Videos of Eremos Events
Listening to Country: An Indigenous Theology and Spirituality, Session 3
Acknowledging Country: Way forward to reconciliation
There is much wisdom, knowledge, and direction for living to be discovered in listening to country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these lands now called Australia know this and seek to live deeply connected to country and to share that knowing with others.
Nathan Tyson gives the third lecture in the "Listening to Country" series, sponsored by Pitt Street Uniting Church, Eremos, St James Institute and Wellspring. Nathan Tyson is an Aboriginal man of Anaiwon/Gomeroi descent, who has lived most of his life in Sydney. Nathan is a lawyer and long time advocate for the rights of Aboriginal peoples, having worked for organisations such as the NSW Ombudsman, the ICAC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Western Sydney University, and Uniting, before commencing his role as the Manager, First Peoples Strategy and Engagement with the Uniting Church in Australia’s Synod of NSW and the ACT in May this year.
Click here to watch the presentation
Listening to Country: An Indigenous Theology and Spirituality, Session 2
Aboriginal Spirituality and Connection to Country
There is much wisdom, knowledge, and direction for living to be discovered in listening to country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these lands now called Australia know this and seek to live deeply connected to country and to share that knowing with others.
Professor Dr Anne Pattel-Gray gives the second lecture in the "Listening to Country" series, sponsored by Pitt Street Uniting Church, Eremos, St James Institute and Wellspring. Professor Anne Pattel-Gray was appointed Professor of Indigenous Studies and inaugural Head of the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity and commenced the role in August 2022. She is a descendant of the Bidjara / Kari Kari people of Queensland and a celebrated Aboriginal leader.
Click here to watch the presentation
Ego and Soul in Australian Experience
A presentation by Prof. David Tacey
David describes his presentation, Ego and Soul in Australian Experience:
"Some people say we will never be able to understand the Aboriginal Dreaming because it operates at a level of reality we cannot comprehend. I don’t agree with this statement and believe it may be possible for Westerners to understand the Dreaming, if we are prepared to do some inner work and shift our habitual patterns of thought..."
Click here to watch the presentation
Listening to Country: An Indigenous Theology and Spirituality, Session 1
Christ as Country: Aboriginal spirituality and Christianity in conversation.
There is much wisdom, knowledge, and direction for living to be discovered in listening to country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these lands now called Australia know this and seek to live deeply connected to country and to share that knowing with others.
Dr Garry Deverell gives the first lecture in the "Listening to Country" series, sponsored by Pitt Street Uniting Church, Eremos, St James Institute and Wellspring. Dr Deverell is a trawloolway man from northern lutruwita (Tasmania). He is Academic Dean, Lecturer, Research Fellow in the new School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity.
Click here to watch the presentation
Snakes, Springs and Shimmering
'Snakes, Springs and Shimmering: Christ as a way in the wilderness' by Celia Kemp
In these 3 sessions held in August and September 2023 Celia asked whether a theology arising from desert places can help find a lively way forward through the intractable divides of our time.
- Where is Christ amidst Settler-Colonialism, Capitalism and the Culture wars?
- As our fragmentation leads to a loss of a common language...
- How do we even speak about righteousness? Sin? Forgiveness? The living presence of God?
Enjoy watching Celia's presentations.
To watch the first session: https://youtu.be/efBBviRWB5w
To watch the second session: https://youtu.be/2apd3_K8DTY
To watch the third session: https://youtu.be/honvmkb81Tw
Journeying on the Edge
EREMOS celebrates 40 Years of engaging spirituality in Australia.
Enjoy watching this event celebrating and reflecting upon the journey of 40 years of EREMOS magazine held on 30 April 2023.
The panel and participants engaged in a lively discussion about the nature of Australian spirituality and its development that’s reflected in EREMOS, as well as how it’s changing and where future exploration of Australian spirituality might lead. The event was at Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney plus 40 participants from across the globe joining by Zoom.
Weaving Art, Indigenous Story and Culture and Ministry
Weaving Art, Indigenous Story and Culture and Ministry was presented by Rev Glenn Loughrey as part of the Eremos Online Annual General Meeting and end of year gathering on Sunday 26th November 2023.
Rev. Canon A/Prof Uncle Glenn Loughrey is a Wiradjuri man. He is an artist and leader at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University in Canberra and the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne's Educator and Advocate for the Voice.
Click here to watch the presentation
If still from the deserts prophets come?
A recording of the Eremos 2022 Annual Gathering presented by Celia Kemp.
