SYDNEY ANNUAL REPORT
2014
During 2014 the Sydney ANSD Inc group continued to meet six weekly on a Friday from 1pm to 3pm.
However, at our last meeting for the year, where we plan topics and dates for the coming year, the
group discussed other options to include those who are unable to attend on a week day. It was
decided that we would trial having one full-day meeting on a Saturday in 2015. It was agreed to
have a visiting speaker and the group decided to ask Michael Whelan sm to speak on Thomas
Merton as a way of celebrating Merton’s 100 year Anniversary of his birth.
One highlight for our group in 2014 was hosting the National ANSD Community for our annual
conference.
In planning our topics the group decided to read Fields of Compassion by Judy Canato and to work
through it over several meetings and to later look at the Spirituality of Ignatian Spirituality. The
following are the topics and presenters for 2014 :
MEETINGS AND PRESENTATIONS February 7th Fields of Compassion Ch’s 1 – 5. Elizabeth Lee led the group in a very creative way –
as a science teacher and spiritual director in training, she opened the topic up for us in a very
professional manner. (18 attended and 9 apologies)
March 21st
Topic continued and we worked through the next few Chapters, again we were
brilliantly led by Elizabeth Lee. (14 attended and 8 apologies)
May 2nd
SDI Conference. For this meeting we subscribed to have the download of live
streaming of the SDI Conference from Santa Fe. Although we had some technical problems it proved
to be a good opportunity to be part of the wider spiritual direction community. (20 attended and 11
apologies)
June 13th
Fields of Compassion – Final Session – led by Elizabeth Lee. Most found working
through this book was both inspiring and challenging. (12 attended and 13 apologies).
July 25th
Ignatian Spirituality. Sally Longley was our presenter and we were led through the
Ignatian method of meditation. (18 attended and 10 apologies)
August
CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP
September 12th
Ignation Spirituality cont’d. Anne Wakatama was our guest speaker for this
meeting. Anne developed Ignatius view of the Wisdom of the body.(8 attended and 12 apologies)
October 24th Guest Speaker – Mary Flynn rsj. To continue Ignatius’ spirituality, Mary led us
through the Spirituality of Discernment. (16 attended and 6 apologies)
December 5th Planning Meeting for 2015. (9 attended 11 apologies) Many who were unable to
attend, emailed their suggestions for topics; times/days that suited them best. All emails were read
and discussed. As stated previously, we will trial having a full day on a Saturday so as to cater for
those who unable to attend on a Friday. This will be evaluated at our planning meeting at the end of
2015.
DATES FOR MEETING FOR 2015 will be on the webpage.
FINANCES - This year we do have a Financial Report!
I thank all our members for their ongoing support and their generosity to assist in all ways. I
particularly thank all members for their tremendous support and help for the Conference. We had a
great Committee for the running of the Conference and also a Liturgy Group who prepared the
prayer times and prayer spaces for the conference and the workshop. The two committees gave
their time generously and all other members had various roles during the Conference. I am most
grateful to all for their time, support and generosity.
Mary Hagan
ANSD Inc Sydney Regional Co-ordinator