Sydney
13 July 2003
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Conversation: Ryan Macalyk - student at St Ignatius College, Riverview - Great days and good knights for ‘Wheels’
Biblical perspective on life’s problems
Mysteries of Light CD will aid Emmaus in Perth
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Sylvester II - Pope from IM to 1003
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Mysteries of Light CD will aid Emmaus in Perth
By Marilyn Rodrigues
Alan Archer, the director of the Emmaus Community in Perth, believes that people - especially people with mental illnesses - need community, love from people around them and most of all, God.
“Our Western culture is good in that it has given us important things like good places to live but it is also a very isolating culture and we’re hoping in a very little way we can change that,” he says.
“People need love and they need God most of all.”
The Emmaus Community in the Perth suburb of Cannington, is one where people with mental illnesses can live together, support one another and utilise creative talents.
Alan Archer established it in 1996 after he began managing a mental health crisis unit in Bentley, WA.
He could see how many people, who were well enough to leave his care, felt isolated when they returned home and he invited them to continue to drop in for visits.
The idea grew of a small community of people who could live independently, but wanted to be part of a supportive community with others.
In 2001 the community acquired an old house.
Then the parish priest in Queen’s Park, Norbertine priest Fr Peter Stiglich, who is prior of
St Joseph’s, offered a presbytery for the Emmaus Community to use at an affordable rent.
And it is also renting a third house from a parishioner.
There are about 30 people in the community, including 12 residents.
To help pay for their upkeep, the community produces high quality CDs.
One, entitled Now and then, features traditional hymns performed in contemporary style.
The latest production is a double CD of The Rosary, which includes the New Mysteries Of Light.
On it, Dominican Fr Jordan Perry recites the Rosary with members of the Emmaus Community and others.
They are accompanied by harpist Sarah Bowman (pictured right), a member of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, who plays Schubert’s Ave
Maria, Bach’s Prelude No 1 and O sacred head now wounded and Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
The Rosary CD and accompanying booklet have the imprimatur of the Archbishop of Perth, Archbishop Barry Hickey.
The community is already working on its next CD, which will contain the Divine Mercy Chaplet devotion.
The Emmaus Community also has art workshops and runs art shows to showcase its work.
“What we have is quite special and I feel that it’s the Holy Spirit at work,” says Alan.
The Emmaus Community is based on Catholic spirituality but it is open to people of all religions or none.
Its patron saint is St Francis of Assisi.
On the first Saturday of each month people are invited to get together to read a passage from scripture and then share any thoughts about it if they wish.
Alan, originally from Rockdale, Sydney, worked at Matthew Talbot Hostel in Woolloomooloo for five years, first as pastoral care worker and then as supervisor in the evening.
It was the beginning of his interest in the area of mental health.
The Rosary with the New Mysteries of Light double CD costs $29.95 (recommended retail price).
It is distributed by Willow Connections and is available from Christian bookshops.
For further information (08) 9258 7333 or visit www.emmauscommunity. com.au.