Contemplations
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Contemplation archives |
"The Prince of Peace"
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
An observation of ducks reveals the following behaviour: two ducks on a pond or lake will get into a fight. It is usually short-lived, they separate and go off in different directions. Then they will both flap their wings furiously a few times, then continue their ‘retreats’ as if nothing had happened. It was Eckhart Tolle who observed and described this, in one of his books entitled “A New Earth”. He then goes on to imagine how different the scenario would be if the ducks had the consciousness of a human being, either of them going away muttering along the lines of: “It’s anyway my side of the pond”, “He didn’t even ask”, “I’m sure he is out to annoy me”, “Just wait ‘til I see him again”. Instead of a brief flapping of wings there is a dwelling on the incident which can last, as we all know, for days, weeks…..yes, sometimes years.
“Let go of the past!” says Tolle, and “become centred in the present.” Otherwise we run the danger of ‘collecting’ such old unpleasant experiences which have caused us pain, disappointment, bitterness, even identifying with them as if they were us. The history of nations and peoples can have a very similar signature…
The transition to the Advent of a(nother) new year is an apt moment to ponder this. Having the manifold experiences of the preceding year behind us, we are met by the Prince of Peace. The depth of that encounter is in part dependant on the extent to which we have sorted, laid to rest, offered up those experiences – strivings, mistakes, encounters – to move closer to not a ‘duck’s peace’, but to a Peace of understanding and growth. Hard work! But as Tolle goes on to say, “if anyone can show the way to that transcendence of life’s journey, it is Christ”.
An observation of ducks reveals the following behaviour: two ducks on a pond or lake will get into a fight. It is usually short-lived, they separate and go off in different directions. Then they will both flap their wings furiously a few times, then continue their ‘retreats’ as if nothing had happened. It was Eckhart Tolle who observed and described this, in one of his books entitled “A New Earth”. He then goes on to imagine how different the scenario would be if the ducks had the consciousness of a human being, either of them going away muttering along the lines of: “It’s anyway my side of the pond”, “He didn’t even ask”, “I’m sure he is out to annoy me”, “Just wait ‘til I see him again”. Instead of a brief flapping of wings there is a dwelling on the incident which can last, as we all know, for days, weeks…..yes, sometimes years.
“Let go of the past!” says Tolle, and “become centred in the present.” Otherwise we run the danger of ‘collecting’ such old unpleasant experiences which have caused us pain, disappointment, bitterness, even identifying with them as if they were us. The history of nations and peoples can have a very similar signature…
The transition to the Advent of a(nother) new year is an apt moment to ponder this. Having the manifold experiences of the preceding year behind us, we are met by the Prince of Peace. The depth of that encounter is in part dependant on the extent to which we have sorted, laid to rest, offered up those experiences – strivings, mistakes, encounters – to move closer to not a ‘duck’s peace’, but to a Peace of understanding and growth. Hard work! But as Tolle goes on to say, “if anyone can show the way to that transcendence of life’s journey, it is Christ”.
A Very Relevant Guide-Line
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
“The kingdom of God is like a human being…” (Matthew 22) Even if this parable continues: ‘like a king…’ this seems to be an astounding statement. To think what the far-reaching consequences are if we accept that the relationship to the heavenly world is like the relationship to another human being. Would we not want to know that the persons we are dealing with are ‘like a king’, responsible, reliable, striving and evolving, working on themselves and therefore trustworthy?
What is specific to the human being of all creatures on earth is the ability to make choices. It is this window of freedom from predetermination that sets us apart. We can choose how we want to relate to someone or something!
For example, there are two ways to relate to the sun. In the first instance, it is perceived as a disc, out there far away, which I look at. I am a detached observer. In the other instance, I can experience that, in fact, I am within the sun. My life is an integral part of it, every aspect is intimately affected and interwoven and permeated by the sun.
Another example is the relationship to The Act of Consecration of Man, where we can discover that there are three ways of experiencing this event. At first, it is also ‘out there, far away’, even foreign. I am observing what is happening ‘up in the front’. Then I can decide to give it a place in my life, begin to live into it, feel with it, allowing it to breathe into my life as an integral part of it. Coming to a service slowly becomes an experience like coming home, of ‘touching base’.
A third quality of relationship can then evolve out of this as I become aware, that not only can I feel myself at home within the Act of Consecration of Man, but that it has begun to live within me. It has a home within me, in my heart space, and is beginning to change the way I look and feel and do things. My eyes see, while the eyes of the soul are beholding, my hand is touching while the soul perceives, my ears are hearing while the soul is listening. The Act of Man’s Consecration is an experience within the heart.
This is, in the truest sense, Christian ‘outreach’ into the world as we allow Christ-light and -warmth to radiate from our heart into the world. Like the sun, bringing about small, yet significant changes.
