Detailed Report on Australian Tour May 2012 by Peter and Neroli Duffy
Report on Australian Tour May 2012 by Peter and Neroli Duffy
Perth Study Group, May 5-7, 2012
The Perth study group is an informal group of five people run by a long time devotee and communicant. The group meets once a week to give some decrees and to study the teachings. They also do a Jesus Watch once a month.
The Saturday Saint Germain Service from 4-6 pm was a great success. There were 11 people, four new Keepers of the Flame and other long time Keepers, who were present for a 2 hour service. It felt really great to give the decrees for the city and the nation. Peter and Neroli lead the decrees with supplementary teachings interspersed in the service. Some of the decrees were given live and some were given with Mother. They especially liked the teaching on the Golden Mantra with the mudras and the explanation of the mantra, and Neroli later sent them the handout on this. After the service we went to dinner with several of the group to continue talking.
There were four new Keepers of the Flame and some Keepers of the Flame who had not been so active were pleased to reconnect with the group. Life is busy for many Keepers of the Flame with work and family commitments with barely enough time for their spiritual life. Thirteen people attended the Sunday Service, which included a sermon and short discussion on the Cosmic Honor Flame and a dictation by Sanat Kumara on the cosmic honor flame, a subject which is topical because of the recent issues of dishonesty in the Australian government. The dictation was followed by Holy Communion and a love offering as well as the sacrament of baptism. Following the Sunday Service there was a pot fortune lunch and fellowship with lots of comments and questions and answers.
On Sunday as part of the service we also gave a short presentation on The Summit Lighthouse today. We had learned the day before that the new Keepers of the Flame had heard that the church had died in Montana after Mother died and that there were no more books being produced or available. They were told this by a former Keeper of the Flame from Melbourne who was previously responsible for Australia-wide book distribution, and a former Keeper of the Flame from Perth who introduced them to the teachings and who has since taken up Buddhism. The new students were very pleased to hear that these things were not true and that there is continuity in the organization with the governing offices of a board of directors, a president and executive team and more recently a spiritual director elected by the Elders. The books are of course still available locally through the Melbourne Study Group and Sydney Teaching Center and through the fulfillment center in Montana. We also gave them an understanding of the other groups in Australia and their virtual community around the world and the growing youth movement.
The new Keepers of the Flame want more teachings and more meetings each week. They are ready for the next steps on the spiritual path. All four of the new students were baptized, two on Sunday and two on Monday. They wanted to know what they can study next and we told them about Pearls of Wisdom online and the new Keepers of the Flame online.
They also asked for additional teachings while we were in town, so on Monday night we presented a DVD of the Cable Show “Discovering Your Mission—Questions and Answers with the Messenger. “ Once again 11 people turned up and we had a wonderful session of watching Mother and then conducting a question and answer session followed by refreshments. Even after we had to vacate the hall, none of them wanted to leave, and we all stood outside and talked for another 45 minutes.
The Perth Study Group was excited and grateful for this weekend seminar and events and to have visitors from headquarters. The group asked when we were returning. They want a public outreach next time to bring in more new people. They also want a 2 day seminar the next time we visit so that they can study the teachings in depth. They would also like a Summit University in Perth at a future date.
Neroli and Peter had the opportunity to talk with all of the Keepers of the Flame one on one and were also delighted with the response and grateful that there is such an active group keeping the flame in Perth. We had the sense that they are ready and that this visit will be the catalyst for them to take a step up in their activities and commitment.
Melbourne Study Group, May 11-13, 2012
The Melbourne Chartered Study Group just moved into lovely new rented premises the week before Rev. Neroli and Peter Duffy arrived for the weekend event. The new focus is more centrally located, right next to a busy main street in the Melbourne suburb of Croydon with a train station and bus stops nearby. The access to public transport is a key improvement over the previous center.
This move sees the Melbourne Study Group returning to this area after an absence of some years. The group was previously based in Croydon when it was a somewhat depressed area. Since that time the suburb has really flourished—new shops, cafes and stores have opened in the main street which previously was almost dead. The KOF believe that these positive changes were due to the infusion of light which was previously brought to the area by the study group. Now, returns to again bring another infusion of light to the area. A new age spiritual healing bookstore and event center on the main street and another new age center a block further away show the appeal for healing techniques and spirituality that is present in this area of Melbourne.
