The research asks: what is the relationship of distinctive congregational founding values with the reconfiguration values in the new Le Cheile Catholic Schools Trust? The twelve religious congregations that collaborated in forming the Le Cheile Trust for their Catholic secondary schools in Ireland, 2003-2010 are engaged in the research process. The genesis of this new collaborative trust for Irish Catholic seccondary schools is in the context of declining numbers of religious, and the immediate need to ensure the future of their schools. The research question is set in the context of an analysis of the genesis of the Irish Catholic voluntary secondary school in view of the challenges facing these schools today. This involves the inclusion of historical, ecclesial and documentary data. The research data are based on analysis of historical documents supplemented by oral history. This is constituted by formal conversations or semi-structured interviews with twelve congregational leaders, twelve school principals and the two new executive lay leaders in the Le Cheile Trust and also the responses of leaders in the other three new major trusts formed before 2010. The living archives of the oral history provide a new interface between the founding values and the current values motivating the decision to develop the Le Cheile Trust.