January to December 2019
Index
List of articles - click on the icons below and you will be redirected to the page where the article is published.
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In Gratitude
Looking back over this year, there is a wellspring of gratitude that springs up in the heart. To realise how many people —members, friends, strangers, labourers, visitors, guests—and circumstances have converged outwardly and inwardly, humanly, socially, spiritually, financially to manifest what we have as a community property and community life. This place that gives us the opportunity to nurture relationships which we tend to take for granted and then to realise their immense value to our lives: to the earth itself, the buildings, those members that carry responsibilities and tasks for us all both regularly and spontaneously, the generosity of so many in recent weeks during the Fair and the rejuvenation of our grounds… I am certain that I speak not only for myself, to say I am deeply grateful for all the blessings and challenges which have come our way. Most profoundly though, a sense of wonder and gratitude pervaded the moments when the synchronicity of events opened windows into the invisible world, showing us just how real the visible and invisible worlds are in relationship with each other.
Bringing gratitude toward this makes our world better and brighter, has power: to bring hope, to cope with the hard times, to energise, to heal.
In appreciation, Reingard
Bringing gratitude toward this makes our world better and brighter, has power: to bring hope, to cope with the hard times, to energise, to heal.
In appreciation, Reingard
Report on the talk given by Rev. Michaël Merle on 10th November on The Messages to the Seven Churches: A Guide to Advanced Christianity
by John-Peter Gernaat
John is instructed to write seven messages to the seven congregations in Asia Minor. These letters can be considered in many different ways, one of which is that they are written about the unfolding of the seven Post-Atlantean Cultural Epochs.
This period of the Seven Post-Atlantean Epochs is “what it is to be on earth”; it is our current time. Before this period there were four (spiritual) periods of earth evolution, each of which began with a recapitulation of the previous period. This recapitulation is a consolidation of what was achieved in the previous period. After this there will a sixth and a seventh period of unfolding before the earth dissolves into a new creation. Everything is brought to seed so that it can continue.
The seven congregations in Asia Minor, now mostly in Turkey, were experienced as being in the East, therefore accompanied by the experience of dawn. These communities are archetypes.
The congregations represent:
Rudolf Steiner describes seven life processes. He describes these as being etheric processes even though they have a physical manifestation. The first three life processes are a “taking in”, the central life process is of manifestation or holding, while the last three life processes are “out going” or letting go.
These life processes are:
Each letter begins with a description of the one sending the letter. In each letter there is a word or phrase that should be expanded to a full sentence, for example: “I can see your deeds” should be expanded to “I understand the spiritual truth behind your deeds”. The word that is often translated as “repent” is “metanoia” should be read as a change of thinking, feeling and willing; to develop an new inner orientation and to take hold of oneself.
In the letter to Ephesus the one sending the message is described at “The one who holds the seven stars in his hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands”. Christ holds the seven congregations by holding the angels that hold and form the congregations. Christ weaves among the seven congregation: this is the life process of breathing. The Ancient Indian Culture was taking in the reality of what it means to be an earthly being without letting go of the spiritual reality. Humanity had descended into the material world. Humanity is described as having Power of Endurance; meaning that we have the endurance to see this earthly evolution through to the very end. Taking in – breathing – gives us this power of endurance. However, the community is scolded for having deviated from their first love. The first love of humanity was the commitment to become earthly beings. The Ancient Indian Culture spent a lot of effort writing about the spiritual world rather than focusing on this earthly world.
In the letter to Smyrna the one sending the message is the one who is first and last, who won through death to life, who begins and sees it through to its conclusion. This is a true picture of the etheric. The message is of being bereft of the spiritual but rich in earthly experience, the experience of suffering. He who overcomes – is in a relationship with the Christ – will suffer no harm from the second death. This letter does not demand a change of heart and mind.
In the letter to Pergamon the one sending the message has the two-edged sword which cuts both ways. In the letter there is mention of hidden manna that connects to the life process of nutrition. Taking in develops the “I”.
In the letter to Thyatira the one sending the message is alive and shining from his eyes to his feet. He is fully permeated. The community of recognised for their faith and willingness to help and their power of endurance. In their midst is a Jezebel, someone who was given sufficient time to change their heart and mind but did not. What we do (or don’t do) has an effect on our destiny. The description of having an iron staff hints at the circulation – the iron that forms the basis of our blood – as well as to our uprightness.
In the letter to Sardis, to us in our time, the one sending the message has power over the seven divine creating spirits and the seven stars. Humanity is now involved in the creative process. We have the name of a living being but our involvement in materialism leaves us as dead. We need to maintain life to the end. This is the life process of maintenance. We must preserve what we have from the spirit and change our hearts and minds. We must remain in the life process.
In the letter to Philadelphia the one sending the message is the One who is True and Holy with the power of opening and closing. This power is the power of maturation: taking into account what is closed and what is open. In our body we have the processes that build and the processes that break down and there is no mixing of these processes. We must preserve the word so that it can grow. The image of the crown is one of maturation. In growth and maturation we are giving rise to something new.
In the letter to Laodicea the one sending the message is the Amen. Amen is one of the names of Christ. He is the “So Be It”. He can speak it because He is it. The faith and insight of humanity is true because at this stage of our evolution we will be close to a true insight of our deeds. He councils us to become involved in the final process of co-creation. The image on mining gold is one of remaining active. Those I love I educate with blows of destiny. This teaches us to overcome so that we can “mine gold”. Come to a new communion, where we share a meal with Christ. He knocks, but it is up to us to open the door to Him. It is our destiny that we will sit on the throne of Christ, which is the throne of God.
We can apply the seven life processes to our Christian evolution.
John is instructed to write seven messages to the seven congregations in Asia Minor. These letters can be considered in many different ways, one of which is that they are written about the unfolding of the seven Post-Atlantean Cultural Epochs.
This period of the Seven Post-Atlantean Epochs is “what it is to be on earth”; it is our current time. Before this period there were four (spiritual) periods of earth evolution, each of which began with a recapitulation of the previous period. This recapitulation is a consolidation of what was achieved in the previous period. After this there will a sixth and a seventh period of unfolding before the earth dissolves into a new creation. Everything is brought to seed so that it can continue.
The seven congregations in Asia Minor, now mostly in Turkey, were experienced as being in the East, therefore accompanied by the experience of dawn. These communities are archetypes.
The congregations represent:
- Ephesus – the Ancient Indian Cultural Epoch
- Smyrna – the Persian Cultural Epoch
- Pergamon – the Egypto-Chaldean Cultural Epoch
- Thyatira – the Greco-Roman Cultural Epoch
- Sardis – our current Cultural Epoch
- Philadelphia – the Sixth Post-Atlantean Epoch
- Laodicea – The Seventh Post-Atlantean Epoch
Rudolf Steiner describes seven life processes. He describes these as being etheric processes even though they have a physical manifestation. The first three life processes are a “taking in”, the central life process is of manifestation or holding, while the last three life processes are “out going” or letting go.
These life processes are:
- Breathing – Steiner emphasizes that this is an occult term which signifies ‘ín-take”’ from the outside world, the beginning of digestion. It encompasses taking in something as spiritual as thought, light or oxygen through the lungs or as physical as taking in food.
- Warming – what we take in warms us, for example every time we take in oxygen it is a form of burning and its fire results in warmth. So warming is an intensification of breathing.
- Nutrition – we can extract nutrition from what we take in: oxygen from air, nutrients from food, etc. Substances brought in from warming now must be broken down within the body, Nutrition has to do with breaking down of proteins and building up new ones. Actually, the whole world of biochemical changes belongs to this life process.
- Circulation – going through the whole body. It relates to the beat of the heart and the rhythm of the lungs, The transformed substances must now be transported to the organs that use them, Everything to do with flow is a manifestation of circulation. Any disturbance where circulation suddenly gets out of rhythm belongs to pathology. If substances accumulate instead of going where they belong you have illness.
- Maintenance – hold what is of true value so that it does not die. It is the sum total of making substance into the body’s own cells.
- Growth and Maturation – this belongs to the same process that forms tissues and organs, the process where excretion takes place, where we let go of, and it comes out of us
- Reproduction – this force results in the formation of an embryo, for example, that grows and is ultimately a new world that is parted from us at birth.
- Saturn
- Jupiter
- Mars
- Sun
- Mercury
- Venus
- Moon
Each letter begins with a description of the one sending the letter. In each letter there is a word or phrase that should be expanded to a full sentence, for example: “I can see your deeds” should be expanded to “I understand the spiritual truth behind your deeds”. The word that is often translated as “repent” is “metanoia” should be read as a change of thinking, feeling and willing; to develop an new inner orientation and to take hold of oneself.
In the letter to Ephesus the one sending the message is described at “The one who holds the seven stars in his hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands”. Christ holds the seven congregations by holding the angels that hold and form the congregations. Christ weaves among the seven congregation: this is the life process of breathing. The Ancient Indian Culture was taking in the reality of what it means to be an earthly being without letting go of the spiritual reality. Humanity had descended into the material world. Humanity is described as having Power of Endurance; meaning that we have the endurance to see this earthly evolution through to the very end. Taking in – breathing – gives us this power of endurance. However, the community is scolded for having deviated from their first love. The first love of humanity was the commitment to become earthly beings. The Ancient Indian Culture spent a lot of effort writing about the spiritual world rather than focusing on this earthly world.
In the letter to Smyrna the one sending the message is the one who is first and last, who won through death to life, who begins and sees it through to its conclusion. This is a true picture of the etheric. The message is of being bereft of the spiritual but rich in earthly experience, the experience of suffering. He who overcomes – is in a relationship with the Christ – will suffer no harm from the second death. This letter does not demand a change of heart and mind.
In the letter to Pergamon the one sending the message has the two-edged sword which cuts both ways. In the letter there is mention of hidden manna that connects to the life process of nutrition. Taking in develops the “I”.
In the letter to Thyatira the one sending the message is alive and shining from his eyes to his feet. He is fully permeated. The community of recognised for their faith and willingness to help and their power of endurance. In their midst is a Jezebel, someone who was given sufficient time to change their heart and mind but did not. What we do (or don’t do) has an effect on our destiny. The description of having an iron staff hints at the circulation – the iron that forms the basis of our blood – as well as to our uprightness.
In the letter to Sardis, to us in our time, the one sending the message has power over the seven divine creating spirits and the seven stars. Humanity is now involved in the creative process. We have the name of a living being but our involvement in materialism leaves us as dead. We need to maintain life to the end. This is the life process of maintenance. We must preserve what we have from the spirit and change our hearts and minds. We must remain in the life process.
In the letter to Philadelphia the one sending the message is the One who is True and Holy with the power of opening and closing. This power is the power of maturation: taking into account what is closed and what is open. In our body we have the processes that build and the processes that break down and there is no mixing of these processes. We must preserve the word so that it can grow. The image of the crown is one of maturation. In growth and maturation we are giving rise to something new.
In the letter to Laodicea the one sending the message is the Amen. Amen is one of the names of Christ. He is the “So Be It”. He can speak it because He is it. The faith and insight of humanity is true because at this stage of our evolution we will be close to a true insight of our deeds. He councils us to become involved in the final process of co-creation. The image on mining gold is one of remaining active. Those I love I educate with blows of destiny. This teaches us to overcome so that we can “mine gold”. Come to a new communion, where we share a meal with Christ. He knocks, but it is up to us to open the door to Him. It is our destiny that we will sit on the throne of Christ, which is the throne of God.
We can apply the seven life processes to our Christian evolution.
Letter from Vienna
Dear Johannesburg Congregation,
A recent visit to England prompts this letter to you, timely too as another year has passed since our arrival in Vienna and an update was in the air.
But first, to England and the reason for our visit. Christine and I wanted to attend the opening of the new church in Stroud. Aaron Mirkin is one of the three colleagues there, as well as Selina Horn who some of you may remember from Michaël Merle´s Ordination. Stroud, west of London, was my first sending in 2000 and already in 2001 the opportunity came to purchase an adjoining overgrown orchard – who knows when it might come in useful?!
The congregation almost immediately started to dream, envisage, and gradually plan a new build for the 1968 built-on-a-shoe-string church, ancillary rooms and small flat (in which we were living). The first architects were approached (including Dennis Shaw, at that time living and working locally), as well as the first costings floated for the various permutations.
Time moved on, we too, but the wheels continued to turn, the plans took on form.
And now this marathon run was completed, and a proud new church stands, for all to see and admire and, since Sunday, 20th October, to use! A festive weekend by all accounts, and particularly because the original church still stands alongside: this meant that the events began in the ‘old’ space, (evening lecture, the final Act of Consecration of Man) followed by the symbolic scraping of the walls, while those assembled remained seated in the middle, then the removing of the altar, the fittings and the contents of the now ‘old’ vestry.
In the afternoon, across the adjoining hallway, we gathered again to hear from the architect`s team (now their third church for The Christian Community), some of the factors and challenges involved, including the new design possibilities through working with so called ‘cross laminated panelling’. Then the red ribbon was cut by the wives of Michael Tapp and Peter Allan, (both priests of the congregation and both still living in Stroud until recently).
Lines from T.S. Eliot`s well known “Choruses from the Rock”, which was performed on the Saturday evening, stood over the weekend festivities;
A recent visit to England prompts this letter to you, timely too as another year has passed since our arrival in Vienna and an update was in the air.
But first, to England and the reason for our visit. Christine and I wanted to attend the opening of the new church in Stroud. Aaron Mirkin is one of the three colleagues there, as well as Selina Horn who some of you may remember from Michaël Merle´s Ordination. Stroud, west of London, was my first sending in 2000 and already in 2001 the opportunity came to purchase an adjoining overgrown orchard – who knows when it might come in useful?!
The congregation almost immediately started to dream, envisage, and gradually plan a new build for the 1968 built-on-a-shoe-string church, ancillary rooms and small flat (in which we were living). The first architects were approached (including Dennis Shaw, at that time living and working locally), as well as the first costings floated for the various permutations.
Time moved on, we too, but the wheels continued to turn, the plans took on form.
And now this marathon run was completed, and a proud new church stands, for all to see and admire and, since Sunday, 20th October, to use! A festive weekend by all accounts, and particularly because the original church still stands alongside: this meant that the events began in the ‘old’ space, (evening lecture, the final Act of Consecration of Man) followed by the symbolic scraping of the walls, while those assembled remained seated in the middle, then the removing of the altar, the fittings and the contents of the now ‘old’ vestry.
In the afternoon, across the adjoining hallway, we gathered again to hear from the architect`s team (now their third church for The Christian Community), some of the factors and challenges involved, including the new design possibilities through working with so called ‘cross laminated panelling’. Then the red ribbon was cut by the wives of Michael Tapp and Peter Allan, (both priests of the congregation and both still living in Stroud until recently).
Lines from T.S. Eliot`s well known “Choruses from the Rock”, which was performed on the Saturday evening, stood over the weekend festivities;
“The Lord who created must wish us to create
And employ our creation again in His service.”
And employ our creation again in His service.”
And so it was, on the Sunday morning the Act of Consecration was preceded by the consecration of the new church space – this time from the centre to the periphery and beyond; North, West, East and South, each in relation to one of the four elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Following the Service came greetings and gifts from other communities, children from the congregation performed folkdances, new music and choir pieces filled the packed space.
It isn`t often given to experience the consecration of a new church, still less to witness it dovetailing with the farewell to the previous space – almost a once in a lifetime occasion.
Back in Vienna, enriched, we enter our third year here, learning the quirks of the Austrian folk-soul, and Christine now well established in the eurythmy and eurythmy therapy scene (even over the border into neighbouring Hungary).
There in Johannesburg you have also completed a long process – it was impressive to read that after re-visiting the possibilities for the Windmill Property over so many years, a decision has finally been reached – something had shifted! It must be a very satisfying feeling, on the one hand to have reached and implemented this decision, and now to be in a position to tackle some improvements and new developments. All good wishes to you in this regard.
For all unanswered questions, do ask Margie, whom it was lovely to see here a few months ago.
Greetings, Malcolm & Christine
It isn`t often given to experience the consecration of a new church, still less to witness it dovetailing with the farewell to the previous space – almost a once in a lifetime occasion.
Back in Vienna, enriched, we enter our third year here, learning the quirks of the Austrian folk-soul, and Christine now well established in the eurythmy and eurythmy therapy scene (even over the border into neighbouring Hungary).
There in Johannesburg you have also completed a long process – it was impressive to read that after re-visiting the possibilities for the Windmill Property over so many years, a decision has finally been reached – something had shifted! It must be a very satisfying feeling, on the one hand to have reached and implemented this decision, and now to be in a position to tackle some improvements and new developments. All good wishes to you in this regard.
For all unanswered questions, do ask Margie, whom it was lovely to see here a few months ago.
Greetings, Malcolm & Christine
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Inner-City Discoveries
by Julian Wertheim Aymes
On 28th September, a warm Saturday morning, I found myself a tourist in my own city. Alexander Higgins had organised a tour of Johannesburg Inner City, primarily focused around the Berea area and surrounding suburbs.
We all met at the Church, and drove through to the Ponte building in Berea, where we met a guided tour that took us to the top of the Ponte City Tower. The tour, operated by Dlala Nje took us through the very strict security, into the building and then it was into a lift and up to the 51st floor.
On 28th September, a warm Saturday morning, I found myself a tourist in my own city. Alexander Higgins had organised a tour of Johannesburg Inner City, primarily focused around the Berea area and surrounding suburbs.
We all met at the Church, and drove through to the Ponte building in Berea, where we met a guided tour that took us to the top of the Ponte City Tower. The tour, operated by Dlala Nje took us through the very strict security, into the building and then it was into a lift and up to the 51st floor.
Ponte Dity tower
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From the 51st floor
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The guide, a volunteer from Dlala Nje, proceeded to give us the history of the Ponte City Building from when it was opened in 1965, as apartments for the super wealthy from around the world, to the day when the Apartheid government cut off all services to Hillbrow, Berea and other surrounding areas. They did this because the super wealthy were not conforming to the laws of segregation of the time. We heard about how the building and the area deteriorated and was eventually overrun by gangsterism, putting more than 10 000 people into the apartments with no services like running water or electricity or rubbish removal. The centre of the Ponte tower, which is a completely round building hollow in the middle, was filled with rubbish up to the 14th floor! It took 2 years of manual labour to remove the rubbish after the building had been reclaimed ca 2008.
Children at Dlala Nje
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Dlala Nje
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When we finished at the Ponte City building, we went for a picnic in the peaceful and quiet The Wilds. The Wilds is unique as it is the only place in Johannesburg where there are only indigenous plants in their original habitat. No alien plants have been cultivated there, and as such, it has never been turned into a cultivated ‘park’. This place has also experienced a rejuvenation within the last 9 months from being neglected and unsafe, to a clean cared-for safe space through the initiative of people who live in the area.
The day ended with a short drive to Victoria Yards, which was an abandoned industrial complex, where now on a weekly basis they have a fresh produce market, where you can pick and buy fresh produce straight from their edible gardens. We walked around the gardens and discovered a medicinal garden, a number of different arts and crafts shops where the artisans also work to produce their ware, as well as a micro-brewery and micro-distillery, plus fish ‘n chips, pizza and more. It is still in the process of transforming.
We all live our lives in different ways, but there are always new and interesting things to discover about our own back yard. It is very easy to say I want to travel and explore new places, but we must always remember that there are treasures hiding in plain sight, all around us.
The day ended with a short drive to Victoria Yards, which was an abandoned industrial complex, where now on a weekly basis they have a fresh produce market, where you can pick and buy fresh produce straight from their edible gardens. We walked around the gardens and discovered a medicinal garden, a number of different arts and crafts shops where the artisans also work to produce their ware, as well as a micro-brewery and micro-distillery, plus fish ‘n chips, pizza and more. It is still in the process of transforming.
We all live our lives in different ways, but there are always new and interesting things to discover about our own back yard. It is very easy to say I want to travel and explore new places, but we must always remember that there are treasures hiding in plain sight, all around us.
A report on the talk given by Rev. Steffen Barth on 29th September: "Imagining the picture of St Michael as a guide to fulfilling our task in modern life"
by John-Peter Gernaat
This talk was based on the question: “Why is imagination important for us to act in the world?”
Steffen began with an excerpt of the Mystery Dramas by Rudolf Steiner. A character, Felicia Balde, tells a story of the Light-filled Being of Imagination who has compassion on people’s souls and turns souls to the Light of the Father. until Reason mocks it as a deceiver of souls because imaginations are but wild dreams. This Child of Light has compassion on people seeking the Truth.
False imaginations are fantasy or fantastic.
In history we find bards and story tellers who became masters of their craft, with twelve years of training, and took responsibility for the imaginations their stories created. They revered this Light-filled Being of God.
There are three aspects to this Light-filled Being: from imagination comes Intuition and Inspiration: soul images, intuition to act and spirit thinking.