When all is not well, listening to place, and the people of place, is painful. But we need to be grounded in the difficult real for life to spring up into the future. And so, when all is not well, we need to listen out for prophetic voices saying the unwelcome true thing.
In this stimulating presentation, Celia draws from Scripture, First Nations and other desert voices and country itself to speak about prophets, wilderness and the state of the Australian soul.
Click here to watch the presentation
Eremos Forty Year Anniversary Celebration
There was much to acknowledge and remember as Eremos reflected on its 40 years in an online celebration that took place on 5 June, 2022. This event considered Australian spirituality and spiritual practice over the lifetime of Eremos and also opened up conversations about what is emerging.
The celebration featured a panel hosted by Meredith Lake, host of Soul Search on ABC Radio National. Meredith interviewed three panel members: Don Meadows, Benjamin Oh, and Celia Kemp.
Contemplation in the City
The video recording of the online event, Contemplation in the City, presented by Rev Dr Sarah Bachelard, founder and leader of the Benedictus community in Canberra.
The event was held on Sunday 20 February and was co-hosted by Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney https://pittstreetuniting.org.au/ and Eremos.
Sarah described contemplative practice as anything done attentively, for nothing, for its own sake. At the heart of it is silence, deep stillness and to make the choice to let go of whatever is distracting us.
Watch the video recording here.
Aboriginal Gift -- Spirituality for a Nation 
presented by Dr David Tacey Thursday 3 March 2022 on Zoom.
This is the powerpoint presentation from David's presentation. We were not able to record the event and his script is not available, but we hope you will enjoy viewing the slides.
Links to the clips on the slides:
Short movie with Slide 2: http://www.erincoates.net/mowaljarlai
Video for slide 45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2YMnmrmBg8
Video for slide 67: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow2tR_ezL8
'Seeing Well' Video Available
We are delighted to share the video of ‘Seeing Well: Spirituality, ethics and a little bit of delight’ which is Rev Rod Pattenden’s Zoom presentation at the Eremos AGM in November 2020.
Video: Exploring religious conflicts in Syria and Iraq
This video recording captures the key addresses by two speakers:
Dr Julian Droogan and Imam Afroz Ali at the Eremos event in early April 2016. Over 100 people attended.
Everyone had a keen desire to learn more about the ideological and theological underpinnings of extremism and its ramifications throughout the world.
Deep insights and possible faith based responses were shared by our two speakers: Dr Julian Droogan, a Senior lecturer at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counterterrorism (PICT), Macquarie University and Imam Afroz Ali, a highly esteemed Islamic scholar and founder of Sydney based Al-Ghazzali Centre.
Video: Life without borders
“We need to turn things around so that we look for community … as human beings with different lived experiences.”
Australian theologian Dr Val Webb opened Eremos’ events for 2014 with “From ‘Insiders and Outsiders’ to a Life Without Borders”.
Her talk at Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney, on March 30, ranged over religion, politics, subjective and cultural biases, and dualistic assumptions such as good and evil, right and wrong, and spiritual and secular. She questioned the significance of simply ingrained beliefs.
The Eremos event is available here in two parts.
The first video begins with Dr Webb recalling her grandson’s efforts at colouring in and her observation that religions, and particularly the Christian religion that formed most of her audience’s backgrounds, had for centuries been about staying between the lines.
“And it seems when people have tried to colour outside the lines there is more energy expended rubbing out the wandering lines than seeing the new picture they might create.”
The second video begins with Dr Webb discussing women and embodiment. She says the message of embodiment is important to us all. “To be completely present in our bodies in relation to other sentient beings and to the planet; to experience ourselves as part of the universe, a product of the universe, joined to the universe in its beauty and pain; to be present in nature; to observe, stop and look; to wonder; to feel at home; and to return to the soil at death.”
She later says, “We need to turn things around so that we look for community as people without borders; not in beliefs that demand insider/outsider defence or in doctrines that must forever stay in place but as human beings with different lived experiences free of gradings of good, better, best.”
Dr Webb concluded quoting theologian Frederick Buechner: “Maybe it’s all utterly meaningless. Maybe it’s all unutterably meaningful. If you want to know which, pay attention to what it means to be truly human in a world that half the time we’re in love with and half the time scares the hell out of us. Any fiction that helps us pay attention to that is religious fiction. The unexpected sound of your name on somebody’s lips. The good dream. The strange coincidence. The moment that brings tears to your eyes. The person who brings life to your life. Even the smallest events hold the greatest clues.”
Learn more about Eremos Events & Retreats
