Report on Australian Tour May 2012 by Peter and Neroli Duffy SUMMARY

Report on Australian Tour May 2012 by Peter and Neroli Duffy SUMMARY Our trip to Australia in May was extremely successful by the grace of God. As the regional ministers for Australia we visited six cities (Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Wagga Wagga) and travelled thousands of miles by plane and car over 28 days. We visited the Sydney teaching center, the Melbourne chartered study group and four informal study groups.We held meetings and services each weekend and in the evenings including the Ascension Service, Saint Germain Services and Sunday Service and the Watch with Me Jesus Vigil of the Hours on Wednesday evening. The workshops were Discovering Your Mission—Questions and Answers with the Messenger, The Cosmic Honor Flame and the Divine Destiny of Australia and Decree Leading Workshop. Other groups and individual Keepers of the Flame joined us from around Australia through Skype for many of these sessions. We were impressed with the level of commitment of the Keepers of the Flame and the understanding of the newer students, who are very spiritually aware and who are hungry for the teachings. Some travelled long distances to be present. There were five Australian aboriginal people present for the weekend events in Sydney, which was the first time we have had a significant number of aboriginal people attending one of our events. These people were relatives of a Keeper of the Flame who was also the first aboriginal ever to graduate from university in Australia. She has been studying the teachings for many years, and the other family members seemed very receptive to the teachings. Along the way we conducted four Sunday services, performed six baptisms, consecrated a new center for the Melbourne study group, enlisted 7 people to become Keepers of the Flame, received $1400 in tithes to bring back to the Inner Retreat, received a heave offering from the Sydney Teaching Center of $1200 and encouraged people to sign up for the Keepers of the Flame online, Pearls of Wisdom online and Summit University online. We also had a 24 hour mini youth retreat with four youth in the Melbourne area and breakfast meeting with two Knights and Ladies of the Flame in Sydney. We visited three other young people for an overnight stay in their home in the country and attended the Greek Orthodox wedding of a young Keeper of the Flame which was also attended by other young people who are pursuing the teachings. It is important to stay in contact with our youth and Knights and Ladies of the Flame and they really appreciated these events and the opportunity to network together. We also ministered to many people with ministerial counseling—in some cases just in time as they dealt with significant family, personal and work issues. These included talking with someone with terminal cancer, another recently diagnosed cancer patient, a woman who had gone through a miscarriage and two with family members with serious addiction problems. We also followed up with a number of members who had not contacted the organization in some time. Like Keepers of the Flame around the world, Australian Keepers of the Flame are facing challenging circumstances in all aspects of their lives in terms of holding the balance. They are experiencing an upturn in the levels of stress in their personal, family, business and study group lives. Many of them told us that this visit was a great help to them, and the importance of these kinds of visits cannot be underestimated. As one long time communicant expressed “how invaluable your presence is here in Australia to each one of us. You cannot know how wonderful it is for us to have the reassuring presence of the Masters delivered in sermon or sacrament through you both. It makes such a tremendous difference to each one of us in a time of increasingly difficult circumstances. Your leadership provides us with the extra strength we need to keep going.” Fortunately, the economy in Australia is substantially better than the economy of other western countries, by many of the new jobs are in the mining industry. These pay extremely well, but they are fly-in fly-out to very remote locations, and the work schedules put great stress on families. There is also a lot of concern about the future and how long the mining boom will last. There is a strong sense of community and support for one another amongst the Australian Keepers of the Flame. 2013 will be the tenth anniversary of Summit University Downunder. 50 percent of the Keepers of the Flame in Australia are not near a teaching center or study group but many stay in contact through Skype and attend services in this way. Many tithe to their local group to keep their groups afloat. One tangible result of this visit is that more people are trying to come to the Inner Retreat this summer or planning to join the Freedom conference by the internet broadcast (which is challenging due to the time zone differences). People expressed a great interest in the KOF online and Pearls online. Perhaps the biggest benefit was the sense of uplift and community. The Keepers of the Flame were delighted with the visit and have said that it makes a tremendous difference to have such support from the headquarters at the Inner Retreat. Some of the comments include: “We feel very uplifted by your visit and your presence with us”; “It was lovely to see you and Peter here in Australia and the hearts of those who love the Mother and the Masters rally together”; “It was a magnificent spiral of light from beginning to end.” There was a profound sense of community and the sense that chelas from around the country responded with fervor to the call of the Masters to come up higher and galvanize together for the Victory of the Light in Australia.