Around 600BCE people still lived within the pictures. People experienced the spiritual beings working in nature and in their own lives. The Greek epoch was the first time that people had thoughts that did not have their roots in these pictures. The separation between the human being and the spiritual worlds happened through or enabled pure thinking. We can think about the world and about events, but all our thinking is based in the past. Only through imagination can we think forward to a future.
The separation from the spiritual worlds was necessary for human beings to develop the “I”.
We cannot change the world for the good purely through thinking, we need imagination to introduce a new impulse from the future. The past cannot solve the problems of the past in the past!
When we listen to the Gospel, we can use our thinking to understand the picture presented in the reading, but what can we gain from the picture?
Steffen then turned to The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. The boy, Bastian, enters a world of fantasy. Ende discovered that once Bastian was in this world there was no way of returning him to the real world. This world of fantasy is being destroyed by Nothing. Our lives are filled with nothing: our world of work, the daily news, the television we watch. It fills our lives but amounts to nothing. From the Nothing, Bastian receives a seed to recreate Fantasia. As human beings – and especially artists – we need to go through the nothing of life to gain full control of ourselves, to reach the place where we can meet and create the future. What we then experience is someone coming from the future to give us the nourishment we seek.
It is through Imagination, Intuition and Inspiration that we can receive guidance from the future.
The previous day a small group from the community had visited a renewal project in Ponte Tower, enjoyed The Wilds and visited the Victoria Yards. Each of these places was in decay and turning to nothing. Through the imagination of one or two people they are being or have been renewed and something new, creative and regenerative is happening where before there was decay.
Each one of us has the possibility of avoiding the areas that have fallen into ruin or to take up our responsibility and turn this around for the future.
This talk was based on the question: “Why is imagination important for us to act in the world?”
Steffen began with an excerpt of the Mystery Dramas by Rudolf Steiner. A character, Felicia Balde, tells a story of the Light-filled Being of Imagination who has compassion on people’s souls and turns souls to the Light of the Father. until Reason mocks it as a deceiver of souls because imaginations are but wild dreams. This Child of Light has compassion on people seeking the Truth.
False imaginations are fantasy or fantastic.
In history we find bards and story tellers who became masters of their craft, with twelve years of training, and took responsibility for the imaginations their stories created. They revered this Light-filled Being of God.
There are three aspects to this Light-filled Being: from imagination comes Intuition and Inspiration: soul images, intuition to act and spirit thinking.
Around 600BCE people still lived within the pictures. People experienced the spiritual beings working in nature and in their own lives. The Greek epoch was the first time that people had thoughts that did not have their roots in these pictures. The separation between the human being and the spiritual worlds happened through or enabled pure thinking. We can think about the world and about events, but all our thinking is based in the past. Only through imagination can we think forward to a future.
The separation from the spiritual worlds was necessary for human beings to develop the “I”.
We cannot change the world for the good purely through thinking, we need imagination to introduce a new impulse from the future. The past cannot solve the problems of the past in the past!
When we listen to the Gospel, we can use our thinking to understand the picture presented in the reading, but what can we gain from the picture?
Steffen then turned to The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. The boy, Bastian, enters a world of fantasy. Ende discovered that once Bastian was in this world there was no way of returning him to the real world. This world of fantasy is being destroyed by Nothing. Our lives are filled with nothing: our world of work, the daily news, the television we watch. It fills our lives but amounts to nothing. From the Nothing, Bastian receives a seed to recreate Fantasia. As human beings – and especially artists – we need to go through the nothing of life to gain full control of ourselves, to reach the place where we can meet and create the future. What we then experience is someone coming from the future to give us the nourishment we seek.
It is through Imagination, Intuition and Inspiration that we can receive guidance from the future.
The previous day a small group from the community had visited a renewal project in Ponte Tower, enjoyed The Wilds and visited the Victoria Yards. Each of these places was in decay and turning to nothing. Through the imagination of one or two people they are being or have been renewed and something new, creative and regenerative is happening where before there was decay.
Each one of us has the possibility of avoiding the areas that have fallen into ruin or to take up our responsibility and turn this around for the future.
A report on the talk given by Rev. Michaël Merle on 6th October: "The Mystery of Four Living beings: the Experience of the Lamassu"
An image of the four faced creature of Ezekiel but in this case representing the four Gospel writers – Gospel in hand.
by John-Peter Gernaat
Michaël started off by saying that he had thought of many ways of giving this talk; because there are many ways to approach the topic. This report too will not aim to repeat the talk given and will only try to share some of the dense information that makes up the topic.
The book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament begins with a vision given to Ezekiel, the priest, during the captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon. He describes a being with four faces and four wings that has the likeness of a man but the soles of his feet were that of a calf (Ezekiel 1: 4-14). The faces were of a man, an ox on the left, a lion on the right and an eagle.
The same picture is given to John (Revelation 4), but more specifically, in his vision of God’s throne. He sees the throne, describes the one sitting on the throne and sees surrounding the throne, in order, twenty four thrones on which sit twenty four elders, seven flaming lamps, a sea of crystal, four beasts: like a lion, a calf, a man and a flying eagle, each with wings.
The civilisations of the second post-Atlantean epoch were the first to describe the constellation in the night sky. At first only 11, but they knew there was a twelfth. The eleven were all beings while the twelfth, when they found it in the constellation of Scorpio – the constellation of the Eagle – turned out to be the scales, the only inanimate constellation. They connected it with one of their gods, while we connect it with the archangel Michael. The constellations that were most significant to these early civilisations were the ones that heralded the new season of the year: February = Aquarius, April = Taurus, August = Leo and November = Scorpio. Man, calf, lion and eagle.
Michaël started off by saying that he had thought of many ways of giving this talk; because there are many ways to approach the topic. This report too will not aim to repeat the talk given and will only try to share some of the dense information that makes up the topic.
The book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament begins with a vision given to Ezekiel, the priest, during the captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon. He describes a being with four faces and four wings that has the likeness of a man but the soles of his feet were that of a calf (Ezekiel 1: 4-14). The faces were of a man, an ox on the left, a lion on the right and an eagle.
The same picture is given to John (Revelation 4), but more specifically, in his vision of God’s throne. He sees the throne, describes the one sitting on the throne and sees surrounding the throne, in order, twenty four thrones on which sit twenty four elders, seven flaming lamps, a sea of crystal, four beasts: like a lion, a calf, a man and a flying eagle, each with wings.
The civilisations of the second post-Atlantean epoch were the first to describe the constellation in the night sky. At first only 11, but they knew there was a twelfth. The eleven were all beings while the twelfth, when they found it in the constellation of Scorpio – the constellation of the Eagle – turned out to be the scales, the only inanimate constellation. They connected it with one of their gods, while we connect it with the archangel Michael. The constellations that were most significant to these early civilisations were the ones that heralded the new season of the year: February = Aquarius, April = Taurus, August = Leo and November = Scorpio. Man, calf, lion and eagle.
These four constellations were combined into one creature that guarded the throne room of the king once you had gone through the gate of Ishtar in Babylon, the gate into the inner city (a replica can be seen in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin), a creature known as the lamassu. They had horns on their helmet indicating that they were spiritual creatures and not of the earth.
The lamassu is an imagination of the being that holds the cycles of time within its being, represented by the four cardinal points of the cycle of the year.
Returning to the throne of God we can understand the imagination of John as he stood before the first hierarchy of heaven: the Seraphim, the Cherubim and the Thrones. The Seraphim are flaming beings – the seven flaming lampstands; the Cherubim are the four living creatures; the twenty four elders on the thrones are the Thrones.
By the beginning of the evolution of humanity, that Rudolf Steiner calls Old Saturn, the Seraphim and Cherubim had already completed all the active cycles of their evolution while the Thrones were still intimately involved, and their evolving is part of the beginning of our evolving.
Michaël shared many legends and stories related to the second post-Atlantean epoch and to the early Christian understanding of these imaginations. He also showed how the images of the Four Living Beings, the Cherubim are constantly recurring through the book of Revelation.
The lamassu is an imagination of the being that holds the cycles of time within its being, represented by the four cardinal points of the cycle of the year.
Returning to the throne of God we can understand the imagination of John as he stood before the first hierarchy of heaven: the Seraphim, the Cherubim and the Thrones. The Seraphim are flaming beings – the seven flaming lampstands; the Cherubim are the four living creatures; the twenty four elders on the thrones are the Thrones.
By the beginning of the evolution of humanity, that Rudolf Steiner calls Old Saturn, the Seraphim and Cherubim had already completed all the active cycles of their evolution while the Thrones were still intimately involved, and their evolving is part of the beginning of our evolving.
Michaël shared many legends and stories related to the second post-Atlantean epoch and to the early Christian understanding of these imaginations. He also showed how the images of the Four Living Beings, the Cherubim are constantly recurring through the book of Revelation.
The Farewell for Rev. Steffen Barth
by Jane Abrahams
At the farewell celebration held for Steffen Barth on Sunday, 14th October, we gave him a card on which was written:
Johannes van Efese
ons geliefdedissipel
was by wyse van spreke
de eintlike Man van die Teken.
En uit Prins Hendrik se soektog
na ‘n later Priester-Johannes
vloei dalk nog eendag
die regter Afrika-wete.
John the priest of Ephesus
our Beloved Disciple
was, one might say,
the real Man of the Sign.
And out of Prince Henry’s search
for a later Prester John
perhaps one day will flow
the true knowing of Africa.
(from Die Semaion of Teken by Helene de Villiers)
Some notes on PRESTER JOHN
We chose this particular poem because it seemed appropriate as a souvenir of Steffen’s visit, and because it hints at a hope for the future.
The poem speaks about three people – John of Ephesus, who was the beloved disciple and the writer of the Revelation in the New Testament, Prince Henry the Navigator, a towering figure of the fifteenth century who had a certain enduring vision about Africa, and Prester John, a shadowy personage whom not many people know about.
Prester John was a king, or one should perhaps say the name given to a line of kings, who ruled in the ancient country of Abyssinia in the so-called Dark Ages. He was a king, but he was more than that. Throughout the then known world, he was a beacon of light and hope and goodness. His kingdom was famed for its incredible wealth and prosperity, and also for the hospitality and good will which it extended to everyone who came there.
The tale of Prester John has its roots way back in legend, when there was war in heaven. In the conflict it is told that a magic stone fell from the crown of Lucifer into the hand of the Queen of Sheba. Subsequently she journeyed to the court of King Solomon, as told by Rudolf Steiner in the Temple Legend lectures. She gave him the magic stone as a gift. They subsequently had a child together, and mother and child returned to the land of Sheba – also known as Saba, from which journeyed the three Magi at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. They were followers of Zarathustra who had foretold the coming of a Messiah in the distant past.
The child of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was the remote ancestor of Prester John, and Wolfram von Eschenbach in the story of Parzival tells how he married the Grail Maiden, and the Grail, fashioned from the Stone of Lucifer, came back to dwell in the land of Saba.
This is a very brief background to the rumours of a celebrated kingdom in the east of Africa in the Middle Ages. There seems no doubt that Saba – present-day Yemen and Ethiopia – was a centre of spiritual learning and enlightenment.
At the time of the Crusades, there was a sort of cross-pollination of stories from east and west, and many of these stories were about a fabulous king somewhere beyond the great river, who was both king and priest. There are pictures of Prester John in old manuscripts showing him sitting on his throne in the middle of Africa with multiple crowns on his head, and his feet planted in the River Nile. Prester John became the name of a whole line of kings, each one bearing the name more nobly than the last.
By the 15th Century, trade routes were opening up from Europe to Africa. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, a visionary and astronomer but also a practical man, sent out ship after ship of exploration with a twofold intention. To make the trade routes and the overland pathways safe for travellers, and to make contact with this famous king Prester John. He thought that if they worked together they could perhaps join hands to spread good will throughout the whole continent, to counteract the violence and bloodshed which went on there.
One of the expeditions was led by Bartolomeu Dias, the first to come right down the west coast of Africa and round the Cape into Mossel Bay. His intention was to explore up the east coast until he found Prester John’s kingdom. He was prevented from going further by the fear of his crewmen, but he planted a chain of stone crosses, or padrão, in the places where they stopped to take on supplies. A visible sign of something deeper. A symbolic chain of goodness and truth all round the southern coast of the land. This was Prince Henry’s dream. A symbolic Christianisation of the land – not in the missionary sense but in the true esoteric Christian sense that we know from Rudolf Steiner.
Helene de Villiers, a much-loved and erudite member of The Christian Community in Cape Town, spent her later life collecting the stories and legends of Africa and she sees Prester John standing in the radiance of St John, the beloved disciple, and taking on his mantle of Christianising Africa in the true esoteric sense of our time.
Prester John is for her the embodiment of the spirit of love, forced underground by the blood shed all over the continent, and by the greed of humanity to rape and plunder its earth. But his heart is still beating in the spiritual ‘earth’ of our country, and perhaps it is our task to disinter it. It is our hope that in all our diversity we can help to heal and ensoul our country.
(Acknowledgments to The Grail Stone in Africa and the Search for Prester John by Helene de Villiers, Attic Press 2005.)
At the farewell celebration held for Steffen Barth on Sunday, 14th October, we gave him a card on which was written:
Johannes van Efese
ons geliefdedissipel
was by wyse van spreke
de eintlike Man van die Teken.
En uit Prins Hendrik se soektog
na ‘n later Priester-Johannes
vloei dalk nog eendag
die regter Afrika-wete.
John the priest of Ephesus
our Beloved Disciple
was, one might say,
the real Man of the Sign.
And out of Prince Henry’s search
for a later Prester John
perhaps one day will flow
the true knowing of Africa.
(from Die Semaion of Teken by Helene de Villiers)
Some notes on PRESTER JOHN
We chose this particular poem because it seemed appropriate as a souvenir of Steffen’s visit, and because it hints at a hope for the future.
The poem speaks about three people – John of Ephesus, who was the beloved disciple and the writer of the Revelation in the New Testament, Prince Henry the Navigator, a towering figure of the fifteenth century who had a certain enduring vision about Africa, and Prester John, a shadowy personage whom not many people know about.
Prester John was a king, or one should perhaps say the name given to a line of kings, who ruled in the ancient country of Abyssinia in the so-called Dark Ages. He was a king, but he was more than that. Throughout the then known world, he was a beacon of light and hope and goodness. His kingdom was famed for its incredible wealth and prosperity, and also for the hospitality and good will which it extended to everyone who came there.
The tale of Prester John has its roots way back in legend, when there was war in heaven. In the conflict it is told that a magic stone fell from the crown of Lucifer into the hand of the Queen of Sheba. Subsequently she journeyed to the court of King Solomon, as told by Rudolf Steiner in the Temple Legend lectures. She gave him the magic stone as a gift. They subsequently had a child together, and mother and child returned to the land of Sheba – also known as Saba, from which journeyed the three Magi at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. They were followers of Zarathustra who had foretold the coming of a Messiah in the distant past.
The child of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was the remote ancestor of Prester John, and Wolfram von Eschenbach in the story of Parzival tells how he married the Grail Maiden, and the Grail, fashioned from the Stone of Lucifer, came back to dwell in the land of Saba.
This is a very brief background to the rumours of a celebrated kingdom in the east of Africa in the Middle Ages. There seems no doubt that Saba – present-day Yemen and Ethiopia – was a centre of spiritual learning and enlightenment.
At the time of the Crusades, there was a sort of cross-pollination of stories from east and west, and many of these stories were about a fabulous king somewhere beyond the great river, who was both king and priest. There are pictures of Prester John in old manuscripts showing him sitting on his throne in the middle of Africa with multiple crowns on his head, and his feet planted in the River Nile. Prester John became the name of a whole line of kings, each one bearing the name more nobly than the last.
By the 15th Century, trade routes were opening up from Europe to Africa. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, a visionary and astronomer but also a practical man, sent out ship after ship of exploration with a twofold intention. To make the trade routes and the overland pathways safe for travellers, and to make contact with this famous king Prester John. He thought that if they worked together they could perhaps join hands to spread good will throughout the whole continent, to counteract the violence and bloodshed which went on there.
One of the expeditions was led by Bartolomeu Dias, the first to come right down the west coast of Africa and round the Cape into Mossel Bay. His intention was to explore up the east coast until he found Prester John’s kingdom. He was prevented from going further by the fear of his crewmen, but he planted a chain of stone crosses, or padrão, in the places where they stopped to take on supplies. A visible sign of something deeper. A symbolic chain of goodness and truth all round the southern coast of the land. This was Prince Henry’s dream. A symbolic Christianisation of the land – not in the missionary sense but in the true esoteric Christian sense that we know from Rudolf Steiner.
Helene de Villiers, a much-loved and erudite member of The Christian Community in Cape Town, spent her later life collecting the stories and legends of Africa and she sees Prester John standing in the radiance of St John, the beloved disciple, and taking on his mantle of Christianising Africa in the true esoteric sense of our time.
Prester John is for her the embodiment of the spirit of love, forced underground by the blood shed all over the continent, and by the greed of humanity to rape and plunder its earth. But his heart is still beating in the spiritual ‘earth’ of our country, and perhaps it is our task to disinter it. It is our hope that in all our diversity we can help to heal and ensoul our country.
(Acknowledgments to The Grail Stone in Africa and the Search for Prester John by Helene de Villiers, Attic Press 2005.)
Words spoken for Steffen Barth at his farewell gathering
by Karin von Schilling
Words spoken for Steffen Barth at his farewell gathering after his last service in Johannesburg, in gratitude, on behalf of the Johannesburg congregation and myself.
Words spoken for Steffen Barth at his farewell gathering after his last service in Johannesburg, in gratitude, on behalf of the Johannesburg congregation and myself.
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Dear Steffen
When you came to us in Johannesburg, I was reminded of the work of the first group of priests of The Christian Community, who went to where they were needed, not knowing what it would be like; without any expectations, just going where they were called and needed. After experiencing your first service at our altar, I said to a friend on our way home: here is a fellow brother who has decided to be a priest and give his life to the task. This is how you came to us. You came, meeting our congregation and each one of us, open to who we were and with unconditional positivity to what was needed. Not as a teacher but as our priest. You stepped in and took on whatever was needed, from practical things, like becoming part of the team to reconstruct the paving around our church, meeting the workers daily whenever needed. Or taking on the gospel study, which I was unable to continue due to illness. The members of the group were so happy with your way of doing it! You did not come with ready ideas but allowed the words and pictures of each gospel reading to speak for itself and thereby reveal its truth. Allowing Reingard to attend the Lenker conference, you did whatever needed to be done in her absence. Stepping into new situations, including to meet with the Waldorf school teachers to encourage their pupils to come to the confirmation lessons and experience the confirmation is their lives. Your extraordinary kind warmth in every encounter opened new doors for all of us. We want to thank you deeply for coming to us and bringing yourself as you are. We would wish that you would be able to come to us again because you were so open and so positive to what you met in Johannesburg, not an easy city to come to. We are very grateful to your wife and children, who must have missed you very much, while you were with us. We thank you for coming to us and what you brought and just for who you are. For the congregation of Johannesburg, Karin von Schilling |
A new Practicant and Community Helper
by Joachim Bouwmeester
It is an honour for me to be able to introduce myself to you.
I am Joachim Bouwmeester from the Netherlands. I was born on 9th February 1988 to a very anthroposophical family in Arnhem on the Rhine. My dad is a priest in The Christian Community and my mother is a violin teacher and eurythmist. When I was 5 years old, my father was moved to the congregation in Driebergen were I grew up. Nothing special happened there except that I started playing the cello, and at the age of 11 an enormous fascination with birds took hold of me.
As a result of my interests in nature I choose to attend a forestry and nature management school after finishing high school in 2004. During this time I worked so much with heavy machinery that the violent vibrations affected the motoric movement of my fingers. This frustrated me as it affected my ability to play cello, when I compared myself to my fellow cellists in the orchestra in which I played. In response I bought a tuba and started taking lessons. During my 4 years of study I ran my own small business: building sheds, caring for estates, gardens, Christian Community churches and private homes.
When I finished this education, I travelled to New Zealand where I worked on a farm and learned to speak English in 4 months. I also visited the 2009 youth conference 'Jump' in Melbourne, Australia. Then I travelled back to the Netherlands to look for a job.
In the (European) fall of 2009 I found a job as a forestry assistant. During this work I realised that I preferred working with people instead of with things. This led me in September 2010 to begin studying Social Work in Utrecht. As an intern I became a substitute counsellor, counselling people with mental disabilities at various industrial workshops. At this time I entered the student-orchestra scene, participating in many projects as a tuba player. Together with birding with my friends and working two jobs, it was a busy and joyful life. After successfully completing college in the (European) summer of 2015, I had to decide what I wanted to do in the world. Soon I was involved as the treasurer in a committee to organise a student orchestra tour of Europe and I had an office job in a health insurance company.