Every human being has the ability to choose and become a source of heavenly light and warmth within our earthly daylight, or of lamenting and wailing and ‘gnashing of teeth’.
“The kingdom of God is like a human being…” (Matthew 22) Even if this parable continues: ‘like a king…’ this seems to be an astounding statement. To think what the far-reaching consequences are if we accept that the relationship to the heavenly world is like the relationship to another human being. Would we not want to know that the persons we are dealing with are ‘like a king’, responsible, reliable, striving and evolving, working on themselves and therefore trustworthy?
What is specific to the human being of all creatures on earth is the ability to make choices. It is this window of freedom from predetermination that sets us apart. We can choose how we want to relate to someone or something!
For example, there are two ways to relate to the sun. In the first instance, it is perceived as a disc, out there far away, which I look at. I am a detached observer. In the other instance, I can experience that, in fact, I am within the sun. My life is an integral part of it, every aspect is intimately affected and interwoven and permeated by the sun.
Another example is the relationship to The Act of Consecration of Man, where we can discover that there are three ways of experiencing this event. At first, it is also ‘out there, far away’, even foreign. I am observing what is happening ‘up in the front’. Then I can decide to give it a place in my life, begin to live into it, feel with it, allowing it to breathe into my life as an integral part of it. Coming to a service slowly becomes an experience like coming home, of ‘touching base’.
A third quality of relationship can then evolve out of this as I become aware, that not only can I feel myself at home within the Act of Consecration of Man, but that it has begun to live within me. It has a home within me, in my heart space, and is beginning to change the way I look and feel and do things. My eyes see, while the eyes of the soul are beholding, my hand is touching while the soul perceives, my ears are hearing while the soul is listening. The Act of Man’s Consecration is an experience within the heart.
This is, in the truest sense, Christian ‘outreach’ into the world as we allow Christ-light and -warmth to radiate from our heart into the world. Like the sun, bringing about small, yet significant changes.
Every human being has the ability to choose and become a source of heavenly light and warmth within our earthly daylight, or of lamenting and wailing and ‘gnashing of teeth’.
"Conversations at the Leading Edge"
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
What do political cartoons, long-distance cycling, sharks, music theory, aruyaveda, hot-air balloons, logic …. Have in common? They were some of the themes chosen by seventeen year olds at Michael Mount School for their class 11 projects, presented in September to families and friends. An incredible spectrum of interests had for several months become their focus of attention and will, more than likely, colour and influence their futures too. One person might decide to tackle fear by entering into the world of sharks, another by making it the theme of a course in public speaking. Someone else tries to understand the human psyche through humour, another wants to grasp the magnitude of our home planet or that which enables life on it.
For one person the outcome might be that he doesn’t, in fact, want to become a botanist after all, for another that the innocently chosen subject is just what they had been looking for. For each and everyone it was a stepping stone towards finding out more about themselves and the world in which they live. New souls stepping out, with new eyes, into new possibilities!
Science and physics, education, philosophy, life after death, economics, philosophy, all appear as chapter headings in one book. The common denominator? Everyone interviewed in the book has many years of experience in their particular field, but has concerns for a “new world view” (which is the title of the book), in a rapidly evolving world, where new frontiers are being met and crossed. Many such frontiers are to do with a deepening, expanding consciousness of our grasp of the world in which we live, and particularly the so-called spiritual dimensions which become ever more tangible. The editor and interviewer, Russell E DiCarlo describes the conversations he has with each of the men and women as “conversations at the leading edge”. This term fits equally well to these researchers and practitioners of longstanding as it does to the seventeen year olds who are stepping out into the stream of life, and a fast-flowing one at that; they too are interested in a dialogue with the world which they are meeting and the possible areas in which they might be making a difference in years to come. And not only making a difference but a difference born out of the deepening and expanding consciousness of which each new generation is a part.
Altogether we are “the human beings of the present time, who need to give ear to the spirit’s morning call, the call of Michael”.
What do political cartoons, long-distance cycling, sharks, music theory, aruyaveda, hot-air balloons, logic …. Have in common? They were some of the themes chosen by seventeen year olds at Michael Mount School for their class 11 projects, presented in September to families and friends. An incredible spectrum of interests had for several months become their focus of attention and will, more than likely, colour and influence their futures too. One person might decide to tackle fear by entering into the world of sharks, another by making it the theme of a course in public speaking. Someone else tries to understand the human psyche through humour, another wants to grasp the magnitude of our home planet or that which enables life on it.
For one person the outcome might be that he doesn’t, in fact, want to become a botanist after all, for another that the innocently chosen subject is just what they had been looking for. For each and everyone it was a stepping stone towards finding out more about themselves and the world in which they live. New souls stepping out, with new eyes, into new possibilities!
