Sister Jacinta Shailer (Sisters of the Good Samaritan)
Story and photos by Lis Bastian
A 97-year-old nun, Sister Jacinta Shailer, urged attendees at the recent Blue Mountains Interfaith Gathering to create “heroic communities” focused on compassion, justice, and environmental care. The event, held at the Planetary Health Centre, brought together diverse faith traditions to address global anxieties and promote interconnectedness with nature.
Key Points:
The Blue Mountains Interfaith Group held a Gathering on Sunday 30 March with the theme Our Spirituality, Our Land: Hope and Wonder
The Interfaith Group brought together communities with different faith traditions to share a common goal of caring for the environment in these challenging times.
Surrounded by the exhibition of Frogs of the Blue Mountains in the Planetary Health Centre Gallery, those present emphasised the interconnectivity of all life and the importance of protecting it for future generations.
As anxiety grips communities around the world many are asking “what can we do?”
In an inspiring speech at the Blue Mountains Interfaith Gathering at the Planetary Health Centre on Sunday 30 March, 97-year-old Sister Jacinta Shailer of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan answered this question by urging us to create ‘heroic communities.’
She reflected on how science and technology have helped deepen our knowledge of our “complex and magnificent universe” and how this changed our understanding of ‘our home’ can guide us to create the communities of the future:
“As our consciousness deepens and we mature more as human beings, we realise we cannot close our eyes or block our ears to what is going on in our world, but we are invited to join a kind of revolution: one centred on the transformative power of Love. One of the best ways of doing this is by joining, what Brian Swimme calls, heroic communities: ones that foster compassion, justice, care of the needy, creative imagining, ways of life-giving thinking, ways of contemplating the wonders of our world in the small and the large, the weird and the wonderful.
“From such communities, ripples of life, healing and joy, will flow out to our world where it is needed. This will lead to new ways of growing our food, building our homes, making art, deepening our relationships, praying together, strengthening our wisdom traditions, restoring our ecosystems and healing Mother Earth. We will learn to listen to the land and learn from her wisdom. Then we won’t fear the future, we will create it. We will revel in the beauty, grandeur, magnificence and wonder of this universe, and raise our hearts and voices in joyful gratitude, because this universe is our home.”
You can view excerpts of the day and Sister Jacinta’s full presentation here:
Sister Jacinta’s talk was the culmination of a day that brought together communities with differing faith traditions but a common desire to protect this extraordinary planet and universe we call home. All present were united by a faith in the value of compassion, love, kindness, gratitude and joy.
Sister Jacinta summed it up by speaking of “our interdependence and interconnectivity with every creature, every particle of growth, every human, every atom in this universe.”
Dharug man Chris Tobin welcoming everyone with a Smoking Ceremony
This reflected First Nation wisdom traditions which were acknowledged at the start of the day with a smoking ceremony and talk by Dharug man, Chris Tobin. During the day a video interview with Chris on ‘Art and Connection’, produced by the Baha’i community, was shared.
Photos of the Frogs of the Blue Mountains on the gallery walls where the event was held, were also a reminder of our interconnectedness with all life.
You can view a video of these frogs and listen to their calls here:
Andris Heks leading communal singing.
The program included communal singing led by Andris Heks, music by Bronwyn Kirkpatrick on Shakuhachi, and presentations by Lis Bastian from the Planetary Health Centre, Shirley Lewis (The Baglady and Living ASAP: As Sustainably As Possible), Reverend John Connor (Uniting Church), Rowe Morrow (Blue Mountains Quakers), Jessica Yuille (Brahma Kumaris), Bita Heggie (Baha’i Community of the Blue Mountains), Leona Kieran and Virginia Field (Blue Mountains Interfaith Group).
Shirley Lewis from Living ASAP
Shirley Lewis spoke of her work with Living ASAP and her recent video about offering our young people creation rather than extinction stories so we can all have hope and work together to restore the health of our planet.
Rowe Morrow (Blue Mountains Quakers)
Rowe Morrow spoke about how Quakers are dedicated to working for the environment and protecting all life for future generations.
“The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth now to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.”
Jessica Yuille (Brahma Kumaris)
Jessica Yuille led a meditation and spoke of needing to change our minds and become loving, calm and honourable again so that nature and the world can ‘come good again’.
Reverend John Connor
Reverend John Connor, a member of the Uniting Church and the Wellspring Community, which is focused on spirituality and social justice, spoke of the value of living a contemplative lifestyle.
He quoted Richard Simonelli: ‘We live in a time of activity addiction. Ours is not only a non-contemplative time but an anti-contemplative time. As a people we are drowning in material advancement brought on by science and technology, as well as a compulsive need for newness and progress. We lack the balance that contemplation could bring.’
Both he and Simonelli were inspired by Thomas Merton, the contemplative, writer, and peace activist who connected Christianity and Eastern religions in a way that they had never been connected before.
Merton’s love for nature was reflected in his writing. He wrote, for example, of festivals, such as the Festival of the Rain: “What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone in the forest at night, cherished by this wonderful unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comfortable speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses, everywhere in the hollows.”