During all these busy years I had little time to read Steiner or be interested in the background of The Christian Community, but at some point I noticed that what I grew up with was becoming more and more of a living reality to me, especially in difficult times. That opened my eyes to consider the priest seminary. Would it be possible for me to be a priest? It is something I do not yet know. However, going to the seminary and learning as much as possible, this I can do. At the priest seminary a new world was opening for me, not only about anthroposophy but also how to gain self-knowledge. With increased enthusiasm I started the second year but sadly I had a setback. After a surgery with complications in January I had to take time off to recover. Now that I have recovered, I am looking to continuing at the seminary. Until the new semester starts, I am here in South Africa and I look forward to learning new things and meeting new people here in The Christian Community, until I leave at Epiphany.
It is an honour for me to be able to introduce myself to you.
I am Joachim Bouwmeester from the Netherlands. I was born on 9th February 1988 to a very anthroposophical family in Arnhem on the Rhine. My dad is a priest in The Christian Community and my mother is a violin teacher and eurythmist. When I was 5 years old, my father was moved to the congregation in Driebergen were I grew up. Nothing special happened there except that I started playing the cello, and at the age of 11 an enormous fascination with birds took hold of me.
As a result of my interests in nature I choose to attend a forestry and nature management school after finishing high school in 2004. During this time I worked so much with heavy machinery that the violent vibrations affected the motoric movement of my fingers. This frustrated me as it affected my ability to play cello, when I compared myself to my fellow cellists in the orchestra in which I played. In response I bought a tuba and started taking lessons. During my 4 years of study I ran my own small business: building sheds, caring for estates, gardens, Christian Community churches and private homes.
When I finished this education, I travelled to New Zealand where I worked on a farm and learned to speak English in 4 months. I also visited the 2009 youth conference 'Jump' in Melbourne, Australia. Then I travelled back to the Netherlands to look for a job.
In the (European) fall of 2009 I found a job as a forestry assistant. During this work I realised that I preferred working with people instead of with things. This led me in September 2010 to begin studying Social Work in Utrecht. As an intern I became a substitute counsellor, counselling people with mental disabilities at various industrial workshops. At this time I entered the student-orchestra scene, participating in many projects as a tuba player. Together with birding with my friends and working two jobs, it was a busy and joyful life. After successfully completing college in the (European) summer of 2015, I had to decide what I wanted to do in the world. Soon I was involved as the treasurer in a committee to organise a student orchestra tour of Europe and I had an office job in a health insurance company.
During all these busy years I had little time to read Steiner or be interested in the background of The Christian Community, but at some point I noticed that what I grew up with was becoming more and more of a living reality to me, especially in difficult times. That opened my eyes to consider the priest seminary. Would it be possible for me to be a priest? It is something I do not yet know. However, going to the seminary and learning as much as possible, this I can do. At the priest seminary a new world was opening for me, not only about anthroposophy but also how to gain self-knowledge. With increased enthusiasm I started the second year but sadly I had a setback. After a surgery with complications in January I had to take time off to recover. Now that I have recovered, I am looking to continuing at the seminary. Until the new semester starts, I am here in South Africa and I look forward to learning new things and meeting new people here in The Christian Community, until I leave at Epiphany.
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The Path from Saint John's to Michaelmas – A talk given by Michaël Merle on 8th September
a summation and elaboration by Robyn de Klerk
The three festival seasons in the Christian Community year that may be viewed as Seasons of the Spirit - Whitsun, Saint John's and Michaelmas - are festivals of the Now. They mark our engagement with the world as it is at the present time. The significance of Saint John is two-fold - The first is in his message of "metanoia": this is to change yourself and make straight the ways of the Lord. Turn around inwardly - transform what you know and how you express it and then bear and order the world in harmony with the best within you for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Saint John is both Messenger and Witness. He is the one to behold the Lamb of God - the sacrificial quality of the Christ ' I ' that is fully present in this human being. John sees it. Michael takes it up. By developing our interest in the world, seeing ourselves as connected to one another and learning what it is to be human, a new awareness begins to dawn...
The name Michael means: Who is like God (?). - It is both a question and a statement.
The ten pericopes given in the time of Trinity between Saint John's and Michaelmas offer a path of development from one state of awareness to another. They form a kind of bridge between the two festivals, leading us through the stages of evolutionary awakening that unfold on the journey towards the Michealmas experience. Each pericope mirrors another - the first mirroring the last - the second, the ninth - the third, the eighth - the fourth, the seventh - the fifth, the sixth. The quality moves from what feels more like an outward general message for all mankind towards an ever more inward and personal experience that requires our participation in order to unfold. At the same time it is possible to observe how the first pericope prepares the way for the arrival of its mirror counterpart.
They are well known to us but in order to highlight their connection and significance only a verse or two or an aspect within the passage will be considered:
1 - Mk 8: 27 - Peter's Confession -
The Anointed One is here. ' You are the Christ '. The Aha moment of all Aha moments. Perhaps an intellectual realisation at first, our feeling realm can become overwhelmed with what this Being is and is to endure. But lowly preciousness and sentimentality hold no water here. Our thinking must first transform and bear this truth aright. God is here.
2 - Mt 7: 7 - Ask, Seek, Knock -
The beginning of relationship with this higher reality. With the new orientation of Saint John, our earnest inward-turning contemplation, we can engage with the Divine World ever more fruitfully. God is listening.
3 – Lk 15 - (The Prodigal Son) - the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Lost Son -
In these three parables we encounter the experience of loss and how through losing something and then finding it again its value becomes greater. We may have to set out and search, light a lamp and clean our house or in some instances simply wait in order to regain what we have lost. Through the parables that which is lost becomes each time something that is closer to us - the sheep being in the world, the coin in our house and the son something even nearer. It is interesting here that mineral, animal and human kingdom are all represented but not the plant kingdom. The etheric life realm of the plant kingdom is not included as one which is open to error. Perhaps we are both shepherd and sheep - finding and being found. God seeks us out.
The three festival seasons in the Christian Community year that may be viewed as Seasons of the Spirit - Whitsun, Saint John's and Michaelmas - are festivals of the Now. They mark our engagement with the world as it is at the present time. The significance of Saint John is two-fold - The first is in his message of "metanoia": this is to change yourself and make straight the ways of the Lord. Turn around inwardly - transform what you know and how you express it and then bear and order the world in harmony with the best within you for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Saint John is both Messenger and Witness. He is the one to behold the Lamb of God - the sacrificial quality of the Christ ' I ' that is fully present in this human being. John sees it. Michael takes it up. By developing our interest in the world, seeing ourselves as connected to one another and learning what it is to be human, a new awareness begins to dawn...
The name Michael means: Who is like God (?). - It is both a question and a statement.
The ten pericopes given in the time of Trinity between Saint John's and Michaelmas offer a path of development from one state of awareness to another. They form a kind of bridge between the two festivals, leading us through the stages of evolutionary awakening that unfold on the journey towards the Michealmas experience. Each pericope mirrors another - the first mirroring the last - the second, the ninth - the third, the eighth - the fourth, the seventh - the fifth, the sixth. The quality moves from what feels more like an outward general message for all mankind towards an ever more inward and personal experience that requires our participation in order to unfold. At the same time it is possible to observe how the first pericope prepares the way for the arrival of its mirror counterpart.
They are well known to us but in order to highlight their connection and significance only a verse or two or an aspect within the passage will be considered:
1 - Mk 8: 27 - Peter's Confession -
The Anointed One is here. ' You are the Christ '. The Aha moment of all Aha moments. Perhaps an intellectual realisation at first, our feeling realm can become overwhelmed with what this Being is and is to endure. But lowly preciousness and sentimentality hold no water here. Our thinking must first transform and bear this truth aright. God is here.
2 - Mt 7: 7 - Ask, Seek, Knock -
The beginning of relationship with this higher reality. With the new orientation of Saint John, our earnest inward-turning contemplation, we can engage with the Divine World ever more fruitfully. God is listening.
3 – Lk 15 - (The Prodigal Son) - the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Lost Son -
In these three parables we encounter the experience of loss and how through losing something and then finding it again its value becomes greater. We may have to set out and search, light a lamp and clean our house or in some instances simply wait in order to regain what we have lost. Through the parables that which is lost becomes each time something that is closer to us - the sheep being in the world, the coin in our house and the son something even nearer. It is interesting here that mineral, animal and human kingdom are all represented but not the plant kingdom. The etheric life realm of the plant kingdom is not included as one which is open to error. Perhaps we are both shepherd and sheep - finding and being found. God seeks us out.
4 - Lk 9 - Sending out the Twelve Disciples -
Take this new knowing into life. We have previously been cautioned not to cast pearls before swine and are now told to shake the dust from our feet of the places where we are not received. We will not always find the world ready and receptive. We are also told to not take even one thing with us - let go of the past and take steps into the future towards our Michaelic road. This guidance can be applied when listening to another speak - leave your judgements and responses behind, create a stillness within and through this attentive awareness new possibilities may be revealed. It is possible to be in the world in a different way - dissolving old rigid patterns and being open to the new that wishes to come towards us and manifest with our co-operation. God is in the world through us.
5 - Lk 18: 35 - Healing of a Blind Man of Jericho -
Here the blind man already knows of and believes in the healing power. He asks the Lord to let him receive his sight. His sight - as though he is aware that it is his by right but that something is blocking this ability. Through his faith his sight is restored. We can understand this especially as the need for the restoration of our spiritual insight. The three aspects seem important - the knowing, the believing and the asking. God removes the obstacles.
6 - Mk 7: 31 - Healing of a Deaf and Dumb Man -
Independence of hearing comes later to the independence of sight - as does learning to truly speak. Both are more inward and personal experiences than that of learning to see. We are now no longer simply taking in but being prepared to offer something in return. The man is taken away from the crowd - he is alone with the Lord. Ephphata - be opened fully - he is told. Through being open to what we can learn by inward listening we gain insight and insight is necessary for proper healing. God opens the way.
7 – Lk 10 - Seventy sent out -
Here the seventy are sent out to proclaim the way. To find the sons of peace and transfer their powers to them. They are sent out to say to all that the kingdom of God is ever nearer. Old rigid knowledge cannot comprehend this, it can only be perceived by those who are youthful of soul. God works in the world through us.
8 - Lk 17: 21 - Behold - the Kingdom of God is Within You -
In the parables of Lk 15 we see how to respond to something we have lost. Now the task is learning how to hold what we have found. Reconciling everything that comes towards us to this higher truth. With Faith, Gratitude and Certainty we should endeavour to move forward. It is impossible for stumbling blocks not to come but it is how we respond to them that matters. As we are challenged by life we can turn again and again to this inner power, this knowledge of the higher worlds, that we develop and nurture. God lives in us.
9 - Mt 6: 19 - Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God -
It is important to navigate these times with the inner attitude of soul which understands that it is of no value to store up material possessions. Rather our task is to search within ourselves for our own Michaelic individuality. To chase after earthly experiences too eagerly can also be a part of this same error. We can trust that life exposes us to the encounters necessary for our learning and direct our attention to forming and reconciling our inner world. God creates in us.
10 - Lk 7: 11 - Raising of a Dead Man on the Way to be Buried -
A widow who has lost her only son. This is a picture of someone who feels as though they have lost everything. Through our growing awareness and spiritual insight we can gain an ability to face desolation and trust that we are never alone. From this very place of nothingness something new can come into being. "Young man to you I say arise!" - working from our higher intuitions, staying connected to the Divine within we can face what comes towards us and enter the Michaelic time ready to speak. With God it is possible.
While writing this article I read Ephesians 6: 17 and think it a helpful inspiration as we aspire to take all of this in and up:
Take into your thoughts the certainty of the coming world healing, that it protect you as with a helmet, and grasp the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God which you utter.
Take this new knowing into life. We have previously been cautioned not to cast pearls before swine and are now told to shake the dust from our feet of the places where we are not received. We will not always find the world ready and receptive. We are also told to not take even one thing with us - let go of the past and take steps into the future towards our Michaelic road. This guidance can be applied when listening to another speak - leave your judgements and responses behind, create a stillness within and through this attentive awareness new possibilities may be revealed. It is possible to be in the world in a different way - dissolving old rigid patterns and being open to the new that wishes to come towards us and manifest with our co-operation. God is in the world through us.
5 - Lk 18: 35 - Healing of a Blind Man of Jericho -
Here the blind man already knows of and believes in the healing power. He asks the Lord to let him receive his sight. His sight - as though he is aware that it is his by right but that something is blocking this ability. Through his faith his sight is restored. We can understand this especially as the need for the restoration of our spiritual insight. The three aspects seem important - the knowing, the believing and the asking. God removes the obstacles.
6 - Mk 7: 31 - Healing of a Deaf and Dumb Man -
Independence of hearing comes later to the independence of sight - as does learning to truly speak. Both are more inward and personal experiences than that of learning to see. We are now no longer simply taking in but being prepared to offer something in return. The man is taken away from the crowd - he is alone with the Lord. Ephphata - be opened fully - he is told. Through being open to what we can learn by inward listening we gain insight and insight is necessary for proper healing. God opens the way.
7 – Lk 10 - Seventy sent out -
Here the seventy are sent out to proclaim the way. To find the sons of peace and transfer their powers to them. They are sent out to say to all that the kingdom of God is ever nearer. Old rigid knowledge cannot comprehend this, it can only be perceived by those who are youthful of soul. God works in the world through us.
8 - Lk 17: 21 - Behold - the Kingdom of God is Within You -
In the parables of Lk 15 we see how to respond to something we have lost. Now the task is learning how to hold what we have found. Reconciling everything that comes towards us to this higher truth. With Faith, Gratitude and Certainty we should endeavour to move forward. It is impossible for stumbling blocks not to come but it is how we respond to them that matters. As we are challenged by life we can turn again and again to this inner power, this knowledge of the higher worlds, that we develop and nurture. God lives in us.
9 - Mt 6: 19 - Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God -
It is important to navigate these times with the inner attitude of soul which understands that it is of no value to store up material possessions. Rather our task is to search within ourselves for our own Michaelic individuality. To chase after earthly experiences too eagerly can also be a part of this same error. We can trust that life exposes us to the encounters necessary for our learning and direct our attention to forming and reconciling our inner world. God creates in us.
10 - Lk 7: 11 - Raising of a Dead Man on the Way to be Buried -
A widow who has lost her only son. This is a picture of someone who feels as though they have lost everything. Through our growing awareness and spiritual insight we can gain an ability to face desolation and trust that we are never alone. From this very place of nothingness something new can come into being. "Young man to you I say arise!" - working from our higher intuitions, staying connected to the Divine within we can face what comes towards us and enter the Michaelic time ready to speak. With God it is possible.
While writing this article I read Ephesians 6: 17 and think it a helpful inspiration as we aspire to take all of this in and up:
Take into your thoughts the certainty of the coming world healing, that it protect you as with a helmet, and grasp the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God which you utter.
Reporting on the conversation by Rev. Neville Adams on the topic of: “How does The Christian Community meet our needs?”
by John-Peter Gernaat
Neville was the first priest in Johannesburg and chose to become a priest after having his questions answered by Rev. Evelyn Capel, who was a regular visiting priest in Johannesburg in the early 1960s. Neville shared some of his journey to becoming a priest and founding the congregation in Johannesburg. There was a group who called themselves the friends of The Christian Community who provided some support while Neville was at the Seminary and helped secure the first venue where regular services were held. The aim of the stories Neville told was to point towards what makes a community of The Christian Community. Neville’s formative years were spent in the Methodist Church where it is still common to remind congregants that they are sinners doomed to the wrath of God, but also a church where congregants are warmly welcomed and made to feel at home; where singing is joyful and a shared experience. In The Christian Community we have an understanding of the true nature of the human being and this should encourage us to speak openly and share what is important to us; rather than, as seems to be the case, hide our church from the rest of our lives as if we are ashamed.
Neville was the first priest in Johannesburg and chose to become a priest after having his questions answered by Rev. Evelyn Capel, who was a regular visiting priest in Johannesburg in the early 1960s. Neville shared some of his journey to becoming a priest and founding the congregation in Johannesburg. There was a group who called themselves the friends of The Christian Community who provided some support while Neville was at the Seminary and helped secure the first venue where regular services were held. The aim of the stories Neville told was to point towards what makes a community of The Christian Community. Neville’s formative years were spent in the Methodist Church where it is still common to remind congregants that they are sinners doomed to the wrath of God, but also a church where congregants are warmly welcomed and made to feel at home; where singing is joyful and a shared experience. In The Christian Community we have an understanding of the true nature of the human being and this should encourage us to speak openly and share what is important to us; rather than, as seems to be the case, hide our church from the rest of our lives as if we are ashamed.
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Reporting on the talk by Rev. Steffen Barth: “Endeavor to the Divine within the Human Being”
by John-Peter Gernaat
Rev. Steffen Barth gave a talk related to the second part of the Christian Year. The first part of the Year has been celebrated by Christianity through the ages as the festivals of the Heavenly Worlds giving Grace to the world - from Advent to Pentecost. The Catholic Church celebrates the Saints in the second part of the Year as people who had the ability to change their lives. The Christian Community brings something completely new to the Christian Year in the four-week festival of St John and the 10-week Trinity after St Johnstide where we are asked to change ourselves. The Gospel readings in this period of Trinity after St Johnstide are a path that leads us to a way to change our inner selves.
The narrow path of changing our hearts and minds is a very individual path. It cannot be taken in community. But it is also a path that is too difficult to take alone without help. Christ tells the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that when we ask, we shall receive; when we seek, we shall find; and when we knock, it shall be opened to us. But it is up to us to ask, seek and knock. Without our initiating action the Heavenly Worlds can only approach us through heavy blows in our life. However, in the first Gospel reading of Trinity after St Johnstide we hear of the confession of Peter that he knows Jesus as the Christ. Confessing Christ is the first step to asking, seeking and knocking.
Why is it difficult for us to change our hearts and minds? What is the reason that whenever a person has an encounter with an angelic being the angelic being comforts the person not to fear? Why should we fear an angelic being? Is it that in the presence of the Heavenly Worlds and we see the darkness that lives in our heart? We must take responsibility for what lives in us. It is easy to see what lives in another person, but we are blind to what lives in us. Our lower ego fears what it must give up in order to allow the Christ-in-me to grow. We know love, we show it to our children; but only when we can see that love is not an emotion living in us but rather that behind love there is a Being, the Christ-Being, then we are able to make a commitment to a relationship with this Being, the Christ-in-me. This is the endeavour to the Divine in us.
Rev. Barth told us quite a bit about John the Baptist and his baptism; how he could witness the revelation that came to the one being baptised as their soul was loosened from their body during the baptism. This ability, and his knowledge that he was looking for the One to whom Christ would connect enabled him to see and bear witness to the spiritual being connecting with Jesus when Jesus was baptised. But John too had his human side which brought doubt before his death. However, after his death he was strongly connected with the disciples of Jesus and in a way became their group soul.
At the time of John the Baptist’s death, the disciple whom Jesus loved began to feature in the Gospel. He took the name of John (and was the writer of the Gospel of John, the letters and the Revelation). The multiple persons named John represents a person ahead of the rest of humanity. For this, we in The Christian Community, give our attention to John for a four-week period of St Johnstide. It is the preparation into the 10-weeks when we are guided to endeavour (thesaurus: endeavour = work) to the Divine in us.
Rev. Steffen Barth gave a talk related to the second part of the Christian Year. The first part of the Year has been celebrated by Christianity through the ages as the festivals of the Heavenly Worlds giving Grace to the world - from Advent to Pentecost. The Catholic Church celebrates the Saints in the second part of the Year as people who had the ability to change their lives. The Christian Community brings something completely new to the Christian Year in the four-week festival of St John and the 10-week Trinity after St Johnstide where we are asked to change ourselves. The Gospel readings in this period of Trinity after St Johnstide are a path that leads us to a way to change our inner selves.
The narrow path of changing our hearts and minds is a very individual path. It cannot be taken in community. But it is also a path that is too difficult to take alone without help. Christ tells the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that when we ask, we shall receive; when we seek, we shall find; and when we knock, it shall be opened to us. But it is up to us to ask, seek and knock. Without our initiating action the Heavenly Worlds can only approach us through heavy blows in our life. However, in the first Gospel reading of Trinity after St Johnstide we hear of the confession of Peter that he knows Jesus as the Christ. Confessing Christ is the first step to asking, seeking and knocking.
Why is it difficult for us to change our hearts and minds? What is the reason that whenever a person has an encounter with an angelic being the angelic being comforts the person not to fear? Why should we fear an angelic being? Is it that in the presence of the Heavenly Worlds and we see the darkness that lives in our heart? We must take responsibility for what lives in us. It is easy to see what lives in another person, but we are blind to what lives in us. Our lower ego fears what it must give up in order to allow the Christ-in-me to grow. We know love, we show it to our children; but only when we can see that love is not an emotion living in us but rather that behind love there is a Being, the Christ-Being, then we are able to make a commitment to a relationship with this Being, the Christ-in-me. This is the endeavour to the Divine in us.