Science and physics, education, philosophy, life after death, economics, philosophy, all appear as chapter headings in one book. The common denominator? Everyone interviewed in the book has many years of experience in their particular field, but has concerns for a “new world view” (which is the title of the book), in a rapidly evolving world, where new frontiers are being met and crossed. Many such frontiers are to do with a deepening, expanding consciousness of our grasp of the world in which we live, and particularly the so-called spiritual dimensions which become ever more tangible. The editor and interviewer, Russell E DiCarlo describes the conversations he has with each of the men and women as “conversations at the leading edge”. This term fits equally well to these researchers and practitioners of longstanding as it does to the seventeen year olds who are stepping out into the stream of life, and a fast-flowing one at that; they too are interested in a dialogue with the world which they are meeting and the possible areas in which they might be making a difference in years to come. And not only making a difference but a difference born out of the deepening and expanding consciousness of which each new generation is a part.
Altogether we are “the human beings of the present time, who need to give ear to the spirit’s morning call, the call of Michael”.
Towards Michaelmas
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
The musical “Sister Act” has been around for quite some years now, since its Broadway debut with Whoopie Goldberg in the lead role. Showing recently in Johannesburg with a local cast, it proved as popular as ever. The theme of the musical is a tried and tested one: an upset in the ordered circumstances and the resulting comic situations and adventures which ensue. In this case it has to do with a budding disco diva, fully in life, ‘real life’, who, on witnessing a murder is placed out of danger until the time of the trial in…a convent (who would look for her there?!). Convent rules and lifestyle inevitably clash with the life experience which she brings with her. When she takes over the ailing convent choir…..
Then, to the relief of the mother superior (originally played by Maggie Smith), the time comes for our ‘star’ to leave and we see her having a sleepless night back in town. Visions of bright lights and fame alternate with recollections of the newly found friendships she has made with some of the nuns, their genuineness of soul, their honesty.
“Two souls dwell, alas, within my breast”, as Dr. Faust famously explained to his assistant Wagner, who knew nothing of the torment to which Faust – and our leading lady in the musical – were being subjected. A dawning realisation that she is more than she had been telling herself and being told by her surroundings, but how to combine that with this other soul that had been awoken out of its Cinderella sleep during the convent time and experiences there?
“If there were but spirits of the air, weaving between these two extremes, that they would come and rescue me!”, Faust continues to lament, then proceeds to plunge headlong into the dilemma. His dilemma, the Sister Act dilemma, one could almost say, mankind’s dilemma (amongst others!): how do we bring our inner life and our outer life into a healthy conversation and working together? Or, how do we avoid a split personality, where neither side is truly authentic? Surely, this is a key aspect for the maturing of Man, that inner and outer are not in opposition to each other, wrestling even, but draw closer, become harmonizing parts of a whole Human Being.
A Michaelmas balancing act entails more than getting the right number of hours or weeks allotted to each side of the soul-scales. It begs an interacting, a fructification between the two, between our outer and our inner path, Perhaps the closing line of the Faust drama – “The eternal feminine draws us forward” – is quite an apt, poetic way of formulating this way forward?
The musical “Sister Act” has been around for quite some years now, since its Broadway debut with Whoopie Goldberg in the lead role. Showing recently in Johannesburg with a local cast, it proved as popular as ever. The theme of the musical is a tried and tested one: an upset in the ordered circumstances and the resulting comic situations and adventures which ensue. In this case it has to do with a budding disco diva, fully in life, ‘real life’, who, on witnessing a murder is placed out of danger until the time of the trial in…a convent (who would look for her there?!). Convent rules and lifestyle inevitably clash with the life experience which she brings with her. When she takes over the ailing convent choir…..
Then, to the relief of the mother superior (originally played by Maggie Smith), the time comes for our ‘star’ to leave and we see her having a sleepless night back in town. Visions of bright lights and fame alternate with recollections of the newly found friendships she has made with some of the nuns, their genuineness of soul, their honesty.
“Two souls dwell, alas, within my breast”, as Dr. Faust famously explained to his assistant Wagner, who knew nothing of the torment to which Faust – and our leading lady in the musical – were being subjected. A dawning realisation that she is more than she had been telling herself and being told by her surroundings, but how to combine that with this other soul that had been awoken out of its Cinderella sleep during the convent time and experiences there?
“If there were but spirits of the air, weaving between these two extremes, that they would come and rescue me!”, Faust continues to lament, then proceeds to plunge headlong into the dilemma. His dilemma, the Sister Act dilemma, one could almost say, mankind’s dilemma (amongst others!): how do we bring our inner life and our outer life into a healthy conversation and working together? Or, how do we avoid a split personality, where neither side is truly authentic? Surely, this is a key aspect for the maturing of Man, that inner and outer are not in opposition to each other, wrestling even, but draw closer, become harmonizing parts of a whole Human Being.