Many people assisted with the move and the setting up of the new center. Right before the move the center received a fresh coat of white paint to all of the rooms, which the owner accurately said helps to “clean up stuff.” Upon seeing our altar being set up, he said he really liked our furniture! The new chapel seats around 20 people and there is a room for outreach as well as bedrooms for chelas visiting from the country or from other cities to stay in the center. (The local KOF thought this was another key improvement over the previous center, which was a shopfront with no on-site accommodation.) Over the weekend nine people (including teens) stayed in the center overnight to attend the services and workshops. It was a wonderful feeling to be in a chela house and community of the Holy Spirit. The center has a lovely garden outside, off-street parking for a number of vehicles, and a large backyard. In all, the long time devoted chelas of the ascended masters in this city spoke of a new sense of expansion and many possibilities for growth with their new center.
Neroli and Peter met with the three members of the board of trustees—Michaela Rouch, Brenda Ruyter and Marie Christine Stuart—on Friday before the Ascension Service to discuss plans for outreach and the expansion of the center. They also met with four young people for an overnight mini youth retreat where they watched and discussed Mother’s teachings on your divine mission and other questions put to her by the youth. The youth really liked Mother’s answers and were impressed with her knowledge and compassion. They have decided that they would like to have longer retreats in the future.
On Saturday the adults studied the same teaching that the teens had studied earlier that morning. The Saturday workshop on The Cosmic Honor Flame and the Divine Destiny of Australia after lunch was well attended and well received as it explored two important themes for the nation drawn from the astrology of the nation and Mother’s teachings in Australia in 1985. We explored what the masters’ teachings tell us about the future of the nation and our part in creating it.
Finally a lively Workshop on Decree Leading discussed what makes a good decree session and provided hands on teaching and feedback to the long time and newer decree leaders. Melbourne is blessed with powerful and effective decree leaders and the day ended with a rousing and fiery Saint Germain Service lead by the Keepers of the Flame and focused on bringing the flame and culture of the divine Mother to Australia. When we sang together “God Bless Australia” and “We Shall Not Be Moved!” there was not a dry eye in the chapel. The Sunday Service was dedicated to the cosmic honor flame and included a dictation by Sanat Kumara on that subject and a children’s story about an Australian who exemplified the Cosmic Honor Flame and who founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The weekend events had a beautiful flame of love, harmony and community, culminating in the blessing and consecration of the new center to the mission of the messengers and the ascended masters in Victoria. The events throughout the weekend were attended by more than twenty-five people, including Keepers of the Flame Joy Rulewski from Sydney and Glenda Mace from Adelaide and chelas who came from as far away as Hobart to participate.
The Melbourne group would like to be a teaching center in the not too distant future and the board and the regional ministers all feel that this new location is a positive step in achieving this goal. It truly feels like a new day for the Melbourne Study Group—an important outpost for the masters in the nation of Australia!
Canberra Study Group, May 15, 2012
The visit to Canberra, the capital city of Australia, went very well by the grace of God. After a four-hour drive to Beechworth and an overnight stay with Keepers of the Flame there, we drove five hours to reach seven lovely ladies from the Canberra Book Study Group who came to the Weston Creek Community Center to hear the Workshop on The Cosmic Honor Flame and the Divine Destiny of Australia.
Long time member Marie Huttley Jackson sponsors this book study group, which meets once a month to study the teachings and to give some violet flame for the city. They set up an altar and book table and have refreshments following. Prior to the workshop we had dinner with Marie and her children, Celeste, Michael and Genevieve, who are regular attendees at the child care program at the annual Australian Summit University sessions. Their family also meets once a month for a family Sunday Service with another Keeper of the Flame who brings her children to the service.
Canberra is energetically a difficult city in which to live. We could all feel the bristling energy intensifying in the days leading up to the event, so it was wonderful to have a successful meeting and a lively fellowship and discussion following the workshop. Keeper of the Flame Donna McCulloch traveled over two hours to attend, driving back to her Montessori school in Bega the following morning. Darinka Butterworth, one of the first Keepers of the Flame in Canberra, was thrilled to see everyone. Their faithful decrees are so appreciated.
Wagga Wagga, May 16, 2012
We had a very successful trip to Wagga Wagga where we met with the six members of a Study Group led by Keeper of the Flame Jenny Batten. Like many Keepers of the Flame Jenny has dedicated a room of her home to set up an altar to the ascended masters and her home is a home of light.
The group meets every two weeks in Jenny’s home to study the teachings. They watch a video of the messenger and give decrees. Jenny also does the Watch With Me Jesus’ Vigil of the Hours service in her home with another Keeper of the Flame and she joins other Keepers of the Flame from around Australia for morning decrees and other services through Skype. Using Saint Germain’s technology creatively is a great way to maximize the decree work and to stay in touch with our spiritual community.