Rev. Barth told us quite a bit about John the Baptist and his baptism; how he could witness the revelation that came to the one being baptised as their soul was loosened from their body during the baptism. This ability, and his knowledge that he was looking for the One to whom Christ would connect enabled him to see and bear witness to the spiritual being connecting with Jesus when Jesus was baptised. But John too had his human side which brought doubt before his death. However, after his death he was strongly connected with the disciples of Jesus and in a way became their group soul.
At the time of John the Baptist’s death, the disciple whom Jesus loved began to feature in the Gospel. He took the name of John (and was the writer of the Gospel of John, the letters and the Revelation). The multiple persons named John represents a person ahead of the rest of humanity. For this, we in The Christian Community, give our attention to John for a four-week period of St Johnstide. It is the preparation into the 10-weeks when we are guided to endeavour (thesaurus: endeavour = work) to the Divine in us.
Reporting on the talk by Rev. Michaël Merle: “What is the Gospel?”
by John-Peter Gernaat
As Christians, we experience or hear the Gospel, but we may be puzzled by what the Gospel really is. This was certain the case in my life. Growing up in an Afrikaans and very Protestant community, we had missionaries come to our school and tell us how Christian missionaries were being killed behind the iron curtain for proclaiming the Gospel. The question that raised was whether our faith was strong enough to die for Christ. The question for me was what does it really mean to proclaim the Gospel?
Rev. Michaël Merle took us into an etymology of the word beginning with Mark 1:1. Being the first writer of the Gospels in the New Testament, Mark begins, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (King James). John Madsen translated this as, “The new word from the realm of the angels sounds forth through Jesus Christ”. In Greek the word would be one that means a good, true, beautiful angelic message: evangelion. This has been Latinised to evangelium (a true translation into Latin would be bona annunciatium). Therefore the word is also translated as Good News, but it must be understood as good news, or good message, from the realm of angels.
From Mark we understand that:
The full picture of the gospel is the annunciation, birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and the second coming of Christ. This means that the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters form part of the gospel.
Rev. Michaël Merle delved into theology and the meaning we can then derive, from which the message seemed to be that we must heed the call to turn ourselves around 180 degrees in the constitution of our soul (willing, feeling, thinking) through an ongoing act out of our own freedom, and that we will be given a new relationship to ourselves through Christ. This new relationship will be a right relationship with ourselves, our environment, others and with God through Christ. Through the changing of our hearts and minds we can become as saints. We receive the Holy Spirit and Christ in us.
The gospel is a fulfilment of an anticipation that was there from the beginning; we now have the message. That message is Christ Alive.
As Christians, we experience or hear the Gospel, but we may be puzzled by what the Gospel really is. This was certain the case in my life. Growing up in an Afrikaans and very Protestant community, we had missionaries come to our school and tell us how Christian missionaries were being killed behind the iron curtain for proclaiming the Gospel. The question that raised was whether our faith was strong enough to die for Christ. The question for me was what does it really mean to proclaim the Gospel?
Rev. Michaël Merle took us into an etymology of the word beginning with Mark 1:1. Being the first writer of the Gospels in the New Testament, Mark begins, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (King James). John Madsen translated this as, “The new word from the realm of the angels sounds forth through Jesus Christ”. In Greek the word would be one that means a good, true, beautiful angelic message: evangelion. This has been Latinised to evangelium (a true translation into Latin would be bona annunciatium). Therefore the word is also translated as Good News, but it must be understood as good news, or good message, from the realm of angels.
From Mark we understand that:
- The good news is from the realm of the angels
- It is a message of salvation
- The time is now
- We must fill ourselves with the power of the good news that the Kingdom of God is coming near.
The full picture of the gospel is the annunciation, birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and the second coming of Christ. This means that the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters form part of the gospel.
Rev. Michaël Merle delved into theology and the meaning we can then derive, from which the message seemed to be that we must heed the call to turn ourselves around 180 degrees in the constitution of our soul (willing, feeling, thinking) through an ongoing act out of our own freedom, and that we will be given a new relationship to ourselves through Christ. This new relationship will be a right relationship with ourselves, our environment, others and with God through Christ. Through the changing of our hearts and minds we can become as saints. We receive the Holy Spirit and Christ in us.
The gospel is a fulfilment of an anticipation that was there from the beginning; we now have the message. That message is Christ Alive.
Reporting on the talk by Rev. Steffen Barth: “How do we become aware of the Holy Trinity in our lives”
by John-Peter Gernaat
In the past, and in many churches today, the words that are spoken: “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” are accompanied by the drawing of three crosses. These words have largely become hollow and no longer help in finding a connection to the Holy Trinity. Many churches in fact have lost the ability to really feel the difference between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In The Christian Community we have been given new words: “The Father God be in us; the Son God create in us; the Spirit God enlighten us”. In the Trinity Epistle the Holy Trinity is further expanded upon. These help us to understand the Holy Trinity a bit better.
In this talk Rev. Steffen Barth wanted to give us a practical sense of how we can experience the Holy Trinity in our daily lives. He spoke from his own understanding and approach to the Father God, the Son God and The Spirit God.
When we think of the Father God where do we find him? He is not removed from us, in some distant place called heaven, He is very near to us. The Father is the Being who holds everything together. He is in all that is created. He sees his creation through us. Our body is a gift from the Father. He is in everything.
In nature, which is perfect in its order, the Father sleeps and desires to be recognised by humanity. We can approach the Father when we stand in awe of the minutia of nature, when we feel the Fatherly force behind all that we see. We can also connect with the Father through thankfulness; thankfulness for everything we receive which we need to live and for Who has brought us this far in our lives. He is in us, around us, everywhere.
We now know how to find the Father in us and so it should also be possible to find the Christ and the Holy Spirit in us.
When we observe good works done by people, we can recognise that good is done through love. Love is not a given. We must strive to work with love, it does not come naturally. When we do not speak of our love but recognise that there is a Being from Whom loves comes, then we recognise that this Being is Christ. A person will immediately perceive love then they are approached by another. Nature also wishes to be approached with love, in a way that is filled with Christ.
We can get a feeling for the Holy Spirit in two ways. When we are alone and receptive, in prayer or meditation, we can become aware of thoughts or idea that enter our minds. We may even get a sense of being touched. When we work in a group and listen to each other in order to hear the other we can become aware of the vantage point from which the other person views a situation. When we become aware of the various angles to a situation a space is created into which something new can enter. We can experience this during the Act of Consecration of Man.
We are created in the likeness of God; we have a unique spirit that allows us to approach each other and nature in love; recognising the individual or uniqueness in everything; recognising how the Father is expressed in others.
This was followed by a discussion of how each one in the circle experiences or recognises the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their own life.
A question that received some time was: How do we understand Christ sending the Comforter? When we are confronted with a problem, we firstly stand apart from the problem but as we begin to engage the problem, we become enlightened about the problem and the gift it bears for us. The comfort we receive can be an experience of the Holy Spirit. We should be aware that words have been appropriated to have a specific meaning which can be misleading when we seek understanding. The Comforter is connected with the flames that we envision above the heads of the Apostles and therefore with enlightenment.
Another percept spoken about is that consciousness leads to death. When we are conscious in our body, we are dying. At night when we are unconscious, we are renewed. Our life on earth, which is a gift from the Father, is using up resources. When we do work this lights a flame that does not die. Without death we cannot create the power that does not die. Christ is the power that overcomes death. The spirit becomes Holy through the work of human beings.
In the past, and in many churches today, the words that are spoken: “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” are accompanied by the drawing of three crosses. These words have largely become hollow and no longer help in finding a connection to the Holy Trinity. Many churches in fact have lost the ability to really feel the difference between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In The Christian Community we have been given new words: “The Father God be in us; the Son God create in us; the Spirit God enlighten us”. In the Trinity Epistle the Holy Trinity is further expanded upon. These help us to understand the Holy Trinity a bit better.
In this talk Rev. Steffen Barth wanted to give us a practical sense of how we can experience the Holy Trinity in our daily lives. He spoke from his own understanding and approach to the Father God, the Son God and The Spirit God.
When we think of the Father God where do we find him? He is not removed from us, in some distant place called heaven, He is very near to us. The Father is the Being who holds everything together. He is in all that is created. He sees his creation through us. Our body is a gift from the Father. He is in everything.
In nature, which is perfect in its order, the Father sleeps and desires to be recognised by humanity. We can approach the Father when we stand in awe of the minutia of nature, when we feel the Fatherly force behind all that we see. We can also connect with the Father through thankfulness; thankfulness for everything we receive which we need to live and for Who has brought us this far in our lives. He is in us, around us, everywhere.
We now know how to find the Father in us and so it should also be possible to find the Christ and the Holy Spirit in us.
When we observe good works done by people, we can recognise that good is done through love. Love is not a given. We must strive to work with love, it does not come naturally. When we do not speak of our love but recognise that there is a Being from Whom loves comes, then we recognise that this Being is Christ. A person will immediately perceive love then they are approached by another. Nature also wishes to be approached with love, in a way that is filled with Christ.
We can get a feeling for the Holy Spirit in two ways. When we are alone and receptive, in prayer or meditation, we can become aware of thoughts or idea that enter our minds. We may even get a sense of being touched. When we work in a group and listen to each other in order to hear the other we can become aware of the vantage point from which the other person views a situation. When we become aware of the various angles to a situation a space is created into which something new can enter. We can experience this during the Act of Consecration of Man.
We are created in the likeness of God; we have a unique spirit that allows us to approach each other and nature in love; recognising the individual or uniqueness in everything; recognising how the Father is expressed in others.
This was followed by a discussion of how each one in the circle experiences or recognises the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their own life.
A question that received some time was: How do we understand Christ sending the Comforter? When we are confronted with a problem, we firstly stand apart from the problem but as we begin to engage the problem, we become enlightened about the problem and the gift it bears for us. The comfort we receive can be an experience of the Holy Spirit. We should be aware that words have been appropriated to have a specific meaning which can be misleading when we seek understanding. The Comforter is connected with the flames that we envision above the heads of the Apostles and therefore with enlightenment.
Another percept spoken about is that consciousness leads to death. When we are conscious in our body, we are dying. At night when we are unconscious, we are renewed. Our life on earth, which is a gift from the Father, is using up resources. When we do work this lights a flame that does not die. Without death we cannot create the power that does not die. Christ is the power that overcomes death. The spirit becomes Holy through the work of human beings.
Reporting on the conversation lead by Rev. Michaël Merle on the topic of: “The Christ-force as Movement Bearer: How the New Evolutionary Principle Works”
by John-Peter Gernaat
Rev Michaël Merle set the scene for the conversation by reading from the Creed and referencing the Act of Consecration. Thereafter he read the content of the talk, a short summary of about two minutes. This opened into a conversation based on the theme.
From the Creed, the relevant sentences are: “Since that time he is the Lord of the heavenly forces upon earth and lives as the fulfiller of the Fatherly deeds of the Ground of the World. He will in time unite for the advancement of the world with those whom, through their bearing, he can wrest free from the death of matter.” From the Act of Consecration, the reference was to the ideas that through Christ, we can, through our thinking and willing, join with the world’s evolving, and that evolving takes place through Christ.
In the ensuing conversation, some of the idea that were fleshed out further are:
The Christ force is a new evolutionary principle. It can spring forth only through human beings. The old evolutionary principle has come to an end. This means that evolution is no longer going to happen of its own accord as it did in the past. The old evolution leads to death. Future evolution can occur only through us when the Christ force is present in us. To tie this to the theme of the talk it is clear that the Christ force is a moving force. Now a crisis arises: unless we know the new evolution, how are we to recognise it or how are we to know what our role in it is?
Matter without spirit is unsustainable. So, how do we maintain a connection with the spirit? This is what Goethe sought to bring into natural science and was side-lined until Rudolf Steiner pointed to its importance. Goethe wanted to recognise the initiating force, or inspiration, behind every natural phenomenon. Most natural scientists are only concerned with the natural phenomenon and ignore the concept that there is something – an initiating force or inspiration – behind it, because this cannot be seen. Even in our daily conversation we speak of natural phenomena, such as climate change, and fail to clearly articulate the initiating force behind it and our role in it.
Returning to the evolutionary principle: every new impulse on earth can only take place through us, because Christ is in us. Therefore, how we act and how we take hold of things has great significance. How do we recognise that it is the Christ acting through us that makes things happen in the world, and brings about real change?
How do we, as the Movement for Religious Renewal, experience the Christ principle as a movement? Without the resurrection, evolution would have become devolution on earth. Christ is the moving force of evolution. Just as a tiny amount of yeast can leaven a loaf of bread, or a small amount of salt season a stew, so small initiatives through Christ can impact the evolution of earth. For us, it is not a conclusion knowing that Christ is in us, but rather a starting point from which to take up this realisation and work with it.
Rev Michaël Merle set the scene for the conversation by reading from the Creed and referencing the Act of Consecration. Thereafter he read the content of the talk, a short summary of about two minutes. This opened into a conversation based on the theme.
From the Creed, the relevant sentences are: “Since that time he is the Lord of the heavenly forces upon earth and lives as the fulfiller of the Fatherly deeds of the Ground of the World. He will in time unite for the advancement of the world with those whom, through their bearing, he can wrest free from the death of matter.” From the Act of Consecration, the reference was to the ideas that through Christ, we can, through our thinking and willing, join with the world’s evolving, and that evolving takes place through Christ.
In the ensuing conversation, some of the idea that were fleshed out further are:
The Christ force is a new evolutionary principle. It can spring forth only through human beings. The old evolutionary principle has come to an end. This means that evolution is no longer going to happen of its own accord as it did in the past. The old evolution leads to death. Future evolution can occur only through us when the Christ force is present in us. To tie this to the theme of the talk it is clear that the Christ force is a moving force. Now a crisis arises: unless we know the new evolution, how are we to recognise it or how are we to know what our role in it is?
Matter without spirit is unsustainable. So, how do we maintain a connection with the spirit? This is what Goethe sought to bring into natural science and was side-lined until Rudolf Steiner pointed to its importance. Goethe wanted to recognise the initiating force, or inspiration, behind every natural phenomenon. Most natural scientists are only concerned with the natural phenomenon and ignore the concept that there is something – an initiating force or inspiration – behind it, because this cannot be seen. Even in our daily conversation we speak of natural phenomena, such as climate change, and fail to clearly articulate the initiating force behind it and our role in it.
Returning to the evolutionary principle: every new impulse on earth can only take place through us, because Christ is in us. Therefore, how we act and how we take hold of things has great significance. How do we recognise that it is the Christ acting through us that makes things happen in the world, and brings about real change?
How do we, as the Movement for Religious Renewal, experience the Christ principle as a movement? Without the resurrection, evolution would have become devolution on earth. Christ is the moving force of evolution. Just as a tiny amount of yeast can leaven a loaf of bread, or a small amount of salt season a stew, so small initiatives through Christ can impact the evolution of earth. For us, it is not a conclusion knowing that Christ is in us, but rather a starting point from which to take up this realisation and work with it.
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Introducing Myself
by Rev. Steffen Barth
I will be helping out in Johannesburg until the 13th October. I’m going to take pleasure in getting to know this country and its people. The “young” priest is actually 46 years old and my family live close to Dortmund in the western part of Germany. My wife, Veronika, is an eurythmy teacher and our children attend a Waldorf school. Johanna is 11 years old and Fridtjof is 10. For them it is the first time that their father will be away for an extended period. Towards the end of my time here my family will join me, which is during their autumn holidays. I want to show them a small part of South Africa.
I grew up near Heidelberg in the southern part of Germany. During my schooling I went on an exchange programme to Michigan, USA, for a year. After finishing school, I felt the need to do something with my hands, because I felt stuck in my head. So I went to work on a biodynamic farm, where I came into contact with Anthroposophy for the first time. I worked for seven years as a farmer, mainly with the cattle and the preparations. Then the question arose for me as to how we can build communities where people can live and work together? This question brought me to the priest seminary in Stuttgart, where I was ordained in 2008. Since then I have worked in three different communities: Augsburg, Rostock and Herdecke/Dortmund.
Feel free to contact me.
I will be helping out in Johannesburg until the 13th October. I’m going to take pleasure in getting to know this country and its people. The “young” priest is actually 46 years old and my family live close to Dortmund in the western part of Germany. My wife, Veronika, is an eurythmy teacher and our children attend a Waldorf school. Johanna is 11 years old and Fridtjof is 10. For them it is the first time that their father will be away for an extended period. Towards the end of my time here my family will join me, which is during their autumn holidays. I want to show them a small part of South Africa.
I grew up near Heidelberg in the southern part of Germany. During my schooling I went on an exchange programme to Michigan, USA, for a year. After finishing school, I felt the need to do something with my hands, because I felt stuck in my head. So I went to work on a biodynamic farm, where I came into contact with Anthroposophy for the first time. I worked for seven years as a farmer, mainly with the cattle and the preparations. Then the question arose for me as to how we can build communities where people can live and work together? This question brought me to the priest seminary in Stuttgart, where I was ordained in 2008. Since then I have worked in three different communities: Augsburg, Rostock and Herdecke/Dortmund.
Feel free to contact me.
Collection of Old Gold for the Cultus
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
Many years ago the initiative of the “Collection of Old Gold for the Cultus” was brought to life by the Rev. and Mrs. Lenz in Germany. Over time, the proceeds from this collecting have, again and again, supported communities worldwide to acquire the utensils needed for celebrating the sacraments, like chalices and vestments. Also, our southern African communities have benefited from this fund, most recently through the incredible timing of the arrival of a new chalice precisely when we needed one urgently after the theft of our chalice. Our Region has also supported this initiative over the years through the gifting of old gold from members and friends. Heartfelt Thanks!
The collecting continues. Everything gold: from teeth, broken pieces, wedding rings, to real jewellery continues to be collected in our communities and is welcomed. Also real silver jewellery. The priests ensure that these donations arrive at their destination, which is with Rev. and Mrs. Lenz, who continue to be the guardians of this fund. Every donation is valued and is a seed for future support of the cultus where it is needed.
Many years ago the initiative of the “Collection of Old Gold for the Cultus” was brought to life by the Rev. and Mrs. Lenz in Germany. Over time, the proceeds from this collecting have, again and again, supported communities worldwide to acquire the utensils needed for celebrating the sacraments, like chalices and vestments. Also, our southern African communities have benefited from this fund, most recently through the incredible timing of the arrival of a new chalice precisely when we needed one urgently after the theft of our chalice. Our Region has also supported this initiative over the years through the gifting of old gold from members and friends. Heartfelt Thanks!
The collecting continues. Everything gold: from teeth, broken pieces, wedding rings, to real jewellery continues to be collected in our communities and is welcomed. Also real silver jewellery. The priests ensure that these donations arrive at their destination, which is with Rev. and Mrs. Lenz, who continue to be the guardians of this fund. Every donation is valued and is a seed for future support of the cultus where it is needed.
Being ‘Baptised by the Spirit of Christ'
a talk given by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger on 30th June, a very imperfect report by John-Peter Gernaat
This theme has everything to do with the evolution of humanity and self-identification. Reingard presented a picture of the origins of humanity when we became a duality: a part densified to form the physical body and carried memory through the bloodline and a part that remained connected with the spiritual world as the soul and our consciousness. We awaken – become conscious – through our errors. Not all of us is awake. Our physical body is asleep – we have no consciousness of the processes that happen in our body. Our thinking is conscious but not yet in our control. And there is a part of us that is still asleep and in the spiritual world.
Initially, the sense of self could be experienced only through the blood – our pure blood ancestry. We are one but manifest as manifold. “Let us make Man in Our image” was a picture carried by the spiritual world. Our Guardian Angel knows the bigger picture and guides us. We have made our body our own and therefore can return to it every morning after sleep. We developed the physical body until it was perfect – in the time of ancient Greece. Then we developed beyond our peak and manifested the illnesses that Christ healed. Christ’s coming was beyond the peak. The soul development, in reaching down into the physical, had reached so low that it could no longer ascend into the spiritual and the I-core was at risk of identifying too strongly with the physical. At this point the baptism in the Jordan occurred. It is a picture of the womb of heaven opening and core of the source of being is birthed into the human body. The original impulse enters into humanity.
It takes time for this in-birthing of the I am into our souls. The I am – the holy name that no one can speak except for themselves – was once outside of us, but through the Christ impulse has entered into us. Our task has been to in-birth this spiritual impulse more deeply with every incarnation and we can see it inscribed into the very substance of our body as we age. Now, 2000 years later, the impulse in seeded into every human being and with it we enter the Age of Freedom. The I am recognises that it is more than the physical being we are. The “I” separates us from each other. When we learn “I, but not I” we create a space for a greater I and through that learn to connect in community again, from within our I. This is our current journey and will not happen naturally, it will happen only when we connect with the impulse that incarnated at the Jordan.