A Michaelmas balancing act entails more than getting the right number of hours or weeks allotted to each side of the soul-scales. It begs an interacting, a fructification between the two, between our outer and our inner path, Perhaps the closing line of the Faust drama – “The eternal feminine draws us forward” – is quite an apt, poetic way of formulating this way forward?
The Freedom to Bless
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
As winter begins to open up toward spring and the bitter cold begins to soften, allowing coats and caps and scarves to be shed again during the day at least, it can be striking how important an experience we go through every year at this time. It seems not only to be an uncomfortable period where we to have to put on extra layers of clothing to protect us and ward off outer adverse conditions. At the same time it renews an awareness of an inner resource that we all carry within us. As we establish a clear boundary between outer and inner ‘climate’, and shift our attention inward as well, it is striking to notice how every human being has a reliable, sustainable and continual source of warmth within. It has always been there, never leaves us and is completely independent of outer circumstances. Winter only serves to heighten our awareness for this fact, and also that when it is noticed, it can be strengthened.
If we pause and think of our heart -notice how it enlivens us, warms us, gives us a sense of wholeness- we are tapping into a physical-spiritual core of our being. At the same time, in this knowing we realize how this source is also one of light. There is no need of it being ignited. It just needs to be discovered that this source is there.
What power we carry within us: self-producing, self-renewing, of giving without diminishing! What a significant discovery it can be when the realisation of this rises into awareness; a force that manifests in and through the body, but is not of the body any more than the sun is of the earth but belongs to another order altogether.
The sun that rises every day has this power. It streams out its own light, creates its own warmth and lets it flow in abundance. It has no need of receiving light from another source. It simply creates continuously.
Might this also be a ‘word of flame’ to carry in our heart from the festival of St. John’s Tide toward Michaelmas? Remembering that -no matter in what situation, under what conditions, at what time or circumstance- nothing can take away our power to produce inner warmth and light of soul. This is a power that depends on nothing else but ourselves and cannot be given or taken from us. It needs only to be noticed by oneself that it is there and available. The same quality the sun has is also in each of us! No one can rob us of the ability to bring light and warmth toward what we choose. The sun rises in perfect brilliance every day, even if clouds or storms might cover it. The decision to create goodness ever anew is ours alone, how it is received is not in our hands.
As we prepare to receive the blessings of spring and summer, we can know that human beings too are able to bring blessing to the world around us as more and more hearts spread inner warmth and inner light around them, in free decision and fully aware.
As winter begins to open up toward spring and the bitter cold begins to soften, allowing coats and caps and scarves to be shed again during the day at least, it can be striking how important an experience we go through every year at this time. It seems not only to be an uncomfortable period where we to have to put on extra layers of clothing to protect us and ward off outer adverse conditions. At the same time it renews an awareness of an inner resource that we all carry within us. As we establish a clear boundary between outer and inner ‘climate’, and shift our attention inward as well, it is striking to notice how every human being has a reliable, sustainable and continual source of warmth within. It has always been there, never leaves us and is completely independent of outer circumstances. Winter only serves to heighten our awareness for this fact, and also that when it is noticed, it can be strengthened.
If we pause and think of our heart -notice how it enlivens us, warms us, gives us a sense of wholeness- we are tapping into a physical-spiritual core of our being. At the same time, in this knowing we realize how this source is also one of light. There is no need of it being ignited. It just needs to be discovered that this source is there.
What power we carry within us: self-producing, self-renewing, of giving without diminishing! What a significant discovery it can be when the realisation of this rises into awareness; a force that manifests in and through the body, but is not of the body any more than the sun is of the earth but belongs to another order altogether.
The sun that rises every day has this power. It streams out its own light, creates its own warmth and lets it flow in abundance. It has no need of receiving light from another source. It simply creates continuously.
Might this also be a ‘word of flame’ to carry in our heart from the festival of St. John’s Tide toward Michaelmas? Remembering that -no matter in what situation, under what conditions, at what time or circumstance- nothing can take away our power to produce inner warmth and light of soul. This is a power that depends on nothing else but ourselves and cannot be given or taken from us. It needs only to be noticed by oneself that it is there and available. The same quality the sun has is also in each of us! No one can rob us of the ability to bring light and warmth toward what we choose. The sun rises in perfect brilliance every day, even if clouds or storms might cover it. The decision to create goodness ever anew is ours alone, how it is received is not in our hands.
As we prepare to receive the blessings of spring and summer, we can know that human beings too are able to bring blessing to the world around us as more and more hearts spread inner warmth and inner light around them, in free decision and fully aware.
