RSCJ house in Redfern to close 

Danny Gilbert, long-time supporter of St Vincent’s Redfern, recalls the history and importance of the Gathering Place, a house on The Block in Redfern offering friendship and hospitality to Indigenous people for 32 years. This reflection was offered at a Mass at St Vincent’s on 27 January 2019 to honour the gift of the religious women who lived there. Also included is Peter Maher’s reflection on the closure of the house. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

Kathleen and I and our children started attending mass at Redfern in 1983. Like so many people, we quickly bonded with Father Ted Kennedy and the St Vincent’s mass community. 

St Vincent’s Redfern was a place of warm welcome, particularly for people seeking a socially and intellectually challenging church experience. Ted, with his fierce intelligence, his vast theological knowledge and his dedication and love for Aboriginal people, was an inspirational presence in the lives of Aboriginal people, in our own lives and for many in the Church and the broader community more generally. It was altogether an inspiring experience which, unfortunately, during that time and since, was not valued and nurtured by the Church hierarchy as it should have been. Indeed, it is a tragedy for the Church and for all of us that it failed to support and enlarge this charism. 

It’s understandable that when many people think about St Vincent’s Redfern from the 1970’s until Ted’s retirement more than 15 years ago, Ted and Shirley Smith (Mum Shirl) get most of the attention. Towering figures that they were, the Redfern story is more than Ted and Shirley. 

Not long after Ted and his fellow priests arrived next door, religious women and men started arriving in significant numbers attracted to what was happening here in this Church and to support the Aboriginal community. No doubt I will leave some out, but I do want to mention these women and men from Orders such as the North Sydney Mercies, the Bathurst Mercies, the Ursulines, particularly of course Sister Dom, who is still with us, Sister Pat Durnan from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the Little Sisters of Jesus, the Sisters of St Joseph, the Blessed Sacrament Sisters, the Marist Brothers, the De La Salle Brothers, the Presentation Sisters, still represented by Sheila, Mary McGowan from the Daughters of our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Kensington and, of course, the Sacred Heart Sisters from Rose Bay, the last of whom is Esmey Herscovitch. And over the years many Priests supported the community in a variety of ways. These included men such as Frank Fletcher, Peter Maher, Frank Brennan, John Ford, Claude Mostowik, Ed Campion and many more.

Some of these people lived with other members of their congregations in houses around Redfern and others came and went over the years. 

The Gathering Place

According to Pat Ormisher, the Gathering Place name was suggested by Ali Golding, a senior Indigenous woman from the Block and a familiar presence in this Church for many years. 

All of these people came to Redfern looking for a community life with the poor of Redfern. They were in search of a more human experience, free from the constraints and strictures of religious life and cutting themselves off almost entirely from a Church hierarchy that for so many of them represented the very antithesis of what they were looking for from religious life. They offered friendship and hospitality in their houses and, especially, in this Church and in the old convent next door, now the Aboriginal Medical Service. They did not seek to proselytise or tell poor people how to live their lives and they were completely and openly non-judgmental about how Aboriginal people and the poor connected with the Church or not. They welcomed the poor and dispossessed unconditionally and each of them would quickly say that the hospitality and friendship was always returned to them in larger measure. 

And so it was with the Sacred Heart Sisters in Caroline Street. The Sacred Heart Nuns moved into Caroline Street in 1987 when Sister Pat Ormisher and Sister Marnie Kennedy established the quietly famous Gathering Place. Redfern and the Block were not like they are today. To many it may have seemed threatening and unsafe but these were brave and dedicated women, who would no longer educate the daughters of the rich and privileged, but who would sit at the feet of the poor. 

First there was Marnie and Pat, Marnie moving to Erskineville after some time. Then there was the Presentation Sister, Margaret Masser. Marnie was followed by Pat’s sister Dorothy Ormisher, also a Rose Bay nun, who lived in Caroline Street for several years prior to her death and, at or around that time, Mary McGowan became involved, living at the Gathering Place part time. Others involved included the St John of God brother, Michael Gravener, and his friend, Alan.