When we draw the three crosses in the Act of Consecration of Man, we initiate the birthing into the thinking, feeling and willing. We connect beyond our own ego with the power that seeded the initial impulse. “I am the I am” is this source power. What is the content of this source power? It is the I am of every single I am. When we receive the blessing from the altar we immerse ourselves in this. (Immersion is baptism.) We are now creating a new bloodline but from the altar. It is the spiritual carrier of the I am and carries the risk of freedom.
This theme has everything to do with the evolution of humanity and self-identification. Reingard presented a picture of the origins of humanity when we became a duality: a part densified to form the physical body and carried memory through the bloodline and a part that remained connected with the spiritual world as the soul and our consciousness. We awaken – become conscious – through our errors. Not all of us is awake. Our physical body is asleep – we have no consciousness of the processes that happen in our body. Our thinking is conscious but not yet in our control. And there is a part of us that is still asleep and in the spiritual world.
Initially, the sense of self could be experienced only through the blood – our pure blood ancestry. We are one but manifest as manifold. “Let us make Man in Our image” was a picture carried by the spiritual world. Our Guardian Angel knows the bigger picture and guides us. We have made our body our own and therefore can return to it every morning after sleep. We developed the physical body until it was perfect – in the time of ancient Greece. Then we developed beyond our peak and manifested the illnesses that Christ healed. Christ’s coming was beyond the peak. The soul development, in reaching down into the physical, had reached so low that it could no longer ascend into the spiritual and the I-core was at risk of identifying too strongly with the physical. At this point the baptism in the Jordan occurred. It is a picture of the womb of heaven opening and core of the source of being is birthed into the human body. The original impulse enters into humanity.
It takes time for this in-birthing of the I am into our souls. The I am – the holy name that no one can speak except for themselves – was once outside of us, but through the Christ impulse has entered into us. Our task has been to in-birth this spiritual impulse more deeply with every incarnation and we can see it inscribed into the very substance of our body as we age. Now, 2000 years later, the impulse in seeded into every human being and with it we enter the Age of Freedom. The I am recognises that it is more than the physical being we are. The “I” separates us from each other. When we learn “I, but not I” we create a space for a greater I and through that learn to connect in community again, from within our I. This is our current journey and will not happen naturally, it will happen only when we connect with the impulse that incarnated at the Jordan.
When we draw the three crosses in the Act of Consecration of Man, we initiate the birthing into the thinking, feeling and willing. We connect beyond our own ego with the power that seeded the initial impulse. “I am the I am” is this source power. What is the content of this source power? It is the I am of every single I am. When we receive the blessing from the altar we immerse ourselves in this. (Immersion is baptism.) We are now creating a new bloodline but from the altar. It is the spiritual carrier of the I am and carries the risk of freedom.
In conversation with Rev. Vicke von Behr, Erzoberlenker
by John-Peter Gernaat
Vicke was asked whether, in the light of the webinar series on the Holy Spirit presented by the North American Seminary, The Christian Community would be embracing technology more widely to share its message. He presented a picture given by a biodynamic farmer. The farmer had become aware that the use of large machinery – the only way to farm economically – was creating unhappiness among the elemental beings. His concern was what would fill the vacancy should the elemental beings leave the land. It dawned on him that he should try to harness Ahriman in the way farmers of old harnessed their horses. On doing so he felt a very different relationship to the harvesting he was undertaking using a huge harvester.
We cannot shy away from technology, but it is up to us whether we harness the technology or are harnessed by the technology. In Revelation we read about the beast that rises from the abyss, whose name is a number, and rules the world placing his mark on the forehead and hands of people. The forehead is human thinking and the hands are human willing. Technology aims to subdue human thinking and willing to itself. Nothing reflects this more clearly than the ability to have words typed into a machine – computer or mobile device – appear on another machine instantaneously, or the proliferation of images on various social media platforms that become all absorbing and control our emotions and our thinking. Vicke told several stories of technology that was the medium to individuals finding their destiny in relation to their soul searching. It is the responsibility of the individual to harness technology in a way that allows the angelic worlds to recognise that it too is a useful conduit for the working of human destiny. When this is possible, The Christian Community can make greater use of the platforms offered by technology to connect with individuals through their “I am” without the risk of the message being subverted into making them less conscious.
Vicke was asked whether, in the light of the webinar series on the Holy Spirit presented by the North American Seminary, The Christian Community would be embracing technology more widely to share its message. He presented a picture given by a biodynamic farmer. The farmer had become aware that the use of large machinery – the only way to farm economically – was creating unhappiness among the elemental beings. His concern was what would fill the vacancy should the elemental beings leave the land. It dawned on him that he should try to harness Ahriman in the way farmers of old harnessed their horses. On doing so he felt a very different relationship to the harvesting he was undertaking using a huge harvester.
We cannot shy away from technology, but it is up to us whether we harness the technology or are harnessed by the technology. In Revelation we read about the beast that rises from the abyss, whose name is a number, and rules the world placing his mark on the forehead and hands of people. The forehead is human thinking and the hands are human willing. Technology aims to subdue human thinking and willing to itself. Nothing reflects this more clearly than the ability to have words typed into a machine – computer or mobile device – appear on another machine instantaneously, or the proliferation of images on various social media platforms that become all absorbing and control our emotions and our thinking. Vicke told several stories of technology that was the medium to individuals finding their destiny in relation to their soul searching. It is the responsibility of the individual to harness technology in a way that allows the angelic worlds to recognise that it too is a useful conduit for the working of human destiny. When this is possible, The Christian Community can make greater use of the platforms offered by technology to connect with individuals through their “I am” without the risk of the message being subverted into making them less conscious.
The Tuesday evening Gospel Study
by Karin von Schilling
I am aware that you know about the weekly Gospel Study every Tuesday evening at the church.
I ask the question whether you think that working towards a deeper understanding of the Gospels is part of the essential task of The Christian Community? I think that it is a vitally important part of the Movement for Religious Renewal. This essential work is carried out by some member on behalf of the whole congregation.
The Gospel Study has been led for many years mostly by one of the priests. Some of you will remember this and will say: “Oh, yes Peter van Breda or Neville Adams told us about …”. Aaron Mirkin and Reingard have also led this work for a while, because it is that important. For those participating, it is a wellspring for a new understanding of the different gospels.
The gospels are a message from Christ, and they speak His words and tell us about His Three Years on earth.
The gospel study is essentially an activity by the members of the congregation; something they can contribute through their own efforts in the sphere of the spiritual life. In this way they are giving, not receiving.
When I look back over the years, since I offered to continue to lead the work, many individuals have, for a time, been actively a part of it, which is lovely.
Let me share with you the work we have covered.
To start with, we decided to study the Sunday Reading in the week that it would be read from the altar. It gave an opportunity to bring some understanding towards the readings and prepare a kind of resonance for hearing them better.
We did this for 3 years.
Then we decided to read the letters of St. Paul. We looked at his life and journeys and learned about the different qualities of the receiving congregations. Really most inspiring. In fact, we worked through all the letters including those of Peter and John.
We did this for 1 year.
After this we read the gospel of St. John and learned a great deal. Our aim was to learn to listen more and more to what each one had to bring, and so to create a vessel for the content to live between us.
We did this for 2 years.
Then we turned to the gospel of St. Mark. The strong gospel, which, as Rudolf Steiner tells us, is the gospel for our time.
We did this for 1 year.
Thereafter, we imbued ourselves in the gospel of St. Luke. This gospel is full of love and compassion, the gospel of the ‘Jesus of the Gospel of Luke’ ... how enriched we were.
We did this for 2 years.
Then it was time to turn our understanding to the fourth gospel: the gospel of St. Mathew. What a different quality we encountered there! The historic background of the Jewish world and its people and also its specific esoteric spirituality.
Comparing certain descriptions of events, and also teachings, in their very different tone, as they were formulated by the different gospel writers. By now, we had gained quite an overview of the three years of the life of Christ Jesus, and were also able to locate them in the holy land.
We did this for a year and a half.
This year we decided to return to the letters of St. Paul, to be inspired anew. Different members of the group undertook to look at the same letter and to share what had spoken to them most strongly. It was amazing how differently the letters had spoken to each of us and what this contributed when it was all brought together. This work was for us also of particular significance in relationship to our own endeavours concerning community building in our own congregation. St. Paul reveals the way, from sublime to practical advice, of how to interact with each other.
The work had unfortunately been interrupted quite a bit lately by my absences due to ill health, but the group worked on bravely and for this, I am most grateful.
Apart from the ongoing study of the gospels, we always gave time to think about the different festivals and as far as possible include the Epistles that are read in the Act of Consecration of Man.
It was of great value to us that Malcolm Allsop joined us for the four years that he was in Johannesburg.
Visiting priests always made it point to come and join the group at least once and sometimes for longer periods.
At times we have taken on specific tasks in which we would bring a particular contribution to the congregation, such as the study of the booklet by Dr. Frieling about the Eucharist and the particular way it is revealed in the Act of Consecration of Man in The Christian Community.
I think it is now 11 years that I have carried this work in the life of the congregation, every Tuesday evening, interrupted only by talks, studies or workshops during festivals and by the annual winter break thereby contributing an element of continuity throughout the years. My gratitude goes to everyone who has for a shorter or longer time carried this work together with me. However, I thank especially the small core of friends, who have been a part of it for these 11 years. It was, at all times, the gospel study of the Church of Lazarus, our congregation.
I am aware that you know about the weekly Gospel Study every Tuesday evening at the church.
I ask the question whether you think that working towards a deeper understanding of the Gospels is part of the essential task of The Christian Community? I think that it is a vitally important part of the Movement for Religious Renewal. This essential work is carried out by some member on behalf of the whole congregation.
The Gospel Study has been led for many years mostly by one of the priests. Some of you will remember this and will say: “Oh, yes Peter van Breda or Neville Adams told us about …”. Aaron Mirkin and Reingard have also led this work for a while, because it is that important. For those participating, it is a wellspring for a new understanding of the different gospels.
The gospels are a message from Christ, and they speak His words and tell us about His Three Years on earth.
The gospel study is essentially an activity by the members of the congregation; something they can contribute through their own efforts in the sphere of the spiritual life. In this way they are giving, not receiving.
When I look back over the years, since I offered to continue to lead the work, many individuals have, for a time, been actively a part of it, which is lovely.
Let me share with you the work we have covered.
To start with, we decided to study the Sunday Reading in the week that it would be read from the altar. It gave an opportunity to bring some understanding towards the readings and prepare a kind of resonance for hearing them better.
We did this for 3 years.
Then we decided to read the letters of St. Paul. We looked at his life and journeys and learned about the different qualities of the receiving congregations. Really most inspiring. In fact, we worked through all the letters including those of Peter and John.
We did this for 1 year.
After this we read the gospel of St. John and learned a great deal. Our aim was to learn to listen more and more to what each one had to bring, and so to create a vessel for the content to live between us.
We did this for 2 years.
Then we turned to the gospel of St. Mark. The strong gospel, which, as Rudolf Steiner tells us, is the gospel for our time.
We did this for 1 year.
Thereafter, we imbued ourselves in the gospel of St. Luke. This gospel is full of love and compassion, the gospel of the ‘Jesus of the Gospel of Luke’ ... how enriched we were.
We did this for 2 years.
Then it was time to turn our understanding to the fourth gospel: the gospel of St. Mathew. What a different quality we encountered there! The historic background of the Jewish world and its people and also its specific esoteric spirituality.
Comparing certain descriptions of events, and also teachings, in their very different tone, as they were formulated by the different gospel writers. By now, we had gained quite an overview of the three years of the life of Christ Jesus, and were also able to locate them in the holy land.
We did this for a year and a half.
This year we decided to return to the letters of St. Paul, to be inspired anew. Different members of the group undertook to look at the same letter and to share what had spoken to them most strongly. It was amazing how differently the letters had spoken to each of us and what this contributed when it was all brought together. This work was for us also of particular significance in relationship to our own endeavours concerning community building in our own congregation. St. Paul reveals the way, from sublime to practical advice, of how to interact with each other.
The work had unfortunately been interrupted quite a bit lately by my absences due to ill health, but the group worked on bravely and for this, I am most grateful.
Apart from the ongoing study of the gospels, we always gave time to think about the different festivals and as far as possible include the Epistles that are read in the Act of Consecration of Man.
It was of great value to us that Malcolm Allsop joined us for the four years that he was in Johannesburg.
Visiting priests always made it point to come and join the group at least once and sometimes for longer periods.
At times we have taken on specific tasks in which we would bring a particular contribution to the congregation, such as the study of the booklet by Dr. Frieling about the Eucharist and the particular way it is revealed in the Act of Consecration of Man in The Christian Community.
I think it is now 11 years that I have carried this work in the life of the congregation, every Tuesday evening, interrupted only by talks, studies or workshops during festivals and by the annual winter break thereby contributing an element of continuity throughout the years. My gratitude goes to everyone who has for a shorter or longer time carried this work together with me. However, I thank especially the small core of friends, who have been a part of it for these 11 years. It was, at all times, the gospel study of the Church of Lazarus, our congregation.
Visit to Waaipoort Biodynamic Farm, near Rosendal, Free State
by Javier Kirigin
During the weekend of 12th-14th July three members of the Kirigin family: Lola, Alexi and Javier decided to visit the Waaipoort farm to get away from technology and the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg; to try to ground ourselves and to get our probiotics supply. Waaipoort is a biodynamic farm managed and operated by Thomas Linders and Michèle Schiess. It is really a special place located in a beautiful corner of the Free State where flat-top mountains lie on the horizon. We normally get our probiotics from Michèle when she visits The Christian Community for the Africa Seminary. This time we decided to go down to the Free State to Rosendal which is a four-hour journey from Joburg, and we stayed at Gaffie se Huis Guest House for 2 nights. From the quaint artist town of Rosendal we travelled 8km to Waaipoort farm. The map below shows the exact location of the farm, it took about 40 minutes to do the trip from Rosendal to Waaipoort having to negotiate 3 gates and some challenging patches of road, a truly eventful and enjoyable drive which of course Michèle has to do on her own when she travels to Joburg.
During the weekend of 12th-14th July three members of the Kirigin family: Lola, Alexi and Javier decided to visit the Waaipoort farm to get away from technology and the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg; to try to ground ourselves and to get our probiotics supply. Waaipoort is a biodynamic farm managed and operated by Thomas Linders and Michèle Schiess. It is really a special place located in a beautiful corner of the Free State where flat-top mountains lie on the horizon. We normally get our probiotics from Michèle when she visits The Christian Community for the Africa Seminary. This time we decided to go down to the Free State to Rosendal which is a four-hour journey from Joburg, and we stayed at Gaffie se Huis Guest House for 2 nights. From the quaint artist town of Rosendal we travelled 8km to Waaipoort farm. The map below shows the exact location of the farm, it took about 40 minutes to do the trip from Rosendal to Waaipoort having to negotiate 3 gates and some challenging patches of road, a truly eventful and enjoyable drive which of course Michèle has to do on her own when she travels to Joburg.
The farm has many nut and fruit trees. Thomas and Michèle bring in seeds from England that they grow in their nursery together with support trees which fix nitrogen in the soil. They also grow a sugar substitute, the yacón tuber from Peru. In an operational octagon greenhouse, where seedlings are started, they also make effective micro-organism bokashi bran for their animals to eat and inoculate the land. In the nursery, they make biodynamic compost. There is a second octagon structure under construction which will also serve as a greenhouse in which to grow cold-sensitive plants.
An octagon greenhouse
A yacón tuber sugar substitute
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Cultivated lands
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Thomas is using a very efficient transplant method where a plastic cylinder serves as a hub, the taproot develops strongly, and the tree is easily transplanted to its new abode in the soil.
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There are also a few buildings constructed of sandbags for walls with horse and chicken manure and a small amount of cement used as binding agents. The buildings, one of which was undergoing re-plastering with the manure composite, are of the rondavel type, will be used as accommodation and will be cool in summer and comfortable in winter. The cost of one of these units is approximately R15,000.
Sandbag construction
Plastering the walls
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Constructing the dome of the rondavel
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There is also a small herd of seventeen cattle led by the matriarch Ruby who is a very smart leader, three horses, many chickens and a rooster, two dogs, one of which has lost an eye and the other has had a toe amputated. There are also two cats, one of which is called Paprika
Nguni herd
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A homely meal
A 5000 cubic metre manmade dam lies not far from the cosy farmhouse and is fed by run-off rainwater from a mountain. The homestead uses spring-water, also from the mountain.
Another aspect of the farm is the biodynamic training, where instruction was given to approximately thirty local farmers, of whom, unfortunately, only one or two are continuing.
The trip was eventful and informative, getting to know the practical working of a biodynamic farm and the amazing work that Thomas and Michèle are conducting for the community of the region. Hopefully the support of government, but especially, economic support from corporate social investment, will work out favourably so that this biodynamic farm can become effective and productive as a training centre.
Another aspect of the farm is the biodynamic training, where instruction was given to approximately thirty local farmers, of whom, unfortunately, only one or two are continuing.
The trip was eventful and informative, getting to know the practical working of a biodynamic farm and the amazing work that Thomas and Michèle are conducting for the community of the region. Hopefully the support of government, but especially, economic support from corporate social investment, will work out favourably so that this biodynamic farm can become effective and productive as a training centre.
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"The Mystery of the Holy Spirit." A three-part webinar from the Seminary in North America
by Anne Gillham
When the notice arrived announcing a “First time” opportunity to hear a webinar from the Seminary in North America over 3 weeks in preparation for Whitsun, I was over the Moon! What a blessing! And I enrolled as soon as I had established I could listen to it on my iPhone!
For those of us, a 10 hour drive from the nearest Christian Community, to have this opportunity to listen in, is a gift. Made even better when the Seminary extended the days the recording of the webinars was available, enabling me to listen to all three lectures more than once.
If only the lectures continued to be available. In August I will be visiting a friend and member of The Christian Community living in a retirement home and without transport to participate in any programmes. She does not have email. I know from conversations that she would have loved to hear these talks.
I would have loved to have been able to bring her this gift, listen together and share our thoughts.
I hope this is the beginning of many more webinars.
The take home message of the webinar for me can be summaries in these 2 lines:
“May he fill with Spirit all the ways of our Human soul” “Thinking, Feeling and Willing”.
Take the Holy Spirit into our will and walk out into the world with Actions and Deeds that are “Spirit filled, ignited with Love”.
When the notice arrived announcing a “First time” opportunity to hear a webinar from the Seminary in North America over 3 weeks in preparation for Whitsun, I was over the Moon! What a blessing! And I enrolled as soon as I had established I could listen to it on my iPhone!
For those of us, a 10 hour drive from the nearest Christian Community, to have this opportunity to listen in, is a gift. Made even better when the Seminary extended the days the recording of the webinars was available, enabling me to listen to all three lectures more than once.
If only the lectures continued to be available. In August I will be visiting a friend and member of The Christian Community living in a retirement home and without transport to participate in any programmes. She does not have email. I know from conversations that she would have loved to hear these talks.
I would have loved to have been able to bring her this gift, listen together and share our thoughts.
I hope this is the beginning of many more webinars.
The take home message of the webinar for me can be summaries in these 2 lines:
“May he fill with Spirit all the ways of our Human soul” “Thinking, Feeling and Willing”.
Take the Holy Spirit into our will and walk out into the world with Actions and Deeds that are “Spirit filled, ignited with Love”.
"Through Him can the Healing Spirit Work" - Whitsun Talk & Workshops led by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
by Robyn de Klerk
Mark 2:10
" 'But you shall see that the Son of Man has the creative power
to free Man from the burden of sin on the earth.' "
Before Golgotha the Sun was the place of reverence.
Everything around us is related to the sun.
Now: the meaning of our existence is on the earth itself -
The Human Being is part of a new journey...
Passiontide: investing, struggling, wrestling
Ascension: power to go beyond more and more
how we give meaning; burn through,
glow through the darkness
Whitsun: bring light and warmth into the soul
starts a whole new possibility...
this spark needs to be fuelled:
St John's: how we carry it forward -
We need announcements and preparation
so that when it happens we will recognise it.
How do we become part of the future?
How do we bring new life into these festivals?
What is Holy Spirit?
"Warmth", "Expansion", "Inspiration", "Breathing", "To receive an Aha!",
"Enthusiasm", "Lit Up", "Bright", "Alive"...
If you've understood something you believe.
It has to be in you first before you can give it.
A sense of having received it -
If you see someone who creates enthusiasm artificially it is not the same.
Ascension: a longing to find it again
If you are not seeking, if you have no question,
how are you going to notice when there is an answer?
A question a longing a wrestling (an active soul) - a wick for the flame.