“A Song of Angels for every Continent”
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
Recently the “African Song of Angels” was performed again here in Johannesburg. Better known as the “African Sanctus” it was composed in the early seventies by David Fanshawe, based on recordings he had made while visiting indigenous tribes in the Horn of Africa. There are moving documentary clips of his hitch-hiking and camel-riding to seek out such groups who still practiced some of their traditional music and ceremonies. These he then wove together in an inspired way with the parallel moods of celebration and reflection to be found in the Islamic and Christian faiths, creating a major work of music, song and dance.
David Fanshawe was concerned, on the one hand to preserve something of these rich and dying traditions and, at the same time to capture the unifying qualities underlying so much of human religious life across this great continent. These he blends in a work which also honours our developing relationship to musical expression. In this way he captures two essential aspects accompanying human activity: living in changing times and consciousness and living alongside neighbours of differing backgrounds.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a “European Sanctus”, or a “Song of Angels” for the American continent, bringing together in a healing way some of the cultural/religious impulses of those varied nations and peoples! Such impulses do of course exist in the arts already, albeit on a smaller scale – Daniel Barenboim’s Israeli/Palestinian orchestra comes to mind, or the Idriart Festivals in Europe, and of course all the ‘crossover’ work that goes on, where East meets West, South meets North, influencing each other in painting, literature, architecture, movement….
By no means is the impulse always explicitly religious, but it does look to the spiritual treasures of other cultures and creates bridges of common striving at a deep level. A good degree of sensitivity is required on entering the ‘inner space’ of another people, but with that caveat much can be initiated for a greater Sanctus than one coming from a single tradition – a real song and harmony of angelic activity.
Recently the “African Song of Angels” was performed again here in Johannesburg. Better known as the “African Sanctus” it was composed in the early seventies by David Fanshawe, based on recordings he had made while visiting indigenous tribes in the Horn of Africa. There are moving documentary clips of his hitch-hiking and camel-riding to seek out such groups who still practiced some of their traditional music and ceremonies. These he then wove together in an inspired way with the parallel moods of celebration and reflection to be found in the Islamic and Christian faiths, creating a major work of music, song and dance.
David Fanshawe was concerned, on the one hand to preserve something of these rich and dying traditions and, at the same time to capture the unifying qualities underlying so much of human religious life across this great continent. These he blends in a work which also honours our developing relationship to musical expression. In this way he captures two essential aspects accompanying human activity: living in changing times and consciousness and living alongside neighbours of differing backgrounds.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a “European Sanctus”, or a “Song of Angels” for the American continent, bringing together in a healing way some of the cultural/religious impulses of those varied nations and peoples! Such impulses do of course exist in the arts already, albeit on a smaller scale – Daniel Barenboim’s Israeli/Palestinian orchestra comes to mind, or the Idriart Festivals in Europe, and of course all the ‘crossover’ work that goes on, where East meets West, South meets North, influencing each other in painting, literature, architecture, movement….
By no means is the impulse always explicitly religious, but it does look to the spiritual treasures of other cultures and creates bridges of common striving at a deep level. A good degree of sensitivity is required on entering the ‘inner space’ of another people, but with that caveat much can be initiated for a greater Sanctus than one coming from a single tradition – a real song and harmony of angelic activity.
Celebrating the Festival of our Becoming
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by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
John the Baptist is much more than just a historical figure. He is a call to action, a wake-up call: Start Now, Do Now, what you are always ‘meaning to do…sometime’. He is at home in the desert. He reminds us: be friends with yourself, be at ease with aloneness, yes, even loneliness. He has practice in facing the void. Water is scarce in the desert, so he becomes a flame, fluid, burning, always upward. His resource is to self-ignite, self-motivate, self-direct, – and kindling is everything that hinders and weakens his resolve. He is nourished by ‘hard fruits’. Did anyone promise this path to Awakening is easy or quick?! These fruits are ‘hard’, because they cannot just be plucked or stored. Rather, they are continual hard work. They are nourishing, because they are of substance gone through fire, resurrected out of destruction and dissolution and ‘nothingness’. People stream into the desert to see him, hear him, be like him. The same deep calling to ‘Know and Be Oneself’ unites all these individuals. We celebrate John like a spiritual measure that we, too, may become an IOAnes*: |
Leonardo da Vinci
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a Pillar of Fire
at Home in the Void alone yet All One |
- I
- O - A |
(*IOAnes is ‘John’ in the Greek Bible)
"Curators and Creators"
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
The avant-garde pianist and composer Keith Tippett has been quoted as saying: “Serious musicians have to make a choice: are they going to be curators or creators?” Particularly in the field of music the greater percentage of that being played is not newly composed or created, but is acknowledging ‘the masters’ – from Bach to Beatles, folk and jazz classics, the blues, etc. And rightly so, in as much as these are pieces which have stood the test of time, often due to their inspired composition or lyrics and have become eligible for curators’ safe-keeping on the one hand, for continued airings and performances on the other. It is also true that through the latter, renewed life is often-not always-breathed into these classics.
