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by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger Each month one of these world views will be expanded.
Realism The Gospel of Matthew speaks of becoming like children. When Christ calls a child to him and places him in the circle of his disciples, he then points out a reality worth engaging with literally. “Whoever receives a child in my name receives me.” (Whoever, confident in my being, immerses themselves into the being of such a child will discover me in the child. Matthew 18: 5 Realism as a world-view is as basic to all world-views as the young child is to the rest of its yet unrealised life. Still like a bud, holding the potential to open up and grow beyond what is at the moment, yet at every stage perfect, complete and authentic with no ‘hidden agenda’ or criticism involved. At the beginning of every human life realism is wrapped in innocence. Though this will change, we still retain this ‘child-sense’ throughout our lives, e.g. in an ability to face challenges with openness freely and directly…realistically. We are not asked to be like children, but rather to bring about new buds to flower in what is with this ‘child-sense’. What do young children show us? Inquisitiveness, exploration with no prejudice, no pre-conception, no inhibition, exposing all the senses to absorbing untainted pure experience, with no fear and total openness. This is what is needed in order to face life with.tools to immerse oneself wholeheartedly in what is and engage with it. Realism begins where the human being, in encountering the world, accepts and receives it as it is. Everything is approached with this initial unprejudiced openness, the outer as well as the inner phenomena. This is where all new creation begins. Where matter and spirit meet, revealed as two sides of the same thing. Where we meet the Genius of Realism, our Entelechie (as Aristotle coined it), our eternal Child: a being that carries its goal within itself. Confirmation 2020The Sacrament of Confirmation was received on Michaelmas Sunday, 4th October 2020 by:
by John-Peter Gernaat
The Gospel reading this morning was from Luke 7: 11-17, the raising of the young man from Nain. This is the archetypal threshold experience. At Ascension Christ is lifted into the sphere of the clouds and his Coming is in the sphere of the clouds. This sphere of the clouds is a transitory space, clouds exist for a time and then vanish. It is also the atmosphere that allows life to exist on the earth. It is in this life-sphere that the Christ appears – in between the earth and outer space. It is in the in between that life is given meaning. Goethe described this in the life processes: germinating, unfolding, growing, flowering and concluding. A threshold is a process that leads to a conclusion. We discussed the threshold of the 21st year of life. Most people have a definitive experience between the ages of 20 and 23 that brings about an awareness of themselves. We experience many thresholds in our biography. These are spiritual shifts that we experience in conscious life. It is these shifts that lead to development. These shifts are an experience of a birth or a death. There is one area of life that does not experience these transitions that lead to death: these are the man-made products of our modern life that have fallen out of the sphere of life and will not decay, e.g. plastics and nuclear waste. They are a burden to our society. There are also things that occur in our soul life that risk falling out of the sphere of life if we do not resolve them so that they too go through a process of birth and death. Wherever in our lives we leave things unfinished they bind our energy. Our sacraments all have a beginning, an unfolding and a conclusion, a clear ending. The sacraments are all transitions. The first is the Sacrament of Baptism. Birth is a re-orientation to the earthly world. We need to learn to focus. It requires concentrated energy of the infant in its first year to lift itself out of the force of gravity and find the inner and outer balance and coordination to stand upright. Rudolf Steiner said that it is the Christ’s power that enables the child to rise up and stand. The first memory is the sense of having landed in a constitution that will support the incarnating soul. The parents hold the memory of the child until it has its own first memory when the spark of consciousness arises in the child. In the Gospel reading of today the Lord gives the young man back to his mother. It was a new birth for the young man of which his mother carries the memory. The Sacrament of Baptism calls on spiritual beings before the child’s name is called out to the world. There is a preparation in the spiritual and earthly world to support who this “I am” is to be. When the child awakens to self-awareness it becomes aware of death. Up to the age of 7 years we have built our body, but then our body becomes a journey towards death. This is unconscious in childhood but becomes a conscious reality in puberty. The experience of puberty is one of our physical constitution changing without our permission. Neither our awareness nor our experience can grasp the changes. It is really like being three years old again in terms of the development of our constitution. A lot of energy must be invested as we find a place within ourselves where we can stand up. This process begins subtly and then suddenly it is clearly evident. The young person must find their morality. Before, as children, they used the morality they were taught. The young person also learns that they can lie and can hide from themselves. The world places an expectation on the young person to be an adult, but constitutionally the young person is again only three years old as the soul space opens up within them, in the same way as the toddler experienced the physical world opening up for them. The young person experiences heaven and hell opening up in their soul without the tools to deal with the experiences. It is therefore important that the young teenager experiences many things at this age and is accompanied in these experiences. Learning to deal with a wide variety of experiences becomes a treasure chest and the young person can bring these experiences to cognition as they approach the next threshold at age 21. This is especially important in the experiences that lead to growth: how one deals with the things that do not work (failure). The person then has tools for adult life. When we take the reins of our life in our twenties, we have the experience that we can always rise up again no matter the experience. The soul power of youth is strong and untamed. The task of the adults accompanying the youth is the ability to bring control to their experiences. Up until puberty the soul has been engaged in building the body. The body was gifted by the parents and the child transforms this body into its own, based on the blueprint it was gifted. At puberty the soul is freed for the future development of the individual. The