Bita Heggie (Blue Mountains Baha’i Community)
Bita Heggie quoted from Baha’i (Baha’i: bahai.org.au ) writings on the theme of Nature as a Reflection of the Divine:
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”
“The Lord of all mankind hath fashioned this human realm to be a Garden of Eden, an earthly paradise. If, as it must, it findeth the way to harmony and peace, to love and mutual trust, it will become a true abode of bliss, a place of manifold blessings and unending delights. Therein shall be revealed the excellence of humankind, therein shall the rays of the Sun of Truth shine forth on every hand.” (Baha’u’llah)
Leona Kieran (Blue Mountains Interfaith Group)
Leona Kieran, from the Blue Mountains Interfaith Group, read from “Our Land, Our Mother” by Eugene Stockton:
“We are a people formed from many fragments. There are fragments of the nations which first settled this land and there are fragments of peoples come from all around the globe. Perhaps it is our destiny to make a new world. From the tragedies of history both here and abroad, we can begin again with the ingredients of every human expression to rebuild in this land, a new humankind. But, this time mindful of ancient mistakes, we can hold steadfast to the noblest dreams of our kind.
“Most of us have been torn from our roots, have lost our ancestral dreamings. A new dreaming shared by all lies ahead of us, not behind. Our present can no longer be shaped by the divisive past, but by the uniting future. St Paul’s insights of what is to come may may well be our dream of the future: a new creation, a New Man, a cosmic Christ coming to encompass and re-unite ourselves and the land and all it holds, while in the present the Spirit groans within us and nature in one great act of giving birth. Drawn from many races, we each have seen our sun go down and there is no longer point in lamenting what has gone; rather we are to turn right round and look for the first glimmerings of a new day.”
Blue Mountains Interfaith Group organiser Virginia Field with guests at the Gathering including Cr Brent Hoare.
The Blue Mountains Interfaith Group represents world faiths and spiritual traditions locally.
If you’d like to be kept up to date about further events at the Planetary Health Centre, subscribe to the Planetary Health Newsletter here: bluemountainsplanetaryhealth.com.au/subscribe
Take Action:
Take time out for contemplation, reflection and connection with the rest of the natural world of which we are a part.
Explore ways to join ‘heroic communities’ that foster compassion, justice, care of the needy, creative imagining, and ways of life-giving thinking.
Join us for this fabulous workshop: Designing Your Future Home on Saturday 19 July (10am-12 noon) Create a Healthy, Comfortable and Energy-Efficient Home
Join local Passive House Designer Karina Rafailov from Earthy Haus for a relaxed, interactive, and inspiring workshop. Whether you’re planning a new build or thinking about a renovation, this session will empower you with the knowledge to create a home that’s healthier for your family and kinder to the planet.
Places are strictly limited in this hands-on workshop so bookings essential here (link in profile): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/workshop-designing-your-future-home-tickets-1417752157869
As an increasing number of people are being affected by winter viruses, we’re offering a free session of Tai Chi and Qigong on Saturday 5 July in the warmth of our beautiful Frogs of the Blue Mountains exhibition. Places are limited so book in early here (link in profile): https://bit.ly/40fnGW2 Learn more about these Chinese medicine movement practices in the video interview with Virginia Field on our YouTube channel (link in profile) and read about how Chinese medicine helped her overcome illness as a young woman in our story: Healing Body, Mind and Spirit with Tai Chi and Qigong here (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/tai-chi-and-qigong/
If you’re interested in learning how to propagate native plants and are keen to help our bush regenerate, the Bushcare Seed Collectors meet on the second Tuesday of the month. Check out how they cook Banksias to release their seed and learn more about the group, and native seed collecting, in Katoomba Area Local News here (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/bushcare-seed-collectors/
If you’d like to join the group, contact the Bushcare officer Tracy Abbas on 4780 5623 or email tabbas@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
Littlejohni, the Rare and Endangered Northern Heath Frog, photographed in Woodford!
When the Frogs of the Blue Mountains exhibition opened at the Planetary Health Centre in March it featured photos of 20 different local frogs. We were thrilled, however, when Andy Klotz and other members of the Hawkesbury Herpetological Society recently managed to photograph another frog in Woodford: the rarely seen and endangered Litoria littlejohni, also known as the Northern Heath Frog or Orange-bellied Tree Frog. We’ve added a photo of that frog to the exhibition and created a new Frogs of the Blue Mountains video in which you can listen to its call on our YouTube channel. We interviewed Andy to learn more about the Littlejohni and how they managed to find its small local population. You can read this story in Mid Mountains Local News (link in profile). #biodiversity #bluemountainsfrogs #northernheathfrog #litorialittlejohni #bluemountains #woodford #planetaryhealth #hawkesburyherpetologicalsociety...