In the realm of the arts Rudolf Steiner spoke scathingly about painting pictures for exhibitions – that this threatens, kills the artistic creative process, which for example, he said, the impressionists and expressionists of his time were striving for.
Keith Tippett certainly erred on the side of being creative – few of his works are likely to be remembered, re-played in the coming decades, but is that the main criterion? For the artist, for the recipient too, isn’t it of equal importance to be continually open to what is newly inspired and for the creative process which that awakens in all of us – artists and non-artists alike?
The relevance for The Christian Community, for example, is probably clear: our treasures for which we are the curators, the process into the years ahead for which we are the creators. We can look forward to the reporting back from the dozen or so Johannesburg participants in Cape Town and the sharing with all those who have pursued the “Wellspring Uncapped” theme here at home.
The avant-garde pianist and composer Keith Tippett has been quoted as saying: “Serious musicians have to make a choice: are they going to be curators or creators?” Particularly in the field of music the greater percentage of that being played is not newly composed or created, but is acknowledging ‘the masters’ – from Bach to Beatles, folk and jazz classics, the blues, etc. And rightly so, in as much as these are pieces which have stood the test of time, often due to their inspired composition or lyrics and have become eligible for curators’ safe-keeping on the one hand, for continued airings and performances on the other. It is also true that through the latter, renewed life is often-not always-breathed into these classics.
In the realm of the arts Rudolf Steiner spoke scathingly about painting pictures for exhibitions – that this threatens, kills the artistic creative process, which for example, he said, the impressionists and expressionists of his time were striving for.
Keith Tippett certainly erred on the side of being creative – few of his works are likely to be remembered, re-played in the coming decades, but is that the main criterion? For the artist, for the recipient too, isn’t it of equal importance to be continually open to what is newly inspired and for the creative process which that awakens in all of us – artists and non-artists alike?
The relevance for The Christian Community, for example, is probably clear: our treasures for which we are the curators, the process into the years ahead for which we are the creators. We can look forward to the reporting back from the dozen or so Johannesburg participants in Cape Town and the sharing with all those who have pursued the “Wellspring Uncapped” theme here at home.
Good Friday
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
Light shines onto things. It highlights surfaces and exteriors. Light cannot see into things.
This is what dark is for. To draw one in. Into oneself.
The sun shines onto the surface of the earth. It is on the surface, in the light, that we live. Beneath the surface, inside the earth, it is dark.
That is where the seeds are and the roots. Drawing in life. Germinating.
But now we also know artificial light, superficial glare, it wears us down, fracturing the soul with temptations, making hunger attractive.
And we have become impatient, trained for 'instant, easy, painless'.
What can draw thoughts in, give them weight, to reach through layer upon layer of truth? Breaking through the surfaces into interiors.
How to walk in darkness, in that place of nothingness, of complete freedom – and still all the while minding the interior, carefully nurturing the draw of growth through places where death in its own ways turns into life?
Light shines onto things. It highlights surfaces and exteriors. Light cannot see into things.
This is what dark is for. To draw one in. Into oneself.
The sun shines onto the surface of the earth. It is on the surface, in the light, that we live. Beneath the surface, inside the earth, it is dark.
That is where the seeds are and the roots. Drawing in life. Germinating.
But now we also know artificial light, superficial glare, it wears us down, fracturing the soul with temptations, making hunger attractive.
And we have become impatient, trained for 'instant, easy, painless'.
What can draw thoughts in, give them weight, to reach through layer upon layer of truth? Breaking through the surfaces into interiors.
How to walk in darkness, in that place of nothingness, of complete freedom – and still all the while minding the interior, carefully nurturing the draw of growth through places where death in its own ways turns into life?
Embracing with Light
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
For very many friends and members the waning Summer and the receding memories of Summer holidays, often a dreamy time of the year, were accompanied this year by the wakening call of the passing of Geoffrey Sothern and Anita Degenaar. Seldom is a death completely unexpected, yet that doesn’t lessen the shock and pain, the sense of loss with which we are left. In the ensuing weeks and months the feeling of emptiness continues like a gnawing in the soul.
There has long been a custom to “speak well of the dead”, to focus on their striving to become a good citizen, a loving parent, a worthy human being. To this has come in recent years the “celebration of the person’s life”, where family and friends gather to create a living picture of their loved one. Such efforts could be described as embracing with light the inevitable sadness and loss of the person’s passing. It is an embrace in as much as it works from two sides: it is the light which we re-call that was there during the person’s earthly life, and it is the light we then send in the ensuing months as guiding light of supportive thoughts and prayer for the soul’s continuing development. Particularly the latter is the focus of the funeral Services.
