Forging links with Korea Friends of L'Arche

During a recent visit to Korea, it was a privilege to spend some time with Song Juhan and Jo Jaesun from the Korea Friends of L’Arche. 

Juhan, the chairman of the board, related how they had started their group in 2001 and now have over 120 members.  They have a regular monthly community meeting with an attendance of around 60, including about 15 people with disabilities.  Jaeson, one of the other board members, was first invited to assist the community with translations when visitors came to Korea and was soon invited to join the group, a task that he readily accepted.

The Korean Friends of L’Arche are making plans for accommodation and, like our Hunter Friends, are continuing their plans to raise funds and move towards establishing their foundation Community coordinator and home.  We hope to continue this link with our friends in Korea as part of our shared solidarity with L’Arche communities both within Australia and overseas as our mutual plans and interests develop.

Geoff Rigby May 2008

Juhan, Geoff and Jaeson in Seoul

A Time of Reflection and Sharing at Tocal Retreat

Forty members of the Hunter Friends of L’Arche community, together with members of the Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra regional L’Arche communities and other interested people enjoyed a great retreat led by Eileen Glass and John Coleman at the Tocal Agricultural College site near Paterson from 18 to 20 April.

The theme, “A Taste of L’Arche”, provided a focus for the weekend based on reflections given by Eileen and John that highlighted three of the key aspects of the L’Arche philosophy; hearing the cry of people with intellectual disabilities, responding to this cry and finally, how L’Arche can be a sign to the world by showing that we can share mutually transforming relationship with each other. Members of the three visiting regional communities introduced  the sessions with prayers and reflections. John Coleman shared his musical talents throughout the weekend as we joined in many of his own songs and lyrics that have been inspired by his personal L’Arche experiences.

Vivienne Nelson guided us expertly in starting a visual diary using some simple artistic skills and encouraged us to further develop these skills at our leisure. She also worked with the children to produce an artistic representation of our first community home. The weekend concluded with a special liturgy based on the washing of each other’s feet as a symbol of our solidarity and love for each other.     

    Washing each other’s feet was a very special         The children produced a great design for

    part of our concluding worship service                    our first community home, including a

                                                                                       separate flat and chapel

Communications Workshop

We recently held a very successful Conference (supported by UnitingCare Ageing-Hunter, Central Coast and New England Innovative Community Grants Fund) aimed at enhancing our communications with each other. In addition to a variety of talks related to communication skills and individual experiences, we held a series of workshops that demonstrated the use of various communication tools and techniques and the use of art and music therapy as well as the role that sprirituality can play.

The art workshop was one of the final activities of the Communications Day held by Hunter Friends of L’Arche. It was conducted by Margaret Muir and was based on the Gestalt approach to art therapy with its emphasis on awareness - awareness of the OUTSIDE world, the INSIDE world, and the FANTASY world. Through a series of activities/play we were made aware of these three worlds.

By a clever use of the elements or language of art, texture, tone, line, colour and form we were led into our inner and outer worlds in a playful exploration of mostly non-verbal language. We discovered that often we are ‘spoken to’ by the quality of line and tone and colour just as powerfully as by verbal expression. I can see that this approach would be valuable in working and communicating with people who have few verbal skills.

The idea of making a visual diary of what we did in the workshop was a good one and could be explored further, especially in the context of a weekend ‘retreat’.
It was interesting that one of the participants who commented what we did was like a kids’ party, then created a really profound collage by re-imagining a place he knew and was now missing. Telling a story through an art work that you have made can help deal with many difficult emotions.

That is the main thing I got from the whole day – the importance of hearing each other’s stories.

Viv Nelson

Please contact us for further details or information about the Conference and plans for a follow up Conference in 2008

Watercolour Art Exhibition

Hunter Friends of L’Arche recently held our inaugural Art Exhibition at the John Paynter Gallery in Newcastle. Forty original watercolours by talented artists and members of our L’Arche community, Vivienne Nelson and Linda Rees, were donated to assist us with our fundraising programme aimed at providing a financial base to assist us in establishing our first home in the Newcastle/Hunter area.

Over one hundred and fifty people attended the official opening. In opening the Exhibition, Newcastle MP Jodie McKay said that she was humbled by the generosity of all involved and the professional way in which the Exhibition had been run. She has offered to assist us with progressing our future plans with the government.

                 Jodie McKay MP and artists                                  Guests enjoy the opening

                Linda Rees & VivienneNelson