Our newsletter is now out! Read about how you can contribute to @bluemountainscitycouncil`s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy; watch our video on Falling in Love with Glossy Black Cockatoos; see the new photos of the rare Northern Heath Frog; watch how the Bushcare Seed Collectors cook banksias to release their seeds; learn more about Tai Chi and Qigong, the Chinese medicine movement practices; and take part in our next workshop on Designing Your Future Home with Passive House Designer Karina Rafailov from @earthy_haus
Read it here (link in profile): https://bit.ly/40e4GHr
Our video on Falling In Love With Glossy Black Cockatoos is now up on our Planetary Health YouTube channel (sorry, it`s too big to share here but there`s a link in our profile).
Jayden Gunn finishes his presentation by saying:
"Care is like a snowball. The more people you tell the bigger the snowball gets, and the further it goes. And the more we know, the more we care. And the more we know, the more we`re able to help."
The video is of our fabulous Forum on Growing Connected Landscapes for the Glossy Black Cockatoo, and includes presentations by Jayden Gunn, BirdLife Australia, Amanda Foxon-Hill from Mid Lachlan Landcare, and STEM teacher Samantha Bowden from Glenbrook Public School. There`s a link with the video on how to register for the Community Tree Planting Day in Goologong on 5 July (and it`s also in our profile). Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCERdF21Ud0&t=13s
Today we`re enjoying eating ripe medlars! Medlars are attractive cold climate fruit trees that were popular in Medieval gardens. They`re one of the few fruits that can be harvested in late Autumn and eaten in early Winter when they`re fully ripe. This is a great time of year to plant them for a future harvest. Check out our short video on how to eat them! #coldclimategardens #ediblegardens #medlars #growyourown #planetaryhealth #bluemountains...
We`re thrilled to share that last night @BlueMountainsCityCouncil`s Planetary Health Centre won the Innovative Leadership Award (Population Under 150K) in the 2025 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards. What a great end to World Environment Day! 🌏 This award celebrates how local government can lead transformative change for a more sustainable future. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard with us to make our vision a reality. You can read more about what we`re doing at our website (link in profile): http://www.bluemountainsplanetaryhealth.com.au/ @ph_alliance #planetaryhealth #worldenvironmentday #localgovernmentleadership #nswlocalgovernmentexcellenceawards...
Blocking out a couple of hours a week to step off the treadmill and give ourselves time to nurture our relationship with the earth and ourselves, is one way to keep our creative spirit and ‘lust for life’ alive. If you haven’t done so yet, one opportunity over the next week is to spend some ‘slow’ time in the 2024 Wynne Prize exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre before it closes on 15 June. Read more in Katoomba Area Local News here (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/the-2024-wynne-prize/ @bluemountainsculturalcentre @artgalleryofnsw #wynneprize #landscapes #bluemountains #katoomba #artexhibition #planetaryhealth...
Recognising how violence and war impact the health of the planet, the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative has become a member of the Blue Mountains Peace Collective. On Sunday 25th May, we attended a presentation by Dr Keith Suter on Making Peace in the World Today at the Leura Uniting Church. In this powerful presentation Dr Suter questions why we learn about war rather than successful peace negotiations! View the video of his presentation below and read our full story in Katoomba Area Local News here: https://bit.ly/3Fl4WgQ (link in profile)
With an extra day up your sleeve this long weekend, it`s a great opportunity to give nature a hand to regenerate and provide more habitat for our fellow species! Join our fabulous all ages Planetary Health Bushcare Group from 1.30pm and then participate in the Forum on Growing Connected Landscapes for the Glossy Black Cockatoo at 4pm, followed by drinks and nibblies! You can also start the day with a fabulous Tai Chi session at 8am. Visit our Planetary Health Pluriversity website to book in and learn more (link in profile): https://bmpluriversity.org/program/
Or ring 0407 437 553 for more information. #planetaryhealth #bushcare #katoomba #bluemountains #glossyblackcockatoos #landcare #biodiversity #habitat #wearenature #togetherwecan...
In this inspiring interview with Medlow Bath resident Amanda Foxon-Hill she talks about her work with Mid Lachlan Landcare, why Growing Connected Landscapes for the Glossy Black Cockatoo is so important, and why she loves her work so much! Read the full story in Blackheath Area Local News here: https://blackheathnews.com/connecting-landscapes-for-glossy-black-cockatoos/
Book in for the Growing Connected Landscapes Forum at 4pm this Saturday 7 June here: https://events.humanitix.com/growing-connected-landscapes-for-the-glossy-black-cockatoo Register your interest for the Community Tree Planting Day in Goologong here: https://events.humanitix.com/glossy-black-cockatoo-community-tree-planting-5
Katoomba Area Local News is part of the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative, a collaboration to reduce the risk of future disasters by expanding local communications – from the Lower Mountains to Lithgow.
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There’s a small group of passionate Blue Mountains Bushcarers who meet monthly to collect and clean local native seed. We met up with them to find out how and why they cooked Banksias to release seeds, how they cleaned the seeds of a variety of different Gahnia species, and why they love being part of the Bushcare Seed Collectors Group.