In this context it is also timely to remember the three people connected with our community who died in March of last year: Rosemary Moffett on the 5th, Stan Goldstein on the 12th, and Peter Fincham on the 13th. It is the challenge for Christians the world over to create this framework around the events of Good Friday too, that Christ’s suffering and death is seen, understood and embraced by the light of all that went before and followed. The bigger picture of the biography becomes the living focus, in the case of those we have known and in the case of Christ.
For very many friends and members the waning Summer and the receding memories of Summer holidays, often a dreamy time of the year, were accompanied this year by the wakening call of the passing of Geoffrey Sothern and Anita Degenaar. Seldom is a death completely unexpected, yet that doesn’t lessen the shock and pain, the sense of loss with which we are left. In the ensuing weeks and months the feeling of emptiness continues like a gnawing in the soul.
There has long been a custom to “speak well of the dead”, to focus on their striving to become a good citizen, a loving parent, a worthy human being. To this has come in recent years the “celebration of the person’s life”, where family and friends gather to create a living picture of their loved one. Such efforts could be described as embracing with light the inevitable sadness and loss of the person’s passing. It is an embrace in as much as it works from two sides: it is the light which we re-call that was there during the person’s earthly life, and it is the light we then send in the ensuing months as guiding light of supportive thoughts and prayer for the soul’s continuing development. Particularly the latter is the focus of the funeral Services.
In this context it is also timely to remember the three people connected with our community who died in March of last year: Rosemary Moffett on the 5th, Stan Goldstein on the 12th, and Peter Fincham on the 13th. It is the challenge for Christians the world over to create this framework around the events of Good Friday too, that Christ’s suffering and death is seen, understood and embraced by the light of all that went before and followed. The bigger picture of the biography becomes the living focus, in the case of those we have known and in the case of Christ.
Ideals are Guiding Stars of Grace
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
What would life be like if, instead of seeing the fixed stars sparkling above us, we would be looking up into a dark void; what would life be like if, instead of seeing the light of love shine from another's eyes, we would be looking into empty black pupils? Just in allowing such a thought, we realise, how even the simple act of looking up into the starry dome at night is an act of inner upliftment, or receiving the loving gaze of another person is a heart-warming strength. Gentle super-sensible experiences in the material world. The awakening of awe, wonder and amazement is the portal to our ideals.
Do ideals have any real power in the material world? Indeed, how great are the conflicts that arise when people try to carry their ideals into daily living and then compare actual deeds with them, particularly when in relationship with others who seemingly strive with the same ideal. How helpless, weak and full of tension and shortcomings the endeavours often appear to be, showing behaviour and actions which in no way reflect the ideal. It seems that even with a light one can loose direction on a dark road full of hinderances and pitfalls.
Ideals are not yardsticks with which to measure other people or circumstances, so that they turn into reproaches and separating accusations, they are not weapons. They do not lend themselves to be carried down into profane dailyness. Rather, as the stars above, they are calm shining points of orientation elevated from our complicated knotted problems, so that we don't loose our true direction. Unwavering messengers of a 'greater hope', reminders of a coming reality,
Whoever has no ideals, will loose themselves in the demands of daily life. Whoever transports them down too prosaically, will seed quarrel and disappointment. Whoever can pause and inwardly 'look up' will find orientation ever anew. For new stars must begin to rise – on earth! The Spirit-Star must rise in human souls. Little are we aware, that every human soul bears a star, hidden in the dark unconscious. It is destined to shine in spirit-love, heart-warming, life-giving, so that the dark earth wrapped in strife can become visible for the world of spirit. 'As in heaven, so also on the earth' the Christ-fulfilled human souls will shine like the stars.
The very last image in the Bible is The Star. The very last word of the Risen Christ is: 'I am the shining morning star!' This is worthy to remember and carry into the year ahead: that despite how imperfect we are, or how volatile, uncertain and difficult the situations, we will find our way, because in contrast to experiences in the sense world, we have a 'greater hope' that guides us.
What would life be like if, instead of seeing the fixed stars sparkling above us, we would be looking up into a dark void; what would life be like if, instead of seeing the light of love shine from another's eyes, we would be looking into empty black pupils? Just in allowing such a thought, we realise, how even the simple act of looking up into the starry dome at night is an act of inner upliftment, or receiving the loving gaze of another person is a heart-warming strength. Gentle super-sensible experiences in the material world. The awakening of awe, wonder and amazement is the portal to our ideals.
