.

“It’ll be fascinating from my point of view,” Mr Gray said. “It’s a very interesting area both historically and politically.

“I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be both challenging and refreshing.”

Mr Gray said the college is part of the University of Notre Dame, an American Jesuit university, and he will be one of 25 attending from all over the world.

“The course is designed to broaden people’s understandings of different faiths”, he said. “Ecumenical means different faiths coming together.

“The course will include Muslims, Christians, Jews,..not just a catholic perspective.

“It will be learning about each others faiths, through dialogue, learning through understanding and harmony.”

The destination, Mr Gray said, would be both fascinating and intimidating. 

“Given the political scenario at the moment it’ll be interesting to see how that’s played out,” he said. “Jerusalem is in the middle of it all and with recent changes in American policy it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out on the ground.

“The course studies scriptures, the backgrounds to Bible readings, and you actually visit historical and geographical places around the stories in that region. 

“It should be amazing.”

Mr Gray said his studies, based 20 kilometres south-east of Jerusalem, would involve lectures and study periods in the morning, and excursions in the afternoons. 

Classes are expected to run six days a week.

“Catholic education is committed to ongoing learning of its leaders,” Mr Gray said. “These types of courses are aimed at keeping you abreast of a contemporary world and enhancing the faith experience of the community and school, particularly the young people.

“By taking a sustained period of time away from the workplace to focus on an area of interest, that then enriches your work.

Mr Gray said he also looked forward to sharing his experiences with his students when he returned. 

“I’m planning to talk to the kids all about it when I get back,” he said. “They’re very interested in me learning new things and sharing that learning with them.

“I see it as being important for me as a leader of a learning place to be learning.

“That’s what we’re asking the kids to do, and we need to be learning too. We’re never too old to learn.”

Leaving the school under the care of assistant principal Jim Guinan and his leadership team, Mr Gray said he was grateful to family, friends and Father John Fitzpatrick for supporting him in these studies.