pathways, DECEMBER 08

 

 

 

This national gathering will listen to the Earth, to a universally shared religious Spirit and the challenge of non-violence through presentations by Sister of Mercy Patricia Fox, Brigidine Sister Anne Boyd, Mr John Seed and Mr Brendan McKeague.

 

The gathering, An Other Voice, will be held from Friday night, April 24, 2009, until Sunday afternoon, April 26, at Mary MacKillop Hospitality and Conference Centre, North Sydney.  It will be preceded by a formators' day, from Thursday night, April 23 and Friday, April 24.

 

The conference is being organised by the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction.  This council was inaugurated at a gathering of the spiritual direction community in Melbourne in July 2006.

The keynote address, "God as difference in communion" will be presented by Sr Patricia, from Adelaide.

 

According to Sr Patricia, otherness and difference - particularly that which threatens and disturbs - is a primary challenge of our times. This provides an invitation to experience God as Other and to deepen our reception of God as Communion.

 

Sr Patricia is a member of the faculty of the Adelaide College of Divinity and directs a ministry formation programme for the Catholic Archdiocese based on that campus.  She has been involved in secondary and tertiary education, as well as in formation, spiritual direction, and retreat work. She also has held leadership positions within the Mercy Institute and the Archdiocese of Adelaide.

 

She will speak on Friday night and Sunday morning, after which she will facilitate a process session.

 

Contemporary issues confronting spiritual directors in Australia will be addressed by the othe three speakers throughout the Saturday.

 

 

In 2002, she fulfilled a growing desire to study the inter-relationship between ecology and spirituality and visited a number of centres in Ireland and the United States. She also completed studies in Earth Literacy and Earth Ethics. She is the co-ordinator of the Earth Song Project, sponsored by seven Religious Orders in Victoria.

 

 

A long time environmental activist, he is deeply interested in the spiritual and psychological aspects of protecting the planet. He has worked with Thomas Berry, Sister Miriam Therese McGillis and Matthew Fox to create rituals that reframe the scientific creation story into a spiritual one and has for many years explored the overlaps between ecology and the great faith traditions.

 

Practical and effective nature conservation and restoration projects in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand have flowed from this focus.

 

 

Mr McKeague was born and raised in Northern Ireland where he was exposed to a culture of violence, injustice, and faith-based, denominational segregation. The cycle of violence was maintained by a culturally-embedded fear of 'the other' expressed in an 'us and them' division.

 

For the past 25 years, while living in Australia, he has worked in adult education, facilitation and conflict transformation. He is an associate of the Pace e Bene Franciscan Service in Non-violence and enjoys combining his Celtic spirit with a passion for sustainable, non-violent peace-making.

 

The formators' day will provide formators with an opportunity to share their experiences of forming spiritual directors and for dialogue with the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction about the new formation guidelines: Recommendations to Foster, Support, and Recognise the Formation of Spiritual Directors in Australia (2008)

 

 

Anne Lane PBVM, National Conference Coordinator, AECSD;  (02) 9701 0215  or annelane@ozemail.com.au

 

 

This information and photographs were taken from the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction which also provides further details about the conference and about the organisation

Links to papers from the inaugural gathering are also available.