AUSTRALIAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

(AECSD)

NATIONAL GATHERING

FRIDAY 30 JUNE & SATURDAY 1 JULY 2006

AT

TRINITY COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Smoking Ceremony to begin the Gathering

Commitment Prayer

Before we know it, before we seek it,

before we enter it,

thank you, O God for this journey beginning.

In faith we invite you to beckon us on,

that we may be your people

and you may be our God.

We commit ourselves to you

as we celebrate

this Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction,

in this time and place

and our ongoing conversations together.

We will risk hearing each other,

trust ourselves to each other in faith,

and await the presence of your Spirit

among us O God. Amen.

When in doubt,

I always assume

that God is at work;

that is, the person is pregnant.

Margaret Guenther

Council Members

Back row: John Stewart, Brian Gallagher, Philip Carter , Robin Pryor

Middle row: Elaine Smith , Stephen Truscott, Frank Daniels

Front row: Ruth Morgan, Lynette Dungan , Jill Manton , Anne Lane , Beth Roberton

The Interim Council

Back row: John Stewart, Brian Gallagher, Philip Carter , Robin Pryor

Third row: Kevin Canty, Michael Smith

Second row: Elaine Smith , Jill Manton , Mary Cresp

Front row: Joan Ryan, Deirdre Scott

Our Vision

Spiritual direction seeks to listen the life-giving

presence of God into articulation with the

individual and the faith-community.

We believe that the spiritual journey is unique to

each person and that God fashions and

transforms according to the secret call within us.

The ministry of spiritual direction is a sacred

trust, calling for the highest standards of

formation, practice and accountability.

This ecumenical Council welcomes the ministry

of spiritual directors who belong to the different

Christian traditions in which Christ continues to

minister through his Spirit.

Speakers: Denis Edwards. Eileen Glass, Linda Walter

A reading from Thich Nhat Hanh

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. Look deeply: I arrive in every second to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, in order to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive. I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly. I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond, and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda , all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda . I am the 12 year old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate, and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands, and I am the man who had to pay his “debt of blood” to my people, dying slowly in a forced labour camp. My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life. My pain is like a river of tears, so full it cries and laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.

Spiritual directors are not

agents, but instruments

to lead souls….

John of the Cross

There

is only one

guide in the darkness.

Spiritual nurturers help

people to turn

towards this

Guide.

Sandra Cronk

Mary Cresp and Philip Carter at the Dinner

Mysticism

is the art

of union

with reality.

Evelyn Underhill

It is easier

to gaze into the sun

than into the face of the mystery of God.

Hildegarde of Bingen

Above all, trust in the slow work of God,

We are, quite naturally,

impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We are impatient of being

on the way to something unknown,

We should like to skip

the intermediate stages.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability –

And that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.

Your ideas mature gradually –

let them grow,

let them shape themselves,

Don’t try to force them on,

As though you could be today

what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the

anxiety of

feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.