PictureDayspring Chapel & Meeting Rooms in Dianella
​The Dayspring Community (WA) was established in 2001 within the Church of Christ in Dianella, with a vision to introduce Christians and Christian Leaders to spiritual practices that would support their faith in new ways for them.  We have an ecumenical and inclusive outlook and have members from a wide range of Christian denominational traditions and some who have no connections.  With its roots firmly within the Christian Tradition, the Dayspring Community is not a church.  Rather, it is a place where church people can discover contemplative life.
PicturePatricia & Brian Stitt

​Brian and Patricia Stitt, together with Jennifer Turner, the minister of the church at the time, gathered a small working committee together, to establish what was first known as the Dayspring Centre for Christian Spirituality & Counselling.  Counselling was provided by Joy Eichorn, a qualified psychologist, and the committee set about providing training workshops and spiritual direction for faith workers and other interested people.
Coursework in Spiritual Direction
PictureDr Beth Roberton
By 2005, we began to offer formal training in Spiritual Direction, and since then have graduated more than fifty people with various awards in Spiritual Direction and Contemplative Spirituality.  This program was prepared carefully to ensure that graduates would be recognised by the Australian Ecumenical Council of Spiritual Directors.  We acknowledge Dr Beth Roberton as a significant guide and driving force behind our moves to have the training nationally recognised.  Initially, we took our coursework program into the VET system and, in 2023, we entered into a partnership with the Uniting College of Leadership and Theology in Adelaide that enabled our program to be taught as a Higher Education Graduate Diploma award from the University of Divinity in Melbourne.
Retreats & Workshops
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Retreat Directed by Margaret Silf in New Norcia in 2015
Dayspring conducts workshops and other events focussed on contemplative Spirituality practices.  These are aimed at offering its community members both private and public spaces for their spiritual search and for the practice of spiritual disciplines and exercises.  Dayspring teaches a living tradition for today, which emphasises the importance of prayer, Scripture and attentiveness to God, or the Christ within.  These concepts of journey, attentiveness, prayer and Scripture reading are more central to Dayspring than buildings and programs.
Creating Contemplative Space
PictureMidday Eucharist in the Dayspring Chapel

​We are an open community offering a safe and sacred space for nurturing the journey towards wholeness in God.  Dayspring facilitates a quiet place where people are offered space for deepening personal spirituality and inner healing.  We take an holistic approach to Spirituality involving Mind, Body and Spirit in a life-centered context, that enhances a deeper understanding of Self and God.
Turning Point 2021
PictureChurch of St Peter & Emmaus
At the end of 2020, following a significant period of discernment and planning for our future, the Dayspring Community was confronted with a Turning Point - an opportunity to give expression to the pilgrim nature of our life in God - and relocated our Library and administrative hub into space available at the St Peter & Emmaus Community Church in Mt Hawthorn.  We also chose to offer many of our events at different venues around Perth, building ecumenical relationships and taking Dayspring to some of the places where people lived and worshipped.
took a significant step by choosing to offer its events in different venues all around metropolitan Perth - taking the Dayspring vision to people where they are and living out our desire to be a truly pilgrim people - rather than being in a single location that people had to come to to catch the Dayspring vision.

To mark the end of our period of involvement at Living Grace Church of Christ in Dianella, a ceremony of celebration, storytelling, and thanksgiving was held in January of 2021.  Please enjoy the video below that summarizes the event in 3 minutes.