About the event: As we honour the centenary of John Main’s birth this year, you are invited to a weekend of being with the readings and simplicity of John Main, on the WCCM ACT 2026 silent retreat, ‘A Deeper Silence’. More information is in the attached brochure. The WCCM ACT core group very much hopes to have you join us for this special time together after Easter. 

Where: St Clement's Retreat and Conference Centre, Galong, NSW , bout 90 minutes drive west of Canberra.

Start and finish time: Friday evening to Sunday after lunch.

Contact details, accommodation options, cost etc: are all available in the attached brochure.

This silent retreat is offered for those who regularly practise meditation or those seeking to deepen their practice. It is a time to return to and honour the deep Silence ever present in our being. The retreat will be based on the model used at Bonnevaux – the WCCM Meditation Retreat Centre in France, where their silent retreats “provide a rare opportunity to benefit from the sustained silence and stillness of meditation over an extended period…these retreats offer a unique opportunity to join with other practitioners and go to a deeper and simpler place – together in solitude into the ‘great silence’.”

While the teaching for this retreat is based on Christian Meditation, those who practice others forms of meditation and contemplation, as well as experienced meditators from other recognised traditions are most welcome. The focus of this retreat is on how our intention and attention enable us to be more at home in the Silence, both individually and together in community. It is from this place then that we live our daily lives, ever attentive to the Divine Presence, the Spirit within us.

This silent retreat is for you if:
* you meditate regularly or have previous experience of meditation
* are seeking rest and replenishment
* are interested in deepening or reconnecting with your practice in a silent setting
* are inspired by spending time reconnecting with nature
* are willing to be challenged and be open to the healing experience of meditating with others

There will be an opportunity each day for you to meet with the retreat guide if you wish, to reflect on your experience in the Silence. A draft programme and some hints for the retreat follow.

Retreat Guide
Your guide for this retreat is Michelle Vass, Meditator in Residence at Campfire in April – May 2026. Michelle has a wealth of experience in retreat work, particularly silent retreats, and spiritual accompaniment. She is passionate about the recovery and recreation of new ways of meditation and contemplation based on the richness of the Christian tradition and also inclusive of the wisdom of other traditions. Silence and prayer are key elements of life for Michelle and she is keen to share her experiences with others.

Cost: Packages from $390 – $585

Price includes all meals and accommodation in a private room, for 2 nights ($390) or 3 nights ($585)

About the Deep Silent Retreat experience:

• After an introduction on the first evening we will enter into silence. Each morning there will be regular periods of meditation, times of contemplative walking concluding with evening prayer together.
• During a silent meditation retreat, we’ll find that our mind begins to slow down, to calm down, to become more clear and we begin to discover the natural state of the mind.
• During the silent meditation retreat, we will give up all use of digital communication – a digital fast.
• The most important element of an intensive retreat is silence. Firstly, the silence as the mind begins to settle down, becomes more clear and more manageable and secondly, the silence of the heart emerges – a silence beyond thoughts, beyond imagination.
• The intensive silent meditation retreat is also inviting us to enter more fully and simply into a direct experience that we have been entering in our practice of meditation for some time already.
• Participants are asked to read “What to expect from a silent meditation retreat” before attending an deep silent retreat or designing your own retreat.

‘Each moment is precious. Take time in stillness to listen to the heart’s counsel. Wisdom abides there.’ Nan Merrill

Wisdom is sorely needed in our world today. This silent retreat is based on Nan Merrill’s book ‘Walking with Wisdom’. It seeks to offer time and space to nurture our understanding of Jesus the Wisdom of God in the silence of Campfire in the Heart. The retreat will have a strong emphasis on ways of being present through Christian Meditation and other forms of contemplative silence, including a simple Tai Chi practice. Sessions are tailored to allow participants to engage at whatever level they feel most comfortable. As a praying community, there will also be the opportunity to share in communal prayer using the WCCM Bonnevaux Daily Prayer Book. As a key element of this retreat is Living Silence, how we integrate silence into the daily rhythm of life, a non-residential option is a available for local participants. Opportunities for spiritual accompaniment will be available.

After the Introduction on the first evening, all meals and activities will be conducted in silence.

* Each session will begin and conclude with a time of Contemplative Silence.

* Morning, afternoon and night prayer will be simple using the Bonnevaux Prayer Book with a focus on a combination of psalm and scriptural reading from one of the    major traditions and or poetry.

Retreatants can join the prayer prior to meditation or simply join 10 minutes later at the time of Contemplative Silence.

* Morning and evening Tai Chi is optional and refers to a simple set of meditative movements. No prior experience is necessary.

* Personal Prayer suggestions: Meditation, Walking, Dadirri, Labyrinth Lectio Divina with Scripture, Art, Nature or Poetry and Haiku, Art work, Journaling

* This silent retreat is based on the expectation of a digital fast. It is also suggested that you limit your reading to that associated with the retreat theme, or something else agreed on with your retreat guide.

