Archer Earth Community Update 15 December

[Dianne Hearn]

Dear Friends

December Agape

We gathered at 2461 for our final Agape for 2025 with a ‘full house’ and a need to scout around for additional chairs!  We gathered with a sense of celebration, gratitude and relationship to ponder the mystery of Christmas and enjoy the many Christmas goodies!

Our prayer ritual was a potpourri of all things Christmas - hand painted cards, ‘love unfolding’ fans, songsters as diverse as Deborah Cheetham and Colin Buchanan, insights from Thomas Merton, Jan Richardson, Noel Davis and Ilia Delio amongst others.    We learnt from First Australians and African voices. We had time for quiet meditation, poetry reading, carol singing and gifting families seeking asylum.

Thanks to everyone for the delicious Christmas lunch and the all round good time!  Some pics below.

Bondi Tragedy

After the joy of Agape on Sunday it was with great sadness that we learnt of the tragedy at the Chanukah by the Sea Festival.  The thoughts and prayers of the Archer Earth Community are with all who have lost loved ones and the many people being cared for in hospitals.  We are thankful for the courage of the first responders and citizens who stepped forward to assist.   We offer our support and solidarity to the Jewish Community and to all victims of terror in our world.

Archer Meditation  

Our meditation gatherings are concluded for 2025 and will commence again in March next year.

Planning for Archer Earth Community 2026

Our planning meeting for Archer Earth Community will be held in February 2026 at a date to be advised.  Our first Agape for 2026 will be held in March. We are tidying our email group contact details so please advise us if you have a new email or would like to be removed from the mailings.  Contact hear...@gmail.com

Thresholds of Transformation

Monica Brown and her colleagues (Emmaus Productions) have produced this ‘program/process’ of reflection and conversion for 2026.   You may be interested in joining an on line group facilitated by Emmaus Productions.  It integrates the Universe Story, Laudato Si and the Gospel Story in a transformational process aimed at ecological conversion.  For more information and to speak directly with Monica or her colleagues see https://ttss.thresholdsoftransformation.org/

Key Dates

December 20 International Human Solidarity Day is a commemoration of the United Nations to promote global cooperation and solidarity.  See https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-solidarity-day

December 22 Summer Solstice sees the sun tracking across the sky to its highest point. Midsummer traditions through history focus on reconnecting with nature and celebrate fertility and the life-giving powers of the sun. 

December 25 Feast of Christmas

Thomas Merton, who is one of the wisdom figures for Archer Earth Community is sometimes referred to as the Advent Monk as he joined the Trappists in Advent 1941 on 10 December and died on this same day in 1968.  As we prepare for Christmas, Thomas offers us this challenge:

Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst.

(From “The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room” in Raids on the Unspeakable)

January 1 New Year and World Day of Peace

Pope Leo’s chosen theme for the 2026 Day of Peace is: Peace be with you all: Towards an unarmed and disarming peace.  The World Day of Peace “invites humanity to reject the logic of violence and war, and to embrace an authentic peace based on love and justice.”

We wish all our friends in the extended Archer Community the blessings of Christmas and conclude with our final reading from Sunday’s Agape.

In Bethlehem, beneath the sky,

A humble star was shining high.

The heavens sang in Bethlehem, beneath the sky,

A humble star was shining high.

The heavens sang, the angels cried,

"For unto you, a Child is born! A manger cradled Heaven's grace,

Christ’s love in time and space. No royal robe, no golden crown,

Yet glory wrapped the stable round. The shepherds came with hearts astir,

To see the gift God gave to earth. Love was born, the world reborn,

On that first blessed Christmas morn. So lift your voice, let praises soar,

For Christ is Love forevermore. Rejoice with heaven's mighty throng,

Love’s gift, our endless song.!" Hosanna in the highest!

Christmas Blessings from

Archer Earth Community

E: hear...@gmail.com

M: 0448275712

[Ray Weston]

Greetings and blessings for Christmas and the new year Janett passed to her God on the 24 th November after a prolonged illness  Send off was in Nanango with 50 people 

Ray Weston 

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