Alison McKenzie, interim director Heart of Life Centre

We have posted photos of the ceremony of farewelling Claire Shearman as Heart of Life Director and the welcoming of interim Director, Alison McKenzie. Here is something of Alison's story

Alison has joined the Heart of Life team as Director until the end of 2024. Alison has been semi-retired since retiring from her previous role as Director of the Chevalier Institute and she is delighted to have been given this opportunity to contribute in another of the Chevalier Families’ Spirituality ministries.

First and foremost, Alison is a family person; mother to three, grandmother to seven and a part of a wider extended family and network.  She would say family and friends, home and faith are the bulwarks of her life. Alison is particularly moved by the fact that the current home of Heart of Life was previously used to support women experiencing domestic violence; a support she once needed herself.

Alison began her professional career as a secondary school teacher, initially in far western Queensland and then, at Chevalier College for 27 years. During that time, she added to her education qualifications with a Counselling degree, with a major in group process and a Master of Theology. She has undertaken many short courses of study in a wide range of aspects of spirituality. In 2011, she spent three months on sabbatical at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, situated in Israel just outside the Bethlehem checkpoint. That experience has heightened her sadness over current events.

In 2011, she was appointed to the Chevalier Institute whose role is formation in Spirituality of the Heart to adults in MSC Colleges and parishes. Alison combined the skills learned from her previous studies to create reflective opportunities that drew from the contemporary world and Catholic tradition   to invite people to make the journey to their hearts and to encounter the divine presence at the core of their being. To be present for these sacred journeys were privileged and poignant moments.

Alison lives with a contemplative orientation and has a daily meditation practice as a part of her own spiritual journey. She has been influenced by the work of Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Ilia Delio and John Ziziolous, among others. She is currently re-reading the early works of Eugene Cuskelly msc, the ‘second’ founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

In 2017 she was elected to the inaugural position of General Secretary of the International Council of the Laity of the Chevalier Family and was re-elected for a second term in 2024. The original vision of Jules Chevalier was for three branches, religious men and women, diocesan clergy and laity. The laity were seen as indispensable in the mission and an integral part of the functioning of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. The International Council reflects the deepening understanding within the Chevalier Family of the place of laity; it is a truly synodal vision.

She would express her understanding of spirituality as:

All of creation is sacred – wounded and broken but made whole and holy by the presence of Love we call the Heart of God. That Heart of God, revealed in Jesus, draws creation to itself. For human beings, we are invited to make the journey to our own hearts; to the core of our being where we encounter the transforming presence of God’s Heart. God’s Heart beats in our hearts. We call this Spirituality of the Heart, and it calls us to a life of compassionate love and committed service and the challenge to continue to grow in kindness, compassion, forgiveness and humility In other words to become ever more fully human. .  It recognises this as the cure for the ills of the world.