Cowethas Peran Sans in Australia

CPS Members: Ted Curnow & Robin Pryor

 

Ted and Beryl Bronwyn and Robin
Ted & Beryl Curnow Bronwyn & Robin Pryor

CPS Australia: Who are we ?

The Pryors have visited Cornwall on several occasions, and the Curnows were in ministry in Methodist churches in Cornwall in 2003-05. Ted and Robin have researched their respective Cornish family histories, both in Cornwall and Australia.  Both are involved in Christian ministry in Victoria, and share a desire to retain and reclaim more of their Cornish Christian heritage, including, where accessible, the early Celtic Christian era in Cornwall.

This “reclaiming” includes efforts to:

  1. Identify insights to enrich the contemporary church in Australia;
  2. Pursue some parallels between Celtic/Cornish spiritual heritage, and Australian antiquity in the form of  the indigenous spirituality of Australian Aboriginal peoples going back at least 40,000 years, with shared emphases on land/place,  deeply “earthed” spiritual practices, and exploring possible bridges between old and new cultures.
  3. Reflect on how the spirit of St Piran and other Cornish/Celtic saints can speak into the contemporary church in Australia, and offer something concrete to an increasingly secular society. 

Our intention is to promote CPS-Australia, initially in the states of Victoria and South Australia via a network starting with about twenty five interested people:

  • A loose-knit prayer fellowship and email network of people with shared interests in CPS
  • Regularly linking with CPS-Cornwall, circulating the CPS Newsletter
  • Sharing resources and relevant program information within Australia,
  • Promoting engagement with the Cornish Association of Victoria [CAV], Cornish Association of South Australia [CASA] and the biennial national gathering in South Australia of Kernewek Lowender [KL].

CPS Australia. What of the future ?

We need time to foster interest and extend our networking, partly because at the moment the main expressed interest is in “things Cornish”, and in the Cornish spiritual heritage, and not solely in Cowethas Peran Sans as such.

So more groundwork will be necessary, and this will take time, given the vast distances and scattered population in Australia.  We have helpful entrée to the CAV and CASA, as well as encouragement by the organizers  to offer a  program at Kernewek Lowender in May 2011, when we hope Andy Phillips will be present.