Australia
Geelong, Australia
report by Jenny Funston
Our local SOPP celebration was held during our Zoom Sharing on Tuesday, May 17th, with six of us able to join. After beginning with oneness meditation, we used a compilation prayer, which contains one line from each of the main world faiths, as our interfaith prayer. We honoured Gaia with the Chinook Blessing via a slideshow presentation with lovely photos of nature. We prayed Masami Saionji’s prayer of Harmony and Oneness from past SOPP ceremonies, and held a flag ceremony with tiny flag images, where we prayed Peace is in [name of country] for each nation. The Divine Spark IN was performed to close. It was a beautiful sharing.
Geelong, Australia
report by Robynne Mahoney
This morning I connected via heart, mind, and breath with the SOPP. I did oneness meditation, INs, and prayers for all countries and regions, and offered gratitude to nature and thanks to our guardian divinities and guardian spirits. I also created a handwritten mandala with a world peace prayer. It was a beautiful morning of love and harmony. We then went for a drive through the You Yangs, and the plants, animals, and rocky outcrops were all magnificent.
Hovea, Australia
report by Elaine George and John Bowkett
Our SOPP this year, once again held at the Universal Great Brotherhood Hovea Ashram near Perth, Western Australia, was most joyful, peaceful and inclusive in its energies of love, compassion and sharing. Many of the regular participants were unable to join us for various reasons. Nevertheless, more than 20 people attended in total, all intent on emanating love, with many new to an SOPP ceremony.
We also had a new team with new ideas to set up our venue, including printed slides, handwritten mandalas by Jenny Funston (Byakko representative for Australia and Oceania), a large Earth flag, and laminated paper flags of the United Nations member countries. The scene was certainly set for a very special program.
We began with a short overview of the SOPP, emphasizing that it is all about love, harmony and unity. Then, we sat in silence while listening to and connecting with some very powerful music to settle and manifest our core of peace into the ceremony. Following this, we then moved on to one of the highlights of our program, with Shaikh Muhammad chanting three peace verses from the Holy Koran in Arabic, which he also translated into spoken English.
We continued with our beautiful group of guest prayer presenters. Sally, our guest from the Quaker religion, gave an interesting overview of her religion and then led a Quaker Service for us to experience. The Western Australia Coordinator of the Brahma Kumaris, Sister Maureen, also gave an overview of the background, principles and aims of her spiritual organization, and then led a powerful peace meditation commentary.
A presentation on world peace and harmony and the teachings and messages of Tahirih Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, an influential poet, women’s rights activist and theologian of the Bábí faith in Iran was presented by Starr* Saffa, who gifted each participant with a ‘fortune scroll’, which everyone read out, giving their name in turn. This segment closed with a very powerful peace decree proclaimed by Starr*, the words of which were given to all participants to follow.
To lighten the proceedings and to allow our friends to move, stretch and ‘catch some sun’, our next item was the creation of individual mandalas, inspired by Byakko Shinko Kai. Blank mandala forms, an abundance of multi-coloured fine point pens and a backing board were provided, with an invitation to find a comfortable spot to create their mandala. On the completion of the allocated time a gong was sounded and participants invited to hand their mandala to a facilitator so they could be displayed during the rest of our program, and to resettle into their seats.
Our next item was presented by Manita Beskow, resident and teacher at the Universal Great Brotherhood Hovea Ashram. She shared a meditation to bring us back in touch with our core spiritual essence. Our guests from the Christian and Baha’i religions then shared their prayers. Another highlight was when two of our guests, Ken and Siggy, picked up their guitars, distributed the words to three world peace and harmony folk songs—“Good Planets are Hard to Find”, “Oh Winding River” and “If I Had a Hammer”—and invited us to all join in. The energy they generated was wonderful, and the room came alive with our combined voices and smiles.
Our programme closed with the gifting of the love and generosity of Byakko prayer colleagues in Japan, in the form of handmade gift tokens, May Peace Prevail on Earth magnets, and beautiful mandala gift cards offered to those guests who indicated their desire to receive one. From there, we progressed to and enjoyed a vegetarian lunch with delicious food kindly brought along by our guests. During lunch, we overheard some wonderful comments from the participants and guests:
“I, as a Christian, am always enraptured by the chanting of verses from the Koran.” “I had no idea that events such as this are happening in our world.” “We need to connect with our inner core more often.” “I plan to create mandalas more often.” “Let us meet to say peace prayers at our local Peace Pole more often.” “What a wonderful and varied program—the best one yet.”
Before closing, we extend our sincere appreciation to our hosts, guests and participants, to our sound technician, BK Terry, our taker of photographs, Derna, and to our Oceania Coordinator, Jenny Funston, for her ongoing inspiration, support and love.