It will always be different - with nothing you can refer it to:
Evoking no relation to any memory and yet it is somehow familiar:
There is an element of surprise - a gaining - an opening up
The most intimate experience of being known
Deeply Familiar & Completely New.
These openings / these shifts... Now I get it! (experience it)
One is the biggest number.
The being of Oneness goes before: the source is always whole.
We have to separate before we can unify.
Our thinking has become digital - tearing us apart
Christ is the renewing power.
Holy Spirit - the idea of what you want to manifest:
the organising structuring power, the understanding
Everything is penetrated with thought -
You have to take up an idea to work with it
The Prime Idea already existed at the source -
Through the separateness of evil I wake up:
we need a physical body & Earth in order to evolve.
- The relationship between This and That develops consciousness -
20th Century: "somehow I will be healed"
We still have grace but if we don't take charge it will slip away
To search for thoughts that make us feel more healed and whole
What I do today I will meet as a consequence in another life.
There are also spirits that are not supportive of the Human Being.
In facing life to ask 'What is the thought behind this?'
We have to keep making decisions:
There are unholy inhuman spirits and there are healing whole-making spirits.
Important to come in through the right Way.
It cannot be unconscious.
Doing so through drugs is the wrong way - the back door:
this has a debilitating effect.
I have to be participating:
A strengthening, healing, more whole experience
is characteristic of the Spirit.
What is the result of Golgotha?
The gift of overcoming death.
Before: the experience of matter was not healthy.
Ascension: He is the Lord of the heavenly forces upon earth,
the fulfiller of the Fatherly Idea and the Creative Power to fulfil it.
At night, in sleep, we are healed, restored, refreshed -
This comes from a place that we are not conscious of.
{When we come to earth we have our divine reservoir
that supplies the forces we need to grow and develop.
When we are young, up to the age of seven, it is important
that these forces are allowed to dedicate themselves
to the building up of our bodies for it is these same forces
that then transform into our ability to think.
If we introduce too much abstract thought too early
we affect the proper development of the Human Being
and by drawing too much at such an early stage, are left
with less to draw from later on in life.
This is also why when we are sick we need to sleep -
The forces that are usually available for thinking need to
dedicate themselves to healing that broken leg...
(Our thinking and our healing are one?!)}
'I AM' - Christ Power - The waking up
& ability to grasp yourself within yourself
to have vision...
I have to take charge of a power I have and invest it the way I choose
I am going to light my fire
Find ideas that inspire or warm my heart or create them
We have been given this power and the freedom to do with it what we want
This gift of 'I' & Earth = my free power...
It starts with what I think:
watch your energy:
the lowering of energy comes by itself
raising it up is a choice.
(short perks stimulated from outside never last).
Taking charge of what I think and what it does to me...
A flow of thought that makes me feel more whole
and empowered to be myself.
And then...
It needs to go back into the world:
Spirit: Light - Understanding
Warmth - Heart
>>> Will.
If it's all just for me it will implode.
It must open doors around me.
As spirit becomes understanding it dies.
It must be ignited again and again and influence the world.
The flame can go out - once I have the flame I have to ignite it again and again:
I make it whole, I make it Holy.
Again and again and again.
As we encounter the world we have to develop a flexibility
towards unforeseen circumstances - follow the idea as best you can:
we are creators, the process is dynamic:
through interaction with other elements the idea metamorphoses
In this space (and this space only) it can become something new.
Christ is in the clouds - He is in the between.
He is our guide into the next world.
Our life experiences are building our spiritual body.
My little problems that I have today are what I need right now to grow.
Then through Christ the Healing Spirit works.
What idea am I carrying of myself and my life?
How does the Healing Spirit work through the Christ?
[And not through the Father (as in sleep)]
It now works in waking life.
Through this process Spirit becomes individualised.
Whether I make something holy or not is now up to me.
We have to become active inwardly to find out.
What is mine? We learn through experience.
Egoism is bringing you into a sense of self (and learning self-care)
I need to be somebody before I can do something for somebody else.
Ideally this is accomplished during the teenage years - learning to become an "I"
- you have to fight for your place and ideas and position of self
what do I think? how do I feel? what is my style?
We need community to do this: to live together instead of next to each other.
Learning how to deal with tension while honouring both yourself and the other
The Problem is what's interesting:
Pro: - before / in front + baloma: repair / what is out there in front of me
You see something that is not right - The Healing comes from asking:
What am I doing with this problem? What am I growing with it?
* John 5: What has closed you off?
Do I want to heal? What is the actual question? What is the actual need?
Take responsibility for yourself: Activate your own power.
He knew what health was. He knew what he wanted. I am whole from the inside out.
(Individual Healing)
* Mark 2: Community opens up
We are not in charge of our life circumstances
The faith of a group can open up the possibility of healing for others and the world
What comes from above is now on earth. We have to be open for it.
(Healing through harmony of thought in others)
When we encounter someone who is unwell we can look for the
individual within the situation and ask Who are you? Where is your potential?
Looking for what they are rather than what they are not.
As a community we can light a fire together:
dissent among us spreads the embers and the fire dies out
but through harmony and consensus we can fuel the flames...
Mark 2:10
" 'But you shall see that the Son of Man has the creative power
to free Man from the burden of sin on the earth.' "
Before Golgotha the Sun was the place of reverence.
Everything around us is related to the sun.
Now: the meaning of our existence is on the earth itself -
The Human Being is part of a new journey...
Passiontide: investing, struggling, wrestling
Ascension: power to go beyond more and more
how we give meaning; burn through,
glow through the darkness
Whitsun: bring light and warmth into the soul
starts a whole new possibility...
this spark needs to be fuelled:
St John's: how we carry it forward -
We need announcements and preparation
so that when it happens we will recognise it.
How do we become part of the future?
How do we bring new life into these festivals?
What is Holy Spirit?
"Warmth", "Expansion", "Inspiration", "Breathing", "To receive an Aha!",
"Enthusiasm", "Lit Up", "Bright", "Alive"...
If you've understood something you believe.
It has to be in you first before you can give it.
A sense of having received it -
If you see someone who creates enthusiasm artificially it is not the same.
Ascension: a longing to find it again
If you are not seeking, if you have no question,
how are you going to notice when there is an answer?
A question a longing a wrestling (an active soul) - a wick for the flame.
It will always be different - with nothing you can refer it to:
Evoking no relation to any memory and yet it is somehow familiar:
There is an element of surprise - a gaining - an opening up
The most intimate experience of being known
Deeply Familiar & Completely New.
These openings / these shifts... Now I get it! (experience it)
One is the biggest number.
The being of Oneness goes before: the source is always whole.
We have to separate before we can unify.
Our thinking has become digital - tearing us apart
Christ is the renewing power.
Holy Spirit - the idea of what you want to manifest:
the organising structuring power, the understanding
Everything is penetrated with thought -
You have to take up an idea to work with it
The Prime Idea already existed at the source -
Through the separateness of evil I wake up:
we need a physical body & Earth in order to evolve.
- The relationship between This and That develops consciousness -
20th Century: "somehow I will be healed"
We still have grace but if we don't take charge it will slip away
To search for thoughts that make us feel more healed and whole
What I do today I will meet as a consequence in another life.
There are also spirits that are not supportive of the Human Being.
In facing life to ask 'What is the thought behind this?'
We have to keep making decisions:
There are unholy inhuman spirits and there are healing whole-making spirits.
Important to come in through the right Way.
It cannot be unconscious.
Doing so through drugs is the wrong way - the back door:
this has a debilitating effect.
I have to be participating:
A strengthening, healing, more whole experience
is characteristic of the Spirit.
What is the result of Golgotha?
The gift of overcoming death.
Before: the experience of matter was not healthy.
Ascension: He is the Lord of the heavenly forces upon earth,
the fulfiller of the Fatherly Idea and the Creative Power to fulfil it.
At night, in sleep, we are healed, restored, refreshed -
This comes from a place that we are not conscious of.
{When we come to earth we have our divine reservoir
that supplies the forces we need to grow and develop.
When we are young, up to the age of seven, it is important
that these forces are allowed to dedicate themselves
to the building up of our bodies for it is these same forces
that then transform into our ability to think.
If we introduce too much abstract thought too early
we affect the proper development of the Human Being
and by drawing too much at such an early stage, are left
with less to draw from later on in life.
This is also why when we are sick we need to sleep -
The forces that are usually available for thinking need to
dedicate themselves to healing that broken leg...
(Our thinking and our healing are one?!)}
'I AM' - Christ Power - The waking up
& ability to grasp yourself within yourself
to have vision...
I have to take charge of a power I have and invest it the way I choose
I am going to light my fire
Find ideas that inspire or warm my heart or create them
We have been given this power and the freedom to do with it what we want
This gift of 'I' & Earth = my free power...
It starts with what I think:
watch your energy:
the lowering of energy comes by itself
raising it up is a choice.
(short perks stimulated from outside never last).
Taking charge of what I think and what it does to me...
A flow of thought that makes me feel more whole
and empowered to be myself.
And then...
It needs to go back into the world:
Spirit: Light - Understanding
Warmth - Heart
>>> Will.
If it's all just for me it will implode.
It must open doors around me.
As spirit becomes understanding it dies.
It must be ignited again and again and influence the world.
The flame can go out - once I have the flame I have to ignite it again and again:
I make it whole, I make it Holy.
Again and again and again.
As we encounter the world we have to develop a flexibility
towards unforeseen circumstances - follow the idea as best you can:
we are creators, the process is dynamic:
through interaction with other elements the idea metamorphoses
In this space (and this space only) it can become something new.
Christ is in the clouds - He is in the between.
He is our guide into the next world.
Our life experiences are building our spiritual body.
My little problems that I have today are what I need right now to grow.
Then through Christ the Healing Spirit works.
What idea am I carrying of myself and my life?
How does the Healing Spirit work through the Christ?
[And not through the Father (as in sleep)]
It now works in waking life.
Through this process Spirit becomes individualised.
Whether I make something holy or not is now up to me.
We have to become active inwardly to find out.
What is mine? We learn through experience.
Egoism is bringing you into a sense of self (and learning self-care)
I need to be somebody before I can do something for somebody else.
Ideally this is accomplished during the teenage years - learning to become an "I"
- you have to fight for your place and ideas and position of self
what do I think? how do I feel? what is my style?
We need community to do this: to live together instead of next to each other.
Learning how to deal with tension while honouring both yourself and the other
The Problem is what's interesting:
Pro: - before / in front + baloma: repair / what is out there in front of me
You see something that is not right - The Healing comes from asking:
What am I doing with this problem? What am I growing with it?
* John 5: What has closed you off?
Do I want to heal? What is the actual question? What is the actual need?
Take responsibility for yourself: Activate your own power.
He knew what health was. He knew what he wanted. I am whole from the inside out.
(Individual Healing)
* Mark 2: Community opens up
We are not in charge of our life circumstances
The faith of a group can open up the possibility of healing for others and the world
What comes from above is now on earth. We have to be open for it.
(Healing through harmony of thought in others)
When we encounter someone who is unwell we can look for the
individual within the situation and ask Who are you? Where is your potential?
Looking for what they are rather than what they are not.
As a community we can light a fire together:
dissent among us spreads the embers and the fire dies out
but through harmony and consensus we can fuel the flames...
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by John-Peter Gernaat
The Rev. Michael Kientzler gave several talks while he was in Johannesburg in April and May. The subject matter of his talks is central to our future evolution as beings who are an “experiment” by the Father-God to create a being created in the image of God in every aspect and who is free. First, he provided a deeper understanding of the complexity of the concept of the “Father God”; he explained how creation was inspired and came about; and how we can relate to God in our innermost being. Then he described in detail how we are constituted and how we are “the image of God”. In our physical body we are already fully the image of God – the physical body is not to be confused with the material body, which is the manifestation of the physical body during one lifetime on earth. The physical body stands upright between the earth and the heavenly worlds. He went into some detail to fully understand what this means. He explained where the deficits in our soul exist to the image of a being that “stands” between the physical world and the spiritual world. He went into detail in understanding our ego and the birth of our “I. He also introduced higher parts of ourselves: the Higher Self which is still approaching us from the periphery and is aiding in our development in the forms of the tribulations and challenges we experience in life (beside the challenges we bring as a result of karma); and an element still above the Higher Self that we are yet to connect with which knows our true needs. In our current state of the consciousness soul we know what the right thing to do is, but we struggle to do the right thing. The Higher Self needs the ego to exist in our physical being but the ego needs to be brought under our control to bear the Higher Self. The Higher Self is the state towards which we are developing. It has the opposite aspect of the ego and is outward radiating, overcoming separation and an expression of love.
Secondly, Michael spoke of the Divine Plan. The development of the human being as a being that is free and will in the future be a being of love is only possible through The Fall. The knowledge of good and evil was a gift from the gods, but the consequence was death. To redeem death Christ came. For this Jesus had to be truly representative of all of humanity. Michael explained how this was possible in Palestine as part of the Divine Plan by going into detail of the position Palestine holds in the evolution of the physical earth and the representivity of all cultures of humanity that intersected there. Michael further explained how the being of Jesus represented both the complete innocence of humanity and the greatest wisdom of humanity in one individual. This individual was also unique in the way he was not fixed in his relationship to the Spiritual World but could act in each moment in accordance with the Divine Will. This human constitution could only hold together for three years.
Michael explained the necessity for the Resurrection of Christ for our evolution: the evolution of our physical body in the overcoming of death. He provided insight into the journey of the physical body and the being of Christ after the death on the cross and how this prepares for our future evolving. He gave us a way of understanding the Resurrection Body of the Christ and the Ascension. He described why religious striving is necessary for human beings for the full reality of the Resurrection and the Redemption to be revealed. It requires our involvement in order to fulfil the ideal of becoming free beings. He explained how this stands at the heart of Christianity and the goal of our sacraments.
In order to understand the challenges we face in our time on the path of evolution that Michael described, he presented a talk on the working of the Adversaries in our time and how we can respond in a positive way. Rudolf Steiner said that before we are able to meet the Christ in the Second Coming, we will have to encounter Evil. Therefore, an ongoing confrontation with Evil is the signature of the 20th Century and into our present time. Michael provided deep insight into this mystery in the form of two of the adversaries with which we are very familiar, Lucifer and Ahriman. Through Lucifer we have the gift of self-awareness, but when we become absorbed into our selves – Lucifer lives in us – we are selfish and egotistical, and this gift becomes “evil” in the world. Ahriman works in material matter; this means his task lies in helping us cross the threshold between the spiritual world and material world: birth and death. When the material becomes a veil that hides the truth and spreads untruths then we experience him as an evil in the world. Michael explained two forms of evil that are very new. Blood bonds that run in families and clans aided our evolution, but from the time that the Archangel Michael became the Time Spirit (about 1879) our evolutionary task has become the forming of communities outside of blood bonds. Where blood bonds remain strong, we see evil enter the world. We see this in the form of crime families that is rife in countries like Columbia. It is not fully appreciated how this evil comes into the world. This also lies behind nepotism and corruption. An even more recent evil lies in technology that, firstly, as an electromagnetic wave threatens our physical wellbeing; secondly, threatens to isolate us from each other through our addiction to it and thirdly traps elemental beings who connect themselves with these items of the material world.
Another recent evil is more absolute and insidious and seeks to destroy the physical body. This is a Shadow or Double of the “I”. We saw it at work in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s as the Shadow of the German culture. This overt evil has now become pervasive in our culture. Propaganda has made this evil acceptable and “good”. Pre-natal infanticide is acceptable in the philosophy of women gaining control over their bodies: abortion is a free choice and is, for example, recommended for a foetus with Down Syndrome. Euthanasia is being legalized in some European countries. But the web of accepting untruth as truth runs much deeper. Children are being deprived of healthy stimuli because of the risk associated with these stimuli. Children are prevented from climbing trees, bonfires may not be lit in kindergarten schools, children may not be physically touched, all in the name of protecting them. The story that surrounds the Cradle of Humankind is not founded in truth and presents humanity with a false picture of our evolution. The ability to discern good from evil is being undermined and some young people are unable to see the difference: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is being veiled and is becoming lost in our time.
In response to the evil in our time we can sharpen our discernment for good and evil through a spiritual study of the Gospels and through a study of Spiritual Science. We can bring about a balance in ourselves between Lucifer and Ahriman. The untruths of Ahriman can be countered by common sense thinking. We can work at developing community with people who are completely unrelated by blood. We can recognise where religion has deviated to become obsesses with form rather than content or become trivialised and commercialised. Mathematics and geometry can give us a feel for truth, as can Spiritual Science or the Creed, to help us discern the web of lies that are being covered up through Conspiracy Theories. We can learn through Spiritual Science the role of different Folk Spirits in developing soul qualities that ultimately make up the whole human being. Thereby, we overcome the ideas that lead to national and racial conflict. We can deepen our interest in nature, participate in eurythmy and speech formation and we can cultivate an interest in Bio-dynamic methods that heal the earth. Sending our prayers into the smoke of the incense that rises at the altar can bring healing in the spiritual world. Ultimately, we can think things right, think the right thoughts even when it is not possible to act to change things.
It is difficult to encapsulate the subject matter in a short article, because behind every concept lies a vast knowledge and a penetrating explanation. There is a hope that Michael will write more extensively on this subject and that this will become available to us.
The Rev. Michael Kientzler gave several talks while he was in Johannesburg in April and May. The subject matter of his talks is central to our future evolution as beings who are an “experiment” by the Father-God to create a being created in the image of God in every aspect and who is free. First, he provided a deeper understanding of the complexity of the concept of the “Father God”; he explained how creation was inspired and came about; and how we can relate to God in our innermost being. Then he described in detail how we are constituted and how we are “the image of God”. In our physical body we are already fully the image of God – the physical body is not to be confused with the material body, which is the manifestation of the physical body during one lifetime on earth. The physical body stands upright between the earth and the heavenly worlds. He went into some detail to fully understand what this means. He explained where the deficits in our soul exist to the image of a being that “stands” between the physical world and the spiritual world. He went into detail in understanding our ego and the birth of our “I. He also introduced higher parts of ourselves: the Higher Self which is still approaching us from the periphery and is aiding in our development in the forms of the tribulations and challenges we experience in life (beside the challenges we bring as a result of karma); and an element still above the Higher Self that we are yet to connect with which knows our true needs. In our current state of the consciousness soul we know what the right thing to do is, but we struggle to do the right thing. The Higher Self needs the ego to exist in our physical being but the ego needs to be brought under our control to bear the Higher Self. The Higher Self is the state towards which we are developing. It has the opposite aspect of the ego and is outward radiating, overcoming separation and an expression of love.
Secondly, Michael spoke of the Divine Plan. The development of the human being as a being that is free and will in the future be a being of love is only possible through The Fall. The knowledge of good and evil was a gift from the gods, but the consequence was death. To redeem death Christ came. For this Jesus had to be truly representative of all of humanity. Michael explained how this was possible in Palestine as part of the Divine Plan by going into detail of the position Palestine holds in the evolution of the physical earth and the representivity of all cultures of humanity that intersected there. Michael further explained how the being of Jesus represented both the complete innocence of humanity and the greatest wisdom of humanity in one individual. This individual was also unique in the way he was not fixed in his relationship to the Spiritual World but could act in each moment in accordance with the Divine Will. This human constitution could only hold together for three years.
Michael explained the necessity for the Resurrection of Christ for our evolution: the evolution of our physical body in the overcoming of death. He provided insight into the journey of the physical body and the being of Christ after the death on the cross and how this prepares for our future evolving. He gave us a way of understanding the Resurrection Body of the Christ and the Ascension. He described why religious striving is necessary for human beings for the full reality of the Resurrection and the Redemption to be revealed. It requires our involvement in order to fulfil the ideal of becoming free beings. He explained how this stands at the heart of Christianity and the goal of our sacraments.
In order to understand the challenges we face in our time on the path of evolution that Michael described, he presented a talk on the working of the Adversaries in our time and how we can respond in a positive way. Rudolf Steiner said that before we are able to meet the Christ in the Second Coming, we will have to encounter Evil. Therefore, an ongoing confrontation with Evil is the signature of the 20th Century and into our present time. Michael provided deep insight into this mystery in the form of two of the adversaries with which we are very familiar, Lucifer and Ahriman. Through Lucifer we have the gift of self-awareness, but when we become absorbed into our selves – Lucifer lives in us – we are selfish and egotistical, and this gift becomes “evil” in the world. Ahriman works in material matter; this means his task lies in helping us cross the threshold between the spiritual world and material world: birth and death. When the material becomes a veil that hides the truth and spreads untruths then we experience him as an evil in the world. Michael explained two forms of evil that are very new. Blood bonds that run in families and clans aided our evolution, but from the time that the Archangel Michael became the Time Spirit (about 1879) our evolutionary task has become the forming of communities outside of blood bonds. Where blood bonds remain strong, we see evil enter the world. We see this in the form of crime families that is rife in countries like Columbia. It is not fully appreciated how this evil comes into the world. This also lies behind nepotism and corruption. An even more recent evil lies in technology that, firstly, as an electromagnetic wave threatens our physical wellbeing; secondly, threatens to isolate us from each other through our addiction to it and thirdly traps elemental beings who connect themselves with these items of the material world.