We watched the DVD of the Cable Show Discovering Your Mission—Questions and Answers with the Messenger. People very much enjoyed seeing Mother in this mode of teachings and they were interested in what it was like to know Mother and how things function now at the Inner Retreat. We talked about the Pearls of Wisdom online and the Keepers of the Flame fraternity online as possible next steps on the spiritual path.
Adelaide, South Australia, Study Group May 18-20, 2012
Nine of Keepers of the Flame including Peter and Neroli Duffy came to Adelaide to attend the wedding of a young Keeper of the Flame, David Cap, to Tanya Satiropoulos, a delightful and spiritual young woman who attended SU in Adelaide earlier this year at David’s invitation. This wedding was a traditional Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony in a beautiful church in Adelaide. Several members of David’s family are members of our organization including his brother Daniel Cap. David gave the visiting Keepers of the Flame from Montana, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney our own table near to the front at the reception so that we could “hold the balance.” In the days before and after the wedding, seven of us conducted three wonderful clearance sessions for the city and for the state of South Australia. A fiery Ascension Service on Friday night was followed by a powerful Saint Germain Service in between the wedding and the reception. Glenda said that the next day the city “just felt different.” The services were conducted in the home of communicant Glenda Mace who has a beautiful full altar upstairs in her home. Glenda hosted five Keepers of the Flame in her home over the weekend and we were all witness to the power of having an altar in a city as a home of light for the masters and their chelas. Adelaide is known as the city of churches and although it was the only Australian state capital that did not begin its days as a penal colony, it has always seemed to be a very difficult place to establish a group—it feels like there are records that need to be cleared. We are all praying for the Adelaide Study group to increase in numbers and to be a greater anchor point for the light in that city. The work has begun and we feel that the clearance work that was begun this weekend will be the start of a new cycle for the group in that city. The weekend culminated in a Sunday Service dedicated to the master Ra Mu for the Keeping of the Mother Flame. The dictation by Ra Mu was a powerful release of light entitled “Transmute the Records of Lemuria and Claim the Victory of the Feminine Ray.”
Sydney Teaching Center, May 2, 21-28, 2012
The Sydney Teaching Center is located in a house in Wentworthville, a suburb on the west side of Sydney. We conducted the Wednesday Evening Healing Service upon our arrival. Five people were present and two were on Skype and we attended the Wednesday Evening Healing Service during the last week of our tour.
On Friday night we had a wonderful Ascension Service with 11 people which really cleared the way for a great day on Saturday. On Saturday morning we had a breakfast meeting with some Knights and Ladies of the Flame. During the day on Saturday we conducted three workshops attended by 21 people. It was a lively group and a packed house for the little sanctuary. We discussed Australia as the land of ancient Lemuria. We talked about how to return to the glory of past golden ages by gaining greater access to the cosmic honor flame. Someone noted that the Australian domain names end with .au, and “Au” is the chemical symbol for gold. Perhaps it is a sign of a golden age to come.
The decree leading workshop discussed what makes a good decree session and what to do when a decree session is not the best that it can be. This session also included coaching for decree leaders, with the opportunity for anyone who wanted to do so to have a turn at the podium. We discovered quite a few potential decree leaders had been hiding out in the congregation and there were promises of putting them to work in future sessions. The afternoon culminated in a fiery Saint Germain Service, again joined by our friends on Skype from around the country. Margaret Weir brought her nephew and a friend from Grafton, 8 hours away, and it was a joy to meet them and some other newer students.
On Pentecost, the Sunday Service was attended by 22 people including family and friends of some of the Keepers of the Flame, and several people and groups Skyped in from other cities. The sermon summarized what had been achieved in this visit to Australia and the great potential for the descent of the Holy Spirit and the expansion of the teachings there. We spoke about our messenger’s teaching that Australia is a key nation on the geopolitical scene, a sleeping nation whose people are very ready for an idea whose time has come. It feels like that time is come and the fields are white to the harvest. Several new students became Keepers of the Flame and two were baptized in the Sydney Sanctuary.
The weather was kind during the weekend as the forecast rain turned into beautiful sunny days enabling us to eat our meals outside in the sun. It was a real sense of joy and community with fellowship and laughter.
The Sydney Teaching Center is an important hub for Australia and the South Pacific Region. On occasions such as these the Sydney center is bursting at the seams and we could not fit one more chair in the chapel—signs that a new sanctuary might be needed in the not too distant future?
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