Do ideals have any real power in the material world? Indeed, how great are the conflicts that arise when people try to carry their ideals into daily living and then compare actual deeds with them, particularly when in relationship with others who seemingly strive with the same ideal. How helpless, weak and full of tension and shortcomings the endeavours often appear to be, showing behaviour and actions which in no way reflect the ideal. It seems that even with a light one can loose direction on a dark road full of hinderances and pitfalls.
Ideals are not yardsticks with which to measure other people or circumstances, so that they turn into reproaches and separating accusations, they are not weapons. They do not lend themselves to be carried down into profane dailyness. Rather, as the stars above, they are calm shining points of orientation elevated from our complicated knotted problems, so that we don't loose our true direction. Unwavering messengers of a 'greater hope', reminders of a coming reality,
Whoever has no ideals, will loose themselves in the demands of daily life. Whoever transports them down too prosaically, will seed quarrel and disappointment. Whoever can pause and inwardly 'look up' will find orientation ever anew. For new stars must begin to rise – on earth! The Spirit-Star must rise in human souls. Little are we aware, that every human soul bears a star, hidden in the dark unconscious. It is destined to shine in spirit-love, heart-warming, life-giving, so that the dark earth wrapped in strife can become visible for the world of spirit. 'As in heaven, so also on the earth' the Christ-fulfilled human souls will shine like the stars.
The very last image in the Bible is The Star. The very last word of the Risen Christ is: 'I am the shining morning star!' This is worthy to remember and carry into the year ahead: that despite how imperfect we are, or how volatile, uncertain and difficult the situations, we will find our way, because in contrast to experiences in the sense world, we have a 'greater hope' that guides us.
New Year Thoughts
by Rev. Malcolm Allsop
“Nowadays everyone allows himself to formulate their wish or favorite thought: so will I, too, say what I wished of myself today and which thought first crossed my path in this new year – which thought that will give me foundation, security and sweetness for all further life! I want to learn, more and more, to recognise the beauty-in-things as that which is essential. Thus I will become one of those people who make things beautiful. Amor fati; this will be, from now on, my love! I will not battle against that which is ugly. I won’t accuse, not even the accuser. To look away will be my only denial! And, all in all: sometime I will be one who only accepts!”
These words of Friedrich Nietsche, written 1.1.1882 were once picked out by Fr. Rittelmeyer as having been spoken on one of the most light-filled days of Nietsche’s life. Branded as the greatest atheist of his time, Nietsche became the subject of 28 year old Rittelmeyer’s doctorate and two books. Later he was to say that the spirit of Nietsche shouldn’t only be seen as an opponent of Christianity but as a helper towards a greater Christianity. Further, that since Nietsche it is no longer acceptable to offer to humanity a Christianity which cannot stand up to him.
Some years previously, unbeknown to Rittelmeyer, Rudolf Steiner, also 28 years old, had studied and then met Nietsche and been able to recognize how Nietsche, despite all his railing and struggling against ideas of God and Christian tenets, hadn’t been able to make the decisive breakthrough to that world which he in fact was searching for. (Not before he fell into the ‘mental absence’ of his final eleven years.)
It is a joy to find such passages as the above where, as Rittelmeyer puts it : “…highest ideals of humanity light up in the person of Fr. Nietsche.”
“Nowadays everyone allows himself to formulate their wish or favorite thought: so will I, too, say what I wished of myself today and which thought first crossed my path in this new year – which thought that will give me foundation, security and sweetness for all further life! I want to learn, more and more, to recognise the beauty-in-things as that which is essential. Thus I will become one of those people who make things beautiful. Amor fati; this will be, from now on, my love! I will not battle against that which is ugly. I won’t accuse, not even the accuser. To look away will be my only denial! And, all in all: sometime I will be one who only accepts!”
These words of Friedrich Nietsche, written 1.1.1882 were once picked out by Fr. Rittelmeyer as having been spoken on one of the most light-filled days of Nietsche’s life. Branded as the greatest atheist of his time, Nietsche became the subject of 28 year old Rittelmeyer’s doctorate and two books. Later he was to say that the spirit of Nietsche shouldn’t only be seen as an opponent of Christianity but as a helper towards a greater Christianity. Further, that since Nietsche it is no longer acceptable to offer to humanity a Christianity which cannot stand up to him.
Some years previously, unbeknown to Rittelmeyer, Rudolf Steiner, also 28 years old, had studied and then met Nietsche and been able to recognize how Nietsche, despite all his railing and struggling against ideas of God and Christian tenets, hadn’t been able to make the decisive breakthrough to that world which he in fact was searching for. (Not before he fell into the ‘mental absence’ of his final eleven years.)
It is a joy to find such passages as the above where, as Rittelmeyer puts it : “…highest ideals of humanity light up in the person of Fr. Nietsche.”