Retreat Guide
Your guide for this retreat is Michelle Vass, Meditator in Residence at Campfire for April – May 2026. Michelle has a wealth of experience in retreat work, particularly silent retreats, and spiritual accompaniment. She is passionate about the recovery and recreation of new ways of meditation and contemplation based on the richness of the Christian tradition and also inclusive of the wisdom of other traditions. Silence and prayer are key elements of life for Michelle and she is keen to share her experiences with others.

Cost: Packages from $450 – $1,095

From Sunday late afternoon until Friday lunchtime.

There will be 3 levels of accommodation offered, numbers are limited in each level, all-inclusive prices for the 5 nights are

* Private room $1,095 per person

* Shared room $775 per person

* Swag camping $635 per person

* It’s possible to come daily (non-residential) $450 for all sessions and meals

To enquire about possible scholarship assistance taylor.judi@outlook.com

Free accommodation (in a caravan) is reserved for one volunteer, in exchange for their assistance throughout the event, ideally arriving a few days before the retreat and staying on afterward to assist with clean-up and preparing for the next guests. Minimum 2-week volunteering stay. More information about volunteering here.

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS Maximum of around 15

Join us for a three-day retreat of stillness and reflection, as we explore the Gospel of Saint Thomas alongside the writings of John Main, founder of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM). Through shared silence, lectio divina, and  meditation, we will listen for the timeless call to discover the Kingdom within. This retreat offers space to deepen your contemplative practice, nurture inner peace, and encounter the transforming presence of Christ in the silence of your heart.

This retreat will be held in a spirit of silence providing an opportunity to benefit over the days from the sustained silence and stillness of meditation in this ancient sacred place … as we listen innerly, as we listen to each other reflecting on the selected readings, as we listen to Divine Presence within and among us, everywhere …

While the material is drawn from Christian sources, its universality and the silence at the heart of our time together, welcomes all.

Retreat Guides
Judi and Paul Taylor

Cost: Packages from $390 – $585

Price includes all meals and accommodation in a private room, for 2 nights ($390) or 3 nights ($585)

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS Maximum of 15

ENQUIRIES: Judi Taylor taylor.judi@outlook.com 

A three-day silent retreat led by Friar Bernard McGrath, from St Benedict’s Monastery, Arcadia (NSW), with a 2 day option as well.

“Be Still and know…
The Temple bell stops –
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.”

Basho (1644-1694) tr. Robert Bly

This will be a deep silent retreat such as are held at our WCCM international centre for peace in Bonnevaux, France which “provide a rare opportunity to benefit from the sustained silence and
stillness of meditation over an extended period … these retreats offer a unique opportunity to join with other practitioners and go to a deeper and simpler place – together in solitude into the ‘great
silence“.

This silent retreat is offered for those who regularly practise meditation or those seeking to deepen their practice. It is a time to return to and honour the deep silence ever present in our being.
While the teaching for this retreat is based on Christian Meditation, those who practice others forms of meditation and contemplation, as well as experienced meditators from other traditions are most welcome. There will be a short input each morning, material for our reflection.

This silent retreat is for you if:
* you meditate regularly or have previous experience of meditation
* are seeking rest and replenishment
* are interested in deepening or reconnecting with your practice in a silent setting
* are inspired by spending time reconnecting with nature
* are willing to be challenged and be open to the healing experience of meditating with others

There will be an opportunity each day for you to meet with the retreat guide, to reflect on your experience in the silence and stillness of this ancient sacred place.

Cost: Packages from $390 – $585

Price includes all meals and accommodation in a private room, for 2 nights ($390) or 3 nights ($450)

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS Maximum of 5

ENQUIRIES: Judi Taylor taylor.judi@outlook.com 

Fr. Bernard McGrath, Benedictine monk, will be returning to Central Australia next year…

The landscape in which Alice Springs and Campfire in the Heart are set, with the various Gaps: Simpsons, Emily, Jessie, Honeymoon…and Pine Gap! The gaps in our knowing and the ‘gaps’ in our location offer us a wonderful opportunity to reflect more deeply on what really matters, when it come to the past, the present & the future of humanity.

Practicing Christian Meditation is a way which takes both space and time. It means creating gaps, separating our imaginings, thinking, planning from our being. In the words of John Main “we let go of them because we know we must enter into total silence.” The silence, too, is a gap for “at first it seems an emptiness and an absence.”

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are God’s judgments and how inscrutable the Lord’s ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord? (Romans 11)

In meditation we stand back from all our questions and, in that very process, we discover a harmony and an integration that become the basis of all our subsequent use of the great human gifts we have been given. The peace, the stillness and the harmony that we experience in meditation becomes the basis for all our action. All our judgments are now illumined, inspired by love because we know that that love is the very ground of our being.” (The Way of Unknowing).

You are invited to join our retreat conscious of the importance of our search for God, our setting is the evocative landscape of Central Australia, including an excursion into the East MacDonnell Ranges. The days will be marked by a rhythm of prayer, meditation and silence, reflecting on the day and sharing around the campfire in the evenings, with an opportunity to share in the Eucharist, and to walk the labyrinth, as well as an introduction to dadirri and other contemplative practices.

Cost: Packages from $450 – $1,095

From Friday late afternoon until Wednesday lunchtime.