I came across an interview of Pat Ormisher’s in March 2002 and it is worth quoting her. I think it represents the heart and soul of the Gathering Place: We don’t pretend to do much. We are very low key. One of the things we decided first was to not initiate any plan, like mission plan for example, we decided that was not what we were on about. We instead, if any of the people have an idea that they like, something they would like to do or they would like us to introduce them to an agency, we would certainly do that for them but the whole idea is to reverse the situation. Instead of suggesting things and organising things for them, to rather listen to, support and encourage what they want to do with their own lives and with themselves.

The sisters from the Gathering Place have maintained that very quiet and unassuming presence on the Block for the past 32 years and Esmey has honoured it in every respect. 

I do want to thank you Esmey and everyone involved in the Gathering Place for your presence in Caroline Street and for your presence in this very important Church. You represent a part of the history of the Catholic Church in Redfern, which must never be overlooked, diminished or forgotten. The Gathering Place and its various occupants have been an inspiration to us all. We are indebted to you, Esmey.

Peter Maher’s Reflection

The Society of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) began a house in Caroline Street in 1987 to provide a presence among Aboriginal people on The Block. Sr Marnie Kennedy and Sr Pat Ormesher began the ministry of presence there. This initiative produced a unique relationship with Redfern’s Indigenous people. 

Taking up the Cardijn method of ‘see judge and act’, an immersion model of catholic action, the sisters began The Gathering Place as a house of welcome. The sisters began living there and building relationships with those living on The Block and many Aboriginal people living there. This method of embodying the gospel was keenly supported by Fr Ted Kennedy and the Redfern parishioners.

For 32 years the house has been a place for welcome for Indigenous people and those many others seeking to engage with the inner city life and Indigenous Australians as a locus for understanding and interpreting the gospel. It has been a place where the gospel principle of learning by engaging in the local situation and reflecting on the experience could be practised. 

The house in Caroline Street became a trusted place for Indigenous people to find a friendly face, to help for people grieving the death of loved ones and to support them in times of sickness and vulnerability. Key to the ministry was the mutuality of the immersion model. 

Non-Indigneous Australians were welcome to talk, pray, mobilise and advocate with Indigenous people. This resulted in a shared experience of positive outcomes. 

The house also became the centre of what was known as the street retreats. Along with a house run by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS) in Newtown, people came to live in the area for a time, often a week or more, becoming conscientised by meeting with Aboriginal people in their context, praying together, walking the streets of Redfern and the surrounding suburbs, reflecting on scripture and meeting with a spiritual director usually one of the RSCJ or SSS sisters. 

Many priests, religious, seminarians, teachers, lay people and university students undertook various forms of immersion experience and retreats centred on the RSCJ house on The Block. Aboriginal people knew there was friendly space for them to meet, pray, grieve and plan strategies to make their lives better. They were always greeted with a gospel inspired process of empowerment facilitated with and by the Indigenous people themselves. The model used was always a collaborative model which resisted charity and colonialist approaches in favour of working together for justice and equality and to provide for people in time of need.

Other RSCJ sisters that lived in the house were Sr Dorothy Ormesher and Sr Esmey Herscovitch (pictured with Pastor Bill Simon who ministered in Redfern). They worked alongside other religious women who also lived at the Gathering Place. Sr Mary McGowan (OLSH) was a long time member of the community and others were there for shorter times. 

The ministry was always about engaging with existing Indigenous and Non-Indigneous organisations, in Redfern and beyond Redfern. This was done through building relationships with Indigenous people as neighbours and friends. Meanwhile Fr Ted Kennedy was making St Vincent’s Catholic church a place that privileged Indigenous presence and he was building a community that understood the unique opportunity to live the gospel in a way that was a mutual learning experience alongside Indigenous people.

The RSCJ house on The Block will be missed. [/s2If]