The Movement for Religious Renewal is our child

by John-Peter Gernaat

​The retired Erzoberlenker, Rev. Vicke von Behr, visited Johannesburg in September. During his visit he gave three talks. You may, with luck, find these talks in the October 2025 newsletter. In these talks he presented the spiritual reality behind our Movement.

There is a mighty spiritual being behind our Movement. We know him as Micha-el, the archangel and the Spirit of our Time. Michael is one of seven mighty spiritual beings involved in the destiny of humanity who take their turn to step forward as a regent of the time. For that period they offer a particular direction to the evolution of the human being. Michael was the Time Spirit approximately one hundred years before Jesus was born. He became the Spirit of the Times again in 1879. In the period between his regency, Michael prepared a cosmic reality for the evolution of humanity. He prepared this in the Sun Sphere and as he moved closer to Earth he prepared a reminder in the Moon Sphere. From this cosmic reality Anthroposophy and The Christian Community have their existence.

We can find a mighty imagination in the Book of Revelation relating to Michael. There is a mighty battle described in the heavenly worlds between the Dragon, that ancient of Beasts, and his angels and Michael and his Angels. Michael is victorious and the Dragon is cast upon the earth.

The earth is the realm of the Dragon. We call the Dragon by another name, Ahriman. Ahriman is the lord of materialism.

In this realm of ever-deepening materialism through technology, we have The Christian Community. This movement is guided by a mighty angelic being, who is one of the angels of Michael. This mighty guiding being is assisted by angelic beings who become guiding angels for altars where the sacraments are celebrated. Wherever congregations group themselves consciously together, they are guided by yet another of Michael’s angels.

There is thus a mighty ‘choir’ of angels guiding and protecting our Movement. But our Movement exists in the realm of Ahriman.

Our Movement recently celebrated 100 years since its founding. In spiritual terms this means our Movement is one year old.

Compare our Movement to a human baby. A human baby comes to earth from the spiritual world. In the spiritual world it lives with mighty hierarchies of angels. These might beings help it prepare for a new incarnation. Then it is born. It is alone and vulnerable.

On earth a child is born to parents. The first thing that parents do is to announce the birth. Many people gather to celebrate the birth with the parents, and they bring gifts. The shepherds in the field and the magi brought gifts to the baby Jesus. There is a short period of material flourishing around the child. But then the visitors leave, and the child has only its parents to care for it.

Our Movement saw decades of flourishing. Young people, excited at the birth, filled the chapels and brought their tithes and contributions. Now, only those who recognise the real meaning of this Movement remain. We are the parents.

We are responsible for the worldly needs of this Movement. No matter how mighty the spiritual beings are who guide and nourish this Movement spiritually, in the realm of Ahriman it will die without material nourishment.

We have no idea what this ‘child’, our Movement, will become, when it turns seven and ‘goes to school’, when it turns fourteen and begins to ‘develop its own ideas’, when it turns twenty one and is ‘accepted into the adult world’ and when it is twenty eight and is ‘fully adult’. We will not be around in 700 years, or 1400 years, or 2100 years or 2800 years, but we may experience one or more incarnations in that time.

Our task is now. This ‘child’, our Movement, is one year old and we, who connect ourselves with The Christian Community, are its parents. We may be present parents or absent parents, but the material well-being of this ‘child’ falls on us.

If we do not think of The Christian Community as our one-year-old baby and feed and clothe it as we would a one-year-old baby, it will die in the material world.

It will continue to live in the spiritual world, but the influence on the destiny of humanity will be greatly diminished.

Like any parent, we should think about what it means to care for a one-year-old child in our family. What will we deny ourselves to ensure this child can live and flourish?