Another recent evil is more absolute and insidious and seeks to destroy the physical body. This is a Shadow or Double of the “I”. We saw it at work in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s as the Shadow of the German culture. This overt evil has now become pervasive in our culture. Propaganda has made this evil acceptable and “good”. Pre-natal infanticide is acceptable in the philosophy of women gaining control over their bodies: abortion is a free choice and is, for example, recommended for a foetus with Down Syndrome. Euthanasia is being legalized in some European countries. But the web of accepting untruth as truth runs much deeper. Children are being deprived of healthy stimuli because of the risk associated with these stimuli. Children are prevented from climbing trees, bonfires may not be lit in kindergarten schools, children may not be physically touched, all in the name of protecting them. The story that surrounds the Cradle of Humankind is not founded in truth and presents humanity with a false picture of our evolution. The ability to discern good from evil is being undermined and some young people are unable to see the difference: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is being veiled and is becoming lost in our time.
In response to the evil in our time we can sharpen our discernment for good and evil through a spiritual study of the Gospels and through a study of Spiritual Science. We can bring about a balance in ourselves between Lucifer and Ahriman. The untruths of Ahriman can be countered by common sense thinking. We can work at developing community with people who are completely unrelated by blood. We can recognise where religion has deviated to become obsesses with form rather than content or become trivialised and commercialised. Mathematics and geometry can give us a feel for truth, as can Spiritual Science or the Creed, to help us discern the web of lies that are being covered up through Conspiracy Theories. We can learn through Spiritual Science the role of different Folk Spirits in developing soul qualities that ultimately make up the whole human being. Thereby, we overcome the ideas that lead to national and racial conflict. We can deepen our interest in nature, participate in eurythmy and speech formation and we can cultivate an interest in Bio-dynamic methods that heal the earth. Sending our prayers into the smoke of the incense that rises at the altar can bring healing in the spiritual world. Ultimately, we can think things right, think the right thoughts even when it is not possible to act to change things.
It is difficult to encapsulate the subject matter in a short article, because behind every concept lies a vast knowledge and a penetrating explanation. There is a hope that Michael will write more extensively on this subject and that this will become available to us.
Since that Time He is the Lord of the Heavenly Forces Upon Earth - Ascension Study led by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
by Robyn de Klerk
On Ascension Day, after the Service, we gathered together to explore the reality of Heavenly Forces: what are they and how can we become aware of them in our lives?
The prerequisite of a combination of Patience and Interest formed the common thread weaving through our observations. Through gently and objectively paying attention to an area of life we may begin to see the patterns of a bigger logic - even if only as a faint apprehension at first.
We spoke about how interaction through prayer, especially in times of challenge and change is one of the ways in which we can experience the working of heavenly forces. When we do this we can be conscious of our situation within a larger whole - forming a portal through which we may both offer and receive. Our sense that we are seen and heard, held and responded to, even in the most dire of straits, points to the truth that we are never alone. This is a progressive journey which may very well begin at the point of feeling completely alone and helpless. Sometimes we believe in greater powers but don't yet know how or where to experience them, nevertheless we are aware of a "something bigger" which might still feel like it is "over there" even if we are "not there yet".
We discussed the work of scientists who through examining their chosen phenomena begin to approach and believe in the reality of the supersensible, even seeing the forms and functions in nature as proof of an invisible realm. By looking reverently at the physical world we can gain insight into the reality of the spiritual world. Every material thing which we observe, especially when we do so with wonder, leads us up towards a higher reality and an awareness of the forces at work. Interesting in this regard is the idea of latent potential. Our world contains many possibilities but at the same time relies on the particular forces in order to bring a thing to manifestation - the rainbow always exists but for it to exist here, now, certain conditions have to be fulfilled. A sense of wonder and loving interest is important for the bigger picture but also, and especially, for our own wellbeing. When we are aware of the truth of a thing we are more firmly rooted in reality and can respond to life with confidence. Again, it is a process of ongoing growth and discovery. What is, is - but how I engage with it can also change it.
One of our most important human tasks is to distinguish between the good and the evil forces. As individuals we have to learn to discern between the two and decide what we give agency to. It is the interesting moral adventureland that lies between "what I have" and "what I do with it" - our reason, our Why. Through gaining knowledge of the world we are increasingly better equipped to face our trials and to respond in harmony with the greater design - thus evolving and growing through our experience of action and consequence. In this way our own biographies also reveal to us how the cosmic powers work into earthly life and how they simultaneously create individual experiences representative of larger facts.
In the Ascension Service we hear how the Son is sent, how He confirms this sending and then fulfils his task through teaching, suffering, death and the overcoming of death. We are called upon to respond to our greater purpose through an act of free will. Once we take it upon ourselves to follow this path our awareness and strength can grow through consciously connecting to higher powers. In order to teach, for we are all teachers, suffer, face death and overcome it, we will need to develop our contact with and knowledge of the Heavenly Beings. One way to do this is through meditation - when we create a still, quiet, awake space, free from personal sympathies and antipathies, and patiently observe...
On Ascension Day, after the Service, we gathered together to explore the reality of Heavenly Forces: what are they and how can we become aware of them in our lives?
The prerequisite of a combination of Patience and Interest formed the common thread weaving through our observations. Through gently and objectively paying attention to an area of life we may begin to see the patterns of a bigger logic - even if only as a faint apprehension at first.
We spoke about how interaction through prayer, especially in times of challenge and change is one of the ways in which we can experience the working of heavenly forces. When we do this we can be conscious of our situation within a larger whole - forming a portal through which we may both offer and receive. Our sense that we are seen and heard, held and responded to, even in the most dire of straits, points to the truth that we are never alone. This is a progressive journey which may very well begin at the point of feeling completely alone and helpless. Sometimes we believe in greater powers but don't yet know how or where to experience them, nevertheless we are aware of a "something bigger" which might still feel like it is "over there" even if we are "not there yet".
We discussed the work of scientists who through examining their chosen phenomena begin to approach and believe in the reality of the supersensible, even seeing the forms and functions in nature as proof of an invisible realm. By looking reverently at the physical world we can gain insight into the reality of the spiritual world. Every material thing which we observe, especially when we do so with wonder, leads us up towards a higher reality and an awareness of the forces at work. Interesting in this regard is the idea of latent potential. Our world contains many possibilities but at the same time relies on the particular forces in order to bring a thing to manifestation - the rainbow always exists but for it to exist here, now, certain conditions have to be fulfilled. A sense of wonder and loving interest is important for the bigger picture but also, and especially, for our own wellbeing. When we are aware of the truth of a thing we are more firmly rooted in reality and can respond to life with confidence. Again, it is a process of ongoing growth and discovery. What is, is - but how I engage with it can also change it.
One of our most important human tasks is to distinguish between the good and the evil forces. As individuals we have to learn to discern between the two and decide what we give agency to. It is the interesting moral adventureland that lies between "what I have" and "what I do with it" - our reason, our Why. Through gaining knowledge of the world we are increasingly better equipped to face our trials and to respond in harmony with the greater design - thus evolving and growing through our experience of action and consequence. In this way our own biographies also reveal to us how the cosmic powers work into earthly life and how they simultaneously create individual experiences representative of larger facts.
In the Ascension Service we hear how the Son is sent, how He confirms this sending and then fulfils his task through teaching, suffering, death and the overcoming of death. We are called upon to respond to our greater purpose through an act of free will. Once we take it upon ourselves to follow this path our awareness and strength can grow through consciously connecting to higher powers. In order to teach, for we are all teachers, suffer, face death and overcome it, we will need to develop our contact with and knowledge of the Heavenly Beings. One way to do this is through meditation - when we create a still, quiet, awake space, free from personal sympathies and antipathies, and patiently observe...
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To wonder at beauty,
Stand guard over truth. Look up to the noble, Resolve on the good: This leads us truly To purpose in living, To right in our doing, To peace in our feeling, To light in our thinking. And teaches us trust, In the workings of God, In all that there is, In the width of the world, In the depth of the soul. |
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a review by Gillian Rosenberg of a talk by Rev. Michael Kientzler
Michael Kientzler spoke to us on Sunday, 7th April, just after he had arrived, on ‘Objective Suffering – Objective Joy”. I so enjoyed the experience of warmth that arose in me, as the familiar, almost forgotten, voice and presence of Michael arose in our circle in the church. Michael began with a historical resume and perspective.
What is the real Easter, amid the different calendars, rhythms and peoples? In contrast to this review of knowledge from different perspectives (the objective, the given), is the image experienced by Lilo Kolisko who had an inner seeing experience of Easter (from out of oneself).
All that is given comes through the Father God and is represented by the moon forces. In contrast, our inner forces "What has that to do with me?" is the Sun force, i.e. what am I going to make of what is given – that which is passively received: heredity, nation, culture, etc. What is my own activity going to bring forth?
The huge rock in the Isenheim altar picture of the resurrection, is representative of the past on which we stand and/or move away from. It also reminded me of the being turned to salt, in looking back, as imaginatively portrayed in ancient myths (Lot’s wife).
Healing - becoming whole - has a prerequisite of knowing one is ill, on the one hand, and wanting to be healed, on the other. Once again, there arises the aspect of my forces and active self: "What am I going to do with it!?" (My associations went to Dr. Mees's book Blessed with Illness, chapter 1 of which is known as the ‘Blue Book’ that Rudolf Steiner wrote on his death bed.)
The Passiontide epistle speaks clearly about the human condition we find ourselves in:
"Empty is the place of your heart,
You have lost the spirit that awakens you"
This is the diagnosis of Christ through Raphael of the general illness we all suffer from, in different degrees. The sickness of Sin is part of our constitution, and we all have to deal with it. My “I” lies lamenting on the ground... Christ goes continuously through his passion, again and again, in us, through what we/I am doing and not doing.
During passiontide, we are faced with the question: can I see and bear his suffering objectively, not just personally? I wonder if this is what many may have experienced laying for a long time in front of Grunewald’s portrayal of Christ’s /Jesus’ crucified body...
And then, can I develop the possibility of, objectively. going through the uplifting of soul and spirit from Easter Sunday until Ascension?
Michael Kientzler spoke to us on Sunday, 7th April, just after he had arrived, on ‘Objective Suffering – Objective Joy”. I so enjoyed the experience of warmth that arose in me, as the familiar, almost forgotten, voice and presence of Michael arose in our circle in the church. Michael began with a historical resume and perspective.
What is the real Easter, amid the different calendars, rhythms and peoples? In contrast to this review of knowledge from different perspectives (the objective, the given), is the image experienced by Lilo Kolisko who had an inner seeing experience of Easter (from out of oneself).
All that is given comes through the Father God and is represented by the moon forces. In contrast, our inner forces "What has that to do with me?" is the Sun force, i.e. what am I going to make of what is given – that which is passively received: heredity, nation, culture, etc. What is my own activity going to bring forth?
The huge rock in the Isenheim altar picture of the resurrection, is representative of the past on which we stand and/or move away from. It also reminded me of the being turned to salt, in looking back, as imaginatively portrayed in ancient myths (Lot’s wife).
Healing - becoming whole - has a prerequisite of knowing one is ill, on the one hand, and wanting to be healed, on the other. Once again, there arises the aspect of my forces and active self: "What am I going to do with it!?" (My associations went to Dr. Mees's book Blessed with Illness, chapter 1 of which is known as the ‘Blue Book’ that Rudolf Steiner wrote on his death bed.)
The Passiontide epistle speaks clearly about the human condition we find ourselves in:
"Empty is the place of your heart,
You have lost the spirit that awakens you"
This is the diagnosis of Christ through Raphael of the general illness we all suffer from, in different degrees. The sickness of Sin is part of our constitution, and we all have to deal with it. My “I” lies lamenting on the ground... Christ goes continuously through his passion, again and again, in us, through what we/I am doing and not doing.
During passiontide, we are faced with the question: can I see and bear his suffering objectively, not just personally? I wonder if this is what many may have experienced laying for a long time in front of Grunewald’s portrayal of Christ’s /Jesus’ crucified body...
And then, can I develop the possibility of, objectively. going through the uplifting of soul and spirit from Easter Sunday until Ascension?
Holy Week reflected in The Lord's Prayer
Cross from Romania
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
Lord, teach us
During the forty days of Easter the Risen Christ is the spiritual teacher of those who had prepared themselves by having ‘followed’ him during the three years of living an earthly human life. The beginning of this intimate connection was laid when they had asked on the Sermon on the Mount: Lord, teach us to pray like you pray. They had experienced that this human being brought life and healing wherever he went. He added a new macrocosmic dimension to the microcosmic personal one whenever he spoke. He lived in a way that showed that there was always completion and fulfilment, while making clear there was ‘more to come, this is only the beginning’. He was a living mystery, a paradox, the embodiment of hope, always fully in the present moment.
“Teach us to be like you.” The Lord’s Prayer is the answer to this request. Little did they realise that this would be a teaching of how to live, that life was being prayer. We are not what we speak, we are what we think, feel and do. We become the prayer, or whatever our mantra is, so to say. It becomes our 'breath of life’. When a child is born, it becomes an earthly being through its first breath, breathing in the breath of life. It is God's gift. When we breathe out our breath carries the sting of death. Christ turned this around while living in the body. In dying, his last breath initiated new life, for eternity. For living in spirit-body, spirit-soul and as spirit-human among Spirits. This is his Easter teaching.
The Resurrection of the Body and the Redemption of Humankind (a review of Holy Week) .... To read on click here.
Lord, teach us
During the forty days of Easter the Risen Christ is the spiritual teacher of those who had prepared themselves by having ‘followed’ him during the three years of living an earthly human life. The beginning of this intimate connection was laid when they had asked on the Sermon on the Mount: Lord, teach us to pray like you pray. They had experienced that this human being brought life and healing wherever he went. He added a new macrocosmic dimension to the microcosmic personal one whenever he spoke. He lived in a way that showed that there was always completion and fulfilment, while making clear there was ‘more to come, this is only the beginning’. He was a living mystery, a paradox, the embodiment of hope, always fully in the present moment.
“Teach us to be like you.” The Lord’s Prayer is the answer to this request. Little did they realise that this would be a teaching of how to live, that life was being prayer. We are not what we speak, we are what we think, feel and do. We become the prayer, or whatever our mantra is, so to say. It becomes our 'breath of life’. When a child is born, it becomes an earthly being through its first breath, breathing in the breath of life. It is God's gift. When we breathe out our breath carries the sting of death. Christ turned this around while living in the body. In dying, his last breath initiated new life, for eternity. For living in spirit-body, spirit-soul and as spirit-human among Spirits. This is his Easter teaching.
The Resurrection of the Body and the Redemption of Humankind (a review of Holy Week) .... To read on click here.
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by Robyn de Klerk
The following two short passages recently presented themselves to me and both of them seem valuable and apt. They are simple and powerful at the same time, providing relatable metaphors through which to ponder life's purpose as well as the threshold experiences that guide us in and lead us out of this world. Most of the articles in the recent edition of Perspectives are focused on the Glory of Revelation in the heights at Christmas time. It is a great and mighty gift that is bestowed on us by the Heavens. Life on Earth offers a unique opportunity for development - the Glory can grow here. To great purpose are we given a space of time in this realm, and then we must move on. With the Easter experience we are living with the epitome of the threshold encounter. This month of April offers us the ideal opportunity for important inner work, transforming what comes to meet us into the Glory which we can offer in return.
The following two short passages recently presented themselves to me and both of them seem valuable and apt. They are simple and powerful at the same time, providing relatable metaphors through which to ponder life's purpose as well as the threshold experiences that guide us in and lead us out of this world. Most of the articles in the recent edition of Perspectives are focused on the Glory of Revelation in the heights at Christmas time. It is a great and mighty gift that is bestowed on us by the Heavens. Life on Earth offers a unique opportunity for development - the Glory can grow here. To great purpose are we given a space of time in this realm, and then we must move on. With the Easter experience we are living with the epitome of the threshold encounter. This month of April offers us the ideal opportunity for important inner work, transforming what comes to meet us into the Glory which we can offer in return.
Glory
by Rev. Tom Ravetz in his editorial to Perspectives Volume 89 no. 1, the quarterly journal of The Christian Community in the English language published in the UK
Saint Augustine used the analogy of a candle for the Trinity: the solid wax is the Father; it gives the candle it's solidity and is also the fuel for the flame. The Son is the flame itself, bringing the solid substance into movement and transformation. The Spirit is the radiance of the light. In recent times, both within and beyond the confines of Christian theology, the insight has grown: the fulfilment of God's glory comes when it is perceived by human beings.
This is one side; the other side is the glory that we create ourselves. Just as there is a wisdom that is bestowed on us as a gift, and a wisdom that we need to work at for ourselves, there is glory that we perceive and glory that we create. Something of this shines out of the Epiphany prayers, where we are called not only to bathe in the light of grace, but to develop our own light within our hearts. Ultimately, these are two aspects of one reality: glory perceived is glory bestowed; the glory we give is the result of the gift.
Saint Augustine used the analogy of a candle for the Trinity: the solid wax is the Father; it gives the candle it's solidity and is also the fuel for the flame. The Son is the flame itself, bringing the solid substance into movement and transformation. The Spirit is the radiance of the light. In recent times, both within and beyond the confines of Christian theology, the insight has grown: the fulfilment of God's glory comes when it is perceived by human beings.
This is one side; the other side is the glory that we create ourselves. Just as there is a wisdom that is bestowed on us as a gift, and a wisdom that we need to work at for ourselves, there is glory that we perceive and glory that we create. Something of this shines out of the Epiphany prayers, where we are called not only to bathe in the light of grace, but to develop our own light within our hearts. Ultimately, these are two aspects of one reality: glory perceived is glory bestowed; the glory we give is the result of the gift.
Life After Birth
by Pablo J. Luis Molinero
In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”
The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”
The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”
The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”
The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”
Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”
To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”
In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”
The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”
The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”
The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”
The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”
Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”
To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
In her opening address, Reingard presented a picture of an hourglass to make visible the idea of a spiritual outpouring into humanity and the earth. As sand flows down from the top of the hourglass, through the narrow “eye of the needle”, so has the spiritual world poured out its substance, manifesting in matter. The first experience we have on leaving of the womb is the pull of gravity. It is not for nothing that we call this experience “The Fall”. That is why we sometimes need to “pull ourselves together” or “find our centre”. We need this earthly experience to develop the Self. The Holy Substance poured out of the heavens is now invested in us, in nature and in our destiny. When this outpouring was done, we lived in abundance, but there is now a growing awareness that the spiritual world is not an endless resource and that the gift is limited. The fact that the hourglass is empty can lead to anxiety and depression, but it can also be an initiation into deeper thinking. The youth is taking notice. Children across the world ask what we are doing to the planet. On international forums they stand up and demand that we take care of the earth. But how? What is needed? The last spiritual grain to fall through the hourglass marked the 'Turning Point of Time’ (R. Steiner). It happened at the Baptism of Jesus and was the outpouring from the Heart of God. That was the last most crucial investment: the Christ Impulse that poured out into humanity through the ‘the eye of the needle’ of a single human being. And now we all carry this Christ impulse in us. It is not of this world. It is not something we can give to ourselves. We can only ignite it. In the archetypal journey of the Christ, we can see how this impulse works into a human being bit by bit until it penetrates right into the physical bony structure where it transubstantiates matter into spirit. We can begin by transforming our way of being through our thinking and by changing our habits. That is why we need the altar, where the baptismal impulse can be taken in and strengthened every time. When we do this together, again and again, the impulse increases in potency, not for us alone, but also for the earth. And so we participate in ‘turning things around’ also for the powers that sustain our existence.
In her opening address, Reingard presented a picture of an hourglass to make visible the idea of a spiritual outpouring into humanity and the earth. As sand flows down from the top of the hourglass, through the narrow “eye of the needle”, so has the spiritual world poured out its substance, manifesting in matter. The first experience we have on leaving of the womb is the pull of gravity. It is not for nothing that we call this experience “The Fall”. That is why we sometimes need to “pull ourselves together” or “find our centre”. We need this earthly experience to develop the Self. The Holy Substance poured out of the heavens is now invested in us, in nature and in our destiny. When this outpouring was done, we lived in abundance, but there is now a growing awareness that the spiritual world is not an endless resource and that the gift is limited. The fact that the hourglass is empty can lead to anxiety and depression, but it can also be an initiation into deeper thinking. The youth is taking notice. Children across the world ask what we are doing to the planet. On international forums they stand up and demand that we take care of the earth. But how? What is needed? The last spiritual grain to fall through the hourglass marked the 'Turning Point of Time’ (R. Steiner). It happened at the Baptism of Jesus and was the outpouring from the Heart of God. That was the last most crucial investment: the Christ Impulse that poured out into humanity through the ‘the eye of the needle’ of a single human being. And now we all carry this Christ impulse in us. It is not of this world. It is not something we can give to ourselves. We can only ignite it. In the archetypal journey of the Christ, we can see how this impulse works into a human being bit by bit until it penetrates right into the physical bony structure where it transubstantiates matter into spirit. We can begin by transforming our way of being through our thinking and by changing our habits. That is why we need the altar, where the baptismal impulse can be taken in and strengthened every time. When we do this together, again and again, the impulse increases in potency, not for us alone, but also for the earth. And so we participate in ‘turning things around’ also for the powers that sustain our existence.