There will be 3 levels of accommodation offered, numbers are limited in each level, all-inclusive prices for the 5 nights are

* Private room $1,095 per person

* Shared room $775 per person

* Swag camping $635 per person

* It’s possible to come daily (non-residential) $450 for all sessions and meals

To enquire about possible scholarship assistance taylor.judi@outlook.com

Free accommodation (in a caravan) is reserved for one volunteer, in exchange for their assistance throughout the event, ideally arriving a few days before the retreat and staying on afterward to assist with clean-up and preparing for the next guests. Minimum 2-week volunteering stay. More information about volunteering here.

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS Around 15

ENQUIRIES: Susan Sullivan soosully@icloud.com

An ecological exploration of spirituality and meditation.

In nature there is distinction and no separation: all is Country, all is graced. This retreat will be a chance to explore and experience this reality. To help us along will consider some Australian First Nations theology and spirituality, and the spirituality of the Christian Celts of Ireland and Scotland.

In this age of ecological crisis, more Australians are turning to the First Nations invitation and practice of caring for Country. Along with this, a re-emergence of Celtic Spirituality and its focus on nature is also shaping the way many live with Creation. Are there commonalities in these two approaches? How can we learn from them? How might they change us? The input for this retreat will also explore the relevancy of a meditation practice for this time.

The setting is the evocative landscape of Central Australia, including an excursion into the East MacDonnell ranges. The days will be marked by a rhythm of meditation, prayer and silence, with input from Andrew McAlister with and Josephine Pretorius both part of the World Community for Christian Meditation (Australia). There will be time for reflection and sharing around the campfire in the evenings, with an opportunity to walk the labyrinth, as well as an introduction to the First Nation’s practice of dadirri and other contemplative practices.

Cost: Packages from $450 – $1,095

From Sunday late afternoon until Friday lunchtime.

There will be 3 levels of accommodation offered, numbers are limited in each level, all-inclusive prices for the 5 nights are

* Private room $1,095 per person

* Shared room $775 per person

* Swag camping $635 per person

* It’s possible to come daily (non-residential) $450 for all sessions and meals

To enquire about possible scholarship assistance taylor.judi@outlook.com

Free accommodation (in a caravan) is reserved for one volunteer, in exchange for their assistance throughout the event, ideally arriving a few days before the retreat and staying on afterward to assist with clean-up and preparing for the next guests. Minimum 2-week volunteering stay. More information about volunteering here.

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS Around 15

Josephine Pretorius will offer a 3-day deep silent retreat “The Gifts of Silence”, with a 2-day option available. The proposed themes of the time will be around reflecting on a short reading drawn from various sources:

Entering the Silence – Reverence ( Laurence Freeman Light Within)
Deepening Silence – Poverty (John Main “Second Conference” in The Gethsemani Talks)
Silent prayer (Maggie Ross “The Space of Prayer” in Writing the Icon of the Heart)
Gratitude (Sarah Bachelard “Just Now” in Poetica Divina.)

This silent retreat is for you if:
* you meditate regularly or have previous experience of meditation
* are seeking rest and replenishment
* are interested in deepening or reconnecting with your practice in a silent setting
* are inspired by spending time reconnecting with nature
* are willing to be challenged and be open to the healing experience of meditating with others

Retreat Guide
Josephine will be Meditator-in-Residence at Campfire over July & August 2026. She is a long term meditator with a particular interest in the transformative potential of deep silent retreats and sees Campfire in the Heart with its desert location on Arrernte country as a place rich in culture and spirituality. It resonates with the early desert mothers and fathers of the Christian tradition, as well as the richness of other wisdom traditions, as a place to ‘come away’ to and rest a while. Josephine has a background in pastoral care and art therapy. She offers this retreat as an opportunity to experience the many gifts arising out of the slow work of silence and stillness. 

Cost: Packages from $390 – $585

Price includes all meals and accommodation in a private room, for 2 nights ($390) or 3 nights ($585)

About the Deep Silent Retreat experience:

• After an introduction on the first evening we will enter into silence. Each morning there will be regular periods of meditation, times of contemplative walking concluding with evening prayer together.
• During a silent meditation retreat, we’ll find that our mind begins to slow down, to calm down, to become more clear and we begin to discover the natural state of the mind.
• During the silent meditation retreat, we will give up all use of digital communication – a digital fast.
• The most important element of an intensive retreat is silence. Firstly, the silence as the mind begins to settle down, becomes more clear and more manageable and secondly, the silence of the heart emerges – a silence beyond thoughts, beyond imagination.
• The intensive silent meditation retreat is also inviting us to enter more fully and simply into a direct experience that we have been entering in our practice of meditation for some time already.
• Participants are asked to read “What to expect from a silent meditation retreat” before attending an deep silent retreat or designing your own retreat.

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS Maximum of 7

ENQUIRIES: Josephine Pretorius pretoriusjl@gmail.com

Advent four-day silent retreat: 12-15 November. Beginning Thursday 12 November at 4pm and finishing at 2pm on Sunday 15 November. More information to come.

At Santhom Grove, (formerly Pallotti College) 80 Mcnamaras Rd, Yarra Junction Victoria 3799