Eremos

Much has happened since the February issue of EREMOS. The Bookshop has closed down along with the office at Epping. These decisions were not taken without a great deal of agonising over which is the right way to go when funds are simply not there. We think we made the right decision. We also made the more difficult decision and were prepared to live with the consequences.

Fortunately you, the members, have saved the day. Over the page you will see how the Council has responded to your generosity and concern, and a detailed account of future strategies is outlined. The office closure has been particularly hard on Carolyn, our former Executive Director, and Linda, former Associate Director, and these dedicated and hardworking people, along with their team of committed volunteers, have been uppermost in our minds. On page 37 are details of a farewell party which we hope all who possibly can will attend.

Now to the magazine. Firstly, I’m very pleased to welcome three new members to the Editorial Team: Linda Turton will continue to make a valuable contribution and is joined by Rob Brennan and Sue Emeleus both of whom are also on the Council.

The cover for this issue hung in the Eremos office for many years. I felt it appropriate for these times—the crew are working hard and the helmsman is resolute, the very images of members who have supported us so firmly over this period. The sail catches just enough wind—‘ruach’—to help the small vessel along. And the fish in the sea are leaping for joy. 

Rod Pattenden begins this issue with ‘The Future of God’, putting his finger on the challenges Eremos faces today and drawing upon his understanding of art to inspire some future directions. Suzanne Dunbar writes of Australians’ relationship with a land laid out like a labyrinth, the journey to the centre being an adventure which offers at the same time insight, threat and hope. Dennis Wild, in a sequence of haiku, invites us to share his experience of the Red Centre and Mark Dingle takes us with him on a bushwalk as he searches for silence. 

In a new departure I have devoted the centre pages to an opportunity for you to promote Eremos to your friends. Some say it’s difficult to describe Eremos—this should make it easier. The pages are designed to be lifted out and given to prospective members, without damaging your magazine.

Kyounghee Cho leads off the second half of this issue with a moving account of how Korean women are challenged by feminism. Interestingly, Kyounghee mentions Chung Hyun Kyung’s work, Struggle to be the Sun Again, which was the subject of Heather Thomson’s Eremos Essay Supplement (no.16).

Sue Emeleus recommends books to Eremos members, and Rob Brennan outlines how to order books via the internet. If you have news to share of books you have enjoyed, please email jac.pryor@optusnet.com.au

The information pages contain letters from Carolyn and Linda as they farewell Eremos in their capacity as staff, but not as enthusiastic members. We will miss them sorely as staff, but continue to enjoy them as members.

Recalling Scott Peck’s theory in A Different Drum, Eremos has now moved through the emptiness of the financial crisis to the true community of rallying together. It’s often said that organisations have a limited lifespan, and need to recognise when it’s time to go, but the response of the membership to the recent challenge has confirmed that such a time has not yet come for Eremos. It’s difficult to see when it will while ever the candle burns so brightly.

A number of people wrote at length in reply to the Council’s open letter and I’ll summarise their main points here.

There has been encouragement to go online with the magazine. In the letter below you will see Council is exploring this but there are practicalities to consider. Another member thought Eremos might decentralise some aspects of its administration, bringing the regions into closer contact. A sense of ‘static-ness’ had crept in for another, a lack of dynamism which was disturbing. This writer, too, was beginning to think about new forms of media for Eremos. The mutual influence of spirituality and theology on one another was also recommended for discussion.

Suggestions which fell into two categories continue to point up the age-old challenge for Eremos: Eremos is too Christian/Eremos is not Christian enough; Eremos should be more faithful to its original aims/the language used by Eremos excludes nonbelievers.

And then there were those who wrote:

• Hang in there!
• I cherish what Eremos means to me.
• We value what you do, even at considerable distance.
• Eremos must continue!

And so it must.

Jacquie Pryor