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by Jan Lampen
We were truly blessed with unexpected gifts this Christmas. Ulrich and Brigitte Becker arrived like a breath of fresh air, filling our halls with singing. With amazement we discovered that we had voices that could produce those wonderful sounds only others seemed to have. It transformed our Christmas season into a particularly profound and moving celebration. On New Year’s day a very special jewel was gifted into the crown of the 12 Christmas days when Marti Björkman played her favorite piano pieces, interspersed with community offerings of words which had an impulse character for the coming year. And then Nicholas White, now living in Norway, popped up as if out of nowhere, generously offering a very well attended eurythmy course. Parallel to this he initiated and lead a group of volunteers in a marvellous iconic rendition of the Three Kings Play which set a worthy highlight to the end of the Holy Nights and beginning of Epiphany. It felt as if every effort to create a space for Christmas was stripped down to its essence and supported and shared by our wonderful and loving Community. |
"The Gift of the Kings" - a musical play performed on 6th January 2019
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by Jan Lampen
Why is being together with people so hard? I’ve been thinking about this when Ulrich, a visiting priest at our church over Christmas asked if anyone was interested in starting up a choir. Not much enthusiasm from the aging congregation, I must so confess, so I felt obliged to put up my hand, only to spare our visitor the embarrassment of putting forward an idea that was so obviously stillborn. On the following Monday night, I arrived at church to be met by five equally skeptical congregants. Ulrich handed out a song sheet with four different voices that was clearly way above our level of competence. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a bash. If Ulrich was shocked at the lack of talent he didn’t show it, bless his soul. He led us through a short breathing exercise and then whisked us through the different harmonies. Never underestimate the faith of a Man of the Cloth who is also an accomplished musician. In the shortest possible time, Ulrich had us under his spell. And when he put the voices together the most extraordinary thing happened. Within an hour we created something that wasn’t there before. We made music. We were all thrilled. I could feel the energy in the room go up a few notches. I don’t think any of us expected the outcome. To our ears at least, we sounded wonderful. This is what togetherness can look like, I thought. It is a coming together that uplifts and gives joy. Without wanting to sound too dramatic, we gave birth that night to a song that on paper looked insurmountably difficult. And yet we persevered and triumphed. In fact, we were all so inspired that we promptly organised a follow up rehearsal to hone our newly found skills. Perhaps the biggest mind shift is not to concentrate on what tears us apart, but rather to focus on that which gives us joy. Thank you Ulrich!
Why is being together with people so hard? I’ve been thinking about this when Ulrich, a visiting priest at our church over Christmas asked if anyone was interested in starting up a choir. Not much enthusiasm from the aging congregation, I must so confess, so I felt obliged to put up my hand, only to spare our visitor the embarrassment of putting forward an idea that was so obviously stillborn. On the following Monday night, I arrived at church to be met by five equally skeptical congregants. Ulrich handed out a song sheet with four different voices that was clearly way above our level of competence. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a bash. If Ulrich was shocked at the lack of talent he didn’t show it, bless his soul. He led us through a short breathing exercise and then whisked us through the different harmonies. Never underestimate the faith of a Man of the Cloth who is also an accomplished musician. In the shortest possible time, Ulrich had us under his spell. And when he put the voices together the most extraordinary thing happened. Within an hour we created something that wasn’t there before. We made music. We were all thrilled. I could feel the energy in the room go up a few notches. I don’t think any of us expected the outcome. To our ears at least, we sounded wonderful. This is what togetherness can look like, I thought. It is a coming together that uplifts and gives joy. Without wanting to sound too dramatic, we gave birth that night to a song that on paper looked insurmountably difficult. And yet we persevered and triumphed. In fact, we were all so inspired that we promptly organised a follow up rehearsal to hone our newly found skills. Perhaps the biggest mind shift is not to concentrate on what tears us apart, but rather to focus on that which gives us joy. Thank you Ulrich!
by John-Peter Gernaat
I quote Heraclitus, the pre-Socractic Greek philosopher, who said that “Change is the only constant in life”.
The world has changed significantly since I was growing up. Then, the only way to earn money was to sell a product or service. Most people were employed in manufacturing products or selling products and services. If you were someone with an opinion and you wanted your opinion to matter, you went into journalism, advertising or politics. Even in those industries your opinion can under scrutiny from editors, clients or your constituents.
The internet and social media have changed the world. Today people monetise their opinion in blogs and vlogs, bearing their own name or as part of a social media platform. This change has brought about a shift in human thinking. This shift is that thoughts have financial value. Anyone who uses social media or the internet, especially Google, is either conscious or vaguely aware that everything you do is being monitored with the purpose of curating marketing (adverts) specifically to your lifestyle. Gone are the days of a postbox filled with marketing material that you had no interest in. Your browser searches and your social media interests define your interests and the marketing you see is matched with your interests. Your thoughts are used to generate marketing revenue through marketing targeted to meet your thoughts. That is how the shift in thinking occurs: your thoughts have value; someone is being paid for every thought you have (online).
The question now arises how much value you place on your own thoughts and more especially the considered thoughts of others. In The Christian Community we are very privileged that there are numerous people, and especially our priests, who spend a lot of time developing their thinking with the explicit aim of being able to think more deeply about important existential subjects and produce intellectual content in the form of talks, seminars, workshops and contemplations. In our subtly changed world, where thoughts and intellectual content have financial value, how should we approach the valuable intellectual content that is so carefully prepared in The Christian Community? The changes in the world have changed our thinking, that is undeniable. How do we bring our changed thinking to bear on what is made available to us?
The Christian Community has not yet followed the world trend of generating income online. How do we respect this and still enable our congregation to gain much needed income from the intensely valuable intellectual content from which we benefit?
I quote Heraclitus, the pre-Socractic Greek philosopher, who said that “Change is the only constant in life”.
The world has changed significantly since I was growing up. Then, the only way to earn money was to sell a product or service. Most people were employed in manufacturing products or selling products and services. If you were someone with an opinion and you wanted your opinion to matter, you went into journalism, advertising or politics. Even in those industries your opinion can under scrutiny from editors, clients or your constituents.
The internet and social media have changed the world. Today people monetise their opinion in blogs and vlogs, bearing their own name or as part of a social media platform. This change has brought about a shift in human thinking. This shift is that thoughts have financial value. Anyone who uses social media or the internet, especially Google, is either conscious or vaguely aware that everything you do is being monitored with the purpose of curating marketing (adverts) specifically to your lifestyle. Gone are the days of a postbox filled with marketing material that you had no interest in. Your browser searches and your social media interests define your interests and the marketing you see is matched with your interests. Your thoughts are used to generate marketing revenue through marketing targeted to meet your thoughts. That is how the shift in thinking occurs: your thoughts have value; someone is being paid for every thought you have (online).
The question now arises how much value you place on your own thoughts and more especially the considered thoughts of others. In The Christian Community we are very privileged that there are numerous people, and especially our priests, who spend a lot of time developing their thinking with the explicit aim of being able to think more deeply about important existential subjects and produce intellectual content in the form of talks, seminars, workshops and contemplations. In our subtly changed world, where thoughts and intellectual content have financial value, how should we approach the valuable intellectual content that is so carefully prepared in The Christian Community? The changes in the world have changed our thinking, that is undeniable. How do we bring our changed thinking to bear on what is made available to us?
The Christian Community has not yet followed the world trend of generating income online. How do we respect this and still enable our congregation to gain much needed income from the intensely valuable intellectual content from which we benefit?
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Transforming Our World: 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development as a Spiritual Calling: We are the Solution, a talk presented by Walter Knausenberger on Sunday, 16th December – A report
by Lola Kirigin
“In a world sharply divided both within and among nations, 193 nations have made a joint, historic commitment through the United Nations to achieve the most comprehensive and diverse initiatives ever undertaken. This UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to improve the lives of human communities and the health of the planet.”
“In a world sharply divided both within and among nations, 193 nations have made a joint, historic commitment through the United Nations to achieve the most comprehensive and diverse initiatives ever undertaken. This UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to improve the lives of human communities and the health of the planet.”
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UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
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Walter Knausenberger spoke optimistically about the Earth Care Ministry of his own home town community church and with much enthusiasm. Although this is in North America, the Environmental and Social goals are universally relevant - Local to Global to Local.
Just a couple of points that interested me in particular, amongst the many presented were;
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Having prepared printed copies of the slides, that we could take at the end of the talk, we were provided with a more detailed and graphic account of these SDG’s in a local and global context.
Some memorable quotes: “Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.” Chief Seattle 1854. “It’s not enough to understand, you’ve got to do something. There is no more important work than deepening young people’s engagement in our nation.” Justice Sandra Day Oconnor, Icivics education program. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying WHOM SHALL I SEND and who will go for us? And I said, HERE AM I, SEND ME !” Isaiah 6:8. Sophia reminded us of the Zulu word, THUMA MINA. In the inaugural State of the Nation Address in February 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa repeated the lyrics of a song by music and struggle icon, Hugh Masekela. Thuma Mina or Send Me, became the new president’s call for all South Africans to accept the call to selflessly serve the embattled nation. Michaël Merle thanked Walter, for bringing to our conscious awareness this social and environmental work, actively happening around the world today, much to our encouragement. During the presentation, Walter expressed interest in The Three-Fold Social Order, referring to David Werthaim Aymes’ work on practical Anthroposophy, and particularly the work of Nicanor Perlas, author of two books;
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Walter Knausenberger, PhD, Senior Regional Environmental Policy Advisor, Office of Sustainable Development, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Africa, was in Nairobi, Kenya, responsible for environmentally-sound design and management for 26 countries. Acting Director of the Virgin Islands Ecological Research Station. Based in Bowie, Maryland, USA.
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Back cover review:
Perlas gives an overview of the phenomenon of AI, together with its related transhuman concepts of ‘perfecting humanity’ and outlines the critical internal and external responses required to meet them with consciousness. In particular, he addresses the movement connected to the work of R Steiner, indicating its all-important tasks: to cooperate with progressive individuals and movements, including scientists and civil society activists; to mobilize its ‘daughter’ movements for action and, ultimately, to cooperate with the spiritual powers that have guided and served humanity since the dawn of time. This, says the author is humanity’s last stand, and failure is not an option. |
Through exploring the beginning of the opening chapters of each of the four Gospels we come to gain an impression of the different personalities of each of the four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
In Matthew's beginning we are taken through the historical genealogy of the Anointed One from Abraham through to Jesus and then to Christ. Moving from the distant past ever closer to the present, we are shown how all that has gone before, in the Old Testament, has been a preparation. The patriarchal lineage is offered as a revision of the development humanity went through in order for Jesus Christ to become Man. As Joseph ponders, an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him not to be swayed from Mary for she will bear him a son. He is told to name him Jesus for he will heal his own of their sins. Something is coming with a new Power to redeem the past. The Annunciation of God in our midst is received by the father figure who dutifully follows the directions of the angel and names the son Jesus. Matthew, the Man, acts as a bridge between what has come before and what is yet to come.
In Mark's beginning the word of the angels immediately sounds forth. John the Baptist is here. He proclaims and baptises and announces the arrival of one greater than he. Then it happens. Jesus of Nazareth is baptised and as he steps out of the water suddenly the heavens are torn apart and the Spirit in the form of a dove descends upon him. A voice sounds from the heavens; 'You are my Beloved Son, in you I am revealed'. With strong succinct lines we move rapidly from one mighty event to another. The baptism, the desert, the temptation, the first disciples - and we aren't even half way into the first chapter yet. Through direct and energetic imagery, that constantly changes perspective, the tone is set for the unfolding of this the shortest of the Gospels. Mark, the Lion, in strong bursts of multifaceted narrative announces his Gospel with a bright, bold, Solar Power.
In Luke's beginning we are presented with a careful consideration of the task at hand followed by an address to the reader indicating that a reverent pursuit of the Truth will lead to certainty. Gently and with particular care we are introduced to the situation of Zechariah and Elizabeth as well as their personal qualities - devoted to the Good, pure souls, they walked in the way of God. When the angel appears to Zechariah beautiful details are given regarding the message that his son is to bear: John will pave the way and change men's hearts, he will make a well-prepared people ready for the Lord. A feeling of thorough contemplation as well as a sensitive receptivity permeates this first chapter - the feminine presence of the Soul abounds. It is interesting to note that on this, the second day of our study, our seating arrangement changed from rows to a semi-circle and that the candles on the tree were lit... In this Gospel it is to Mary that the Annunciation is made. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and while the two women are together Elizabeth feels her child leap in her womb. With great joy and wonder the mother of John and the mother of Jesus contemplate their children and the blessing power of the Grace of the Lord. With wonderful words Mary's soul grows great in praising the Lord of Life. When John is born the process of his unconventional naming is described for us - the people are amazed, the neighbours filled with inner turmoil and the mountainous region filled with details of the events. What is happening here? All who heard it pondered the question in their hearts... Luke, the Taurus, like the cows in the field, slowly takes in and digests... and then considers further, contemplates and digests some more... in order to arrive eventually, through these assimilations, at his precise poetic presentation.
In John's beginning we encounter the beginning of beginnings - The Very Beginning. Through the previous three Gospels a three-sided foundation has been laid. These different points of view, rich in pictures for our soul life, as triangles, rise up to meet in the apex of the tetrahedron. From this elevated point of view a more spiritual account is offered. The prologue seems to encompass the widths of Space and the course of Time and beyond. All that we are and all that we have been and all that we are yet to become is held within the Word. The Word is a God - with God. A Man is sent from God to bear witness to this True Light - the Light that gives those who accept it the power to become children of God. Grace and Truth come into the World through Jesus Christ. Lofty conceptions are at work here. Every line is an invitation for meditation. We feel that through this opening we are also cast far into the future. We do not yet understand the fullness of the wisdom that is shared. It is like a cornerstone of sorts to come back to over and over again and to contemplate over a lifetime. From this pinnacle of perception insights are to be gained for enriching the Culture of Humanity here on earth. John, the Eagle, soaring in the heights sees clearly the details below.
A patriarchal picture of the past. A warm "Lionic" proclamation of reality. The presence of one who can receive and hold. The high-flyer who can foresee the future. Through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John this living organism of the fourfold Gospel represents the organism of the Scriptures as a whole.
In Matthew's beginning we are taken through the historical genealogy of the Anointed One from Abraham through to Jesus and then to Christ. Moving from the distant past ever closer to the present, we are shown how all that has gone before, in the Old Testament, has been a preparation. The patriarchal lineage is offered as a revision of the development humanity went through in order for Jesus Christ to become Man. As Joseph ponders, an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him not to be swayed from Mary for she will bear him a son. He is told to name him Jesus for he will heal his own of their sins. Something is coming with a new Power to redeem the past. The Annunciation of God in our midst is received by the father figure who dutifully follows the directions of the angel and names the son Jesus. Matthew, the Man, acts as a bridge between what has come before and what is yet to come.
In Mark's beginning the word of the angels immediately sounds forth. John the Baptist is here. He proclaims and baptises and announces the arrival of one greater than he. Then it happens. Jesus of Nazareth is baptised and as he steps out of the water suddenly the heavens are torn apart and the Spirit in the form of a dove descends upon him. A voice sounds from the heavens; 'You are my Beloved Son, in you I am revealed'. With strong succinct lines we move rapidly from one mighty event to another. The baptism, the desert, the temptation, the first disciples - and we aren't even half way into the first chapter yet. Through direct and energetic imagery, that constantly changes perspective, the tone is set for the unfolding of this the shortest of the Gospels. Mark, the Lion, in strong bursts of multifaceted narrative announces his Gospel with a bright, bold, Solar Power.
In Luke's beginning we are presented with a careful consideration of the task at hand followed by an address to the reader indicating that a reverent pursuit of the Truth will lead to certainty. Gently and with particular care we are introduced to the situation of Zechariah and Elizabeth as well as their personal qualities - devoted to the Good, pure souls, they walked in the way of God. When the angel appears to Zechariah beautiful details are given regarding the message that his son is to bear: John will pave the way and change men's hearts, he will make a well-prepared people ready for the Lord. A feeling of thorough contemplation as well as a sensitive receptivity permeates this first chapter - the feminine presence of the Soul abounds. It is interesting to note that on this, the second day of our study, our seating arrangement changed from rows to a semi-circle and that the candles on the tree were lit... In this Gospel it is to Mary that the Annunciation is made. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and while the two women are together Elizabeth feels her child leap in her womb. With great joy and wonder the mother of John and the mother of Jesus contemplate their children and the blessing power of the Grace of the Lord. With wonderful words Mary's soul grows great in praising the Lord of Life. When John is born the process of his unconventional naming is described for us - the people are amazed, the neighbours filled with inner turmoil and the mountainous region filled with details of the events. What is happening here? All who heard it pondered the question in their hearts... Luke, the Taurus, like the cows in the field, slowly takes in and digests... and then considers further, contemplates and digests some more... in order to arrive eventually, through these assimilations, at his precise poetic presentation.
In John's beginning we encounter the beginning of beginnings - The Very Beginning. Through the previous three Gospels a three-sided foundation has been laid. These different points of view, rich in pictures for our soul life, as triangles, rise up to meet in the apex of the tetrahedron. From this elevated point of view a more spiritual account is offered. The prologue seems to encompass the widths of Space and the course of Time and beyond. All that we are and all that we have been and all that we are yet to become is held within the Word. The Word is a God - with God. A Man is sent from God to bear witness to this True Light - the Light that gives those who accept it the power to become children of God. Grace and Truth come into the World through Jesus Christ. Lofty conceptions are at work here. Every line is an invitation for meditation. We feel that through this opening we are also cast far into the future. We do not yet understand the fullness of the wisdom that is shared. It is like a cornerstone of sorts to come back to over and over again and to contemplate over a lifetime. From this pinnacle of perception insights are to be gained for enriching the Culture of Humanity here on earth. John, the Eagle, soaring in the heights sees clearly the details below.
A patriarchal picture of the past. A warm "Lionic" proclamation of reality. The presence of one who can receive and hold. The high-flyer who can foresee the future. Through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John this living organism of the fourfold Gospel represents the organism of the Scriptures as a whole.
Actual screenshot from Facebook
by John-Peter Gernaat
It is disconcerting when you learn on Social Media (Facebook, for example) that someone you know has died. It is even more disconcerting when you know that this person had a long-time connection with The Christian Community. The first question that arises is whether this person will be brought to the wake room and whether the funeral will take place through the church. In this example no one connected with The Christian Community knew what the deceased’s last wishes were and no one was sure how to make contact with the people now most closely connected with the deceased.
Are your last wishes clearly written down and readily available to anyone close to you should you suddenly die? Reingard and Anne-Marie have thought long and hard about what you should leave behind so ensure that your last wishes are fulfilled. The church has produced a little booklet that makes it easy to put your last wishes in writing. This booklet has a blue cover and is often referred to as the “blue booklet”. This list of last wishes has been compiled based on numerous members of our church who have died and not left behind their last wishes and the questions that required answers in order to put the affairs of these members in order.
It is disconcerting when you learn on Social Media (Facebook, for example) that someone you know has died. It is even more disconcerting when you know that this person had a long-time connection with The Christian Community. The first question that arises is whether this person will be brought to the wake room and whether the funeral will take place through the church. In this example no one connected with The Christian Community knew what the deceased’s last wishes were and no one was sure how to make contact with the people now most closely connected with the deceased.
Are your last wishes clearly written down and readily available to anyone close to you should you suddenly die? Reingard and Anne-Marie have thought long and hard about what you should leave behind so ensure that your last wishes are fulfilled. The church has produced a little booklet that makes it easy to put your last wishes in writing. This booklet has a blue cover and is often referred to as the “blue booklet”. This list of last wishes has been compiled based on numerous members of our church who have died and not left behind their last wishes and the questions that required answers in order to put the affairs of these members in order.
Do you have a “blue booklet” and is it up to date? Is it lying next to your telephone or your bed where it will be easily discovered? Have you provided the church with a copy of the most recent content to keep on file? This is especially crucial if you live alone! Please ask the office or Anne-Marie van Dijk for a “blue booklet” and make sure that your last wishes can be fulfilled.
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