soul is linked to the “I” and needs to be anchored – confirmed – into the power of the Christ “I” that is our higher self. We can then experience the freedom to do things that lead us astray and come back again into ourselves. The young person experiences this as rising up and standing for themselves at the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Sacrament of Confirmation confirms the ability to grasp themselves and connect to the deeper self. In life we experience adversary powers as resistances in life. Human nature is to give in. The spiritual power to help us go through the things that resist us ask to be invited in. Confirmation provides access to these spiritual powers. The Sacrament of Confirmation is a gift to the young person with the community standing behind this gift. It provides an orientation for the person to anchor themselves to. The Michaelmas Conference led by Rev. Michaël Merle on the theme: Explore a New Way of Thinking4/11/2020 report by John-Peter Gernaat A Change of Heart and Mind, the Birth of a New Way of Thinking – Friday, 9th OctoberWe celebrate St John’s Day on the day of the birth of John the Baptist. This is unusual. Most saints’ days are celebrated on the day of their birth into heaven. The death of John the Baptist is traditionally celebrated on 29th August in the Eastern churches. There are many different types of icons of John the Baptist. The icon used in the conference programme advertisement clearly depicts John before his death; it does not contain an image of his head on a platter as many icons do – John is still in the process of his mission: the proclamation of an important message. Some icons of John the Baptist show him baptising people in the Jordan – also part of his mission. The angel wings represent John as the outstanding prophet amongst other things. We know that he is the prophet Elijah returned. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets and first of the New Testament prophets. The text in his hand is clear: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”. He is the ‘angelos’ or messenger; he is also the ‘evangelos’ or the proclaimer of the message. His message is fundamental. In Mark’s Gospel it is the same message as the message of Christ that He used at the beginning of his mission. If we use the words of the Revised Standard Version (the Revised King James Version) to translate the Greek of the Gospels, this is what we encounter as the message of John:
We may be more familiar with the John Madsen’s English translation (which is a translation of the Emil Bock’s translation from the Greek into German).
The word ‘metanoia’ in Greek is translated into the word ‘repent’ in the King James Version, and John Madsen (after Bock) translates it into ‘change of heart and mind’. Let’s reflect on these words. Repentance means the act of repenting. This is a sincere regret or remorse reflecting sorrow. Remorse is contrition, contriteness, penitence. Sorrow as a result of pangs or pricklings of conscience. Other words that are also apt are shame, rue, compunction and sorriness. The Greek word ‘metanoia’ is translated into Latin as ‘resipiscentia’, and this became ‘repent’ in the English translation. The Latin originally meant a ‘return to the correct sound or standpoint’. It also meant ‘reform your thinking’ or ‘recover your senses’ or ‘revive what was lost’. A common translation of ‘metanoia’ is ‘afterthought’ as in ‘to spare an afterthought’. More correctly ‘metanoia’ means ‘that which comes after’, but it comes after with something. An example is “Metaphysics” which was the book Aristotle wrote after his book called “Physics”, which happened to be about the spiritual essence of things, hence this area of study became known as metaphysics. The origin of the Greek ‘meta’ (Koine Greek) comes from the ‘me-ta’ (Mycenaean Greek) – ‘me’ transformed over time into the English ‘mid’ as in midwife. In English metadata is data about data. So, me-ta implies ‘a change after, as a result of something accompanying it’. Think of metamorphosis: a form after a form because of a change (become aware of what happens after as a result of what was before). “Noia” in metanoia is related to ‘nous’ which means ‘mind’ or mental effort. Metanoia therefore is ‘after mental effort do something with it’. Or ‘applying mental effort to get to the bottom of something’. Also ‘thinking with purpose’. The Greek culture placed a lot of emphasis on the mind. The mind soul reached its full development in the time of the Greek culture. We can understand the message of John the Baptist as “ take the soul faculties of thinking, feeling and will; reflect on these and after you have done so then you shall be ready to recognise the Kingdom of Heaven and be prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven which is close at hand”. It would also be correct to understand John’s message as: “reflect on the way I think that leads to sin; my being, my mindset, my selfish sin. How can these be realigned to mend a relationship to the Kingdom of Heaven?” We can also think of the Latin ‘reflect or review, and change what is not aligned’. Baptism means to plunge into water and remain submerged to the point of the death’s threshold to provide a new vision. To be engaged in thinking is to connect something that is out there with what is in me. It is to reconcile two things so that they become one. An example is to think of a tree, which is a percept, but combined with a concept becomes an inner vision. The New Testament was written after Plato and Aristotle, so we must be aware that intellectual thinking was already the order of the day; ordered, rational thinking – which according to Plato was the mark of being human – intellectual thinking was the basis upon which the New Testament is written. This requires the human to not only have an earthly “I” but be exercising the faculties of such a component of being human.
Both intellectual thinking and pure thinking were available to the human being when John the Baptist lived. Beyond the threshold that John the Baptist calls us to cross is what could be described as “Michaelic thinking”. A step further is the fullness of what we could describe as “Christ thinking”. John introduces us to that process which can lead to Michaelic thinking. The Renaissance re-examined both intellectual thinking and pure thinking and as a result Descartes could pronounce: “I think, therefore I am”. However, once we have crossed the threshold to Michaelic thinking this statement will become: “I am, therefore I think”. It requires that we can recognise that I have and am an “I”. There needs to be a renewal of our being through the soul faculties of thinking, feeling and willing. As an exercise we ask ourselves: “What questions can I ask to cause this change?” and “Is there some positivity that I can link to?” Thinking in the Consciousness Soul – Saturday, 10th OctoberThe message that John the Baptist proclaimed is a threshold message. It means more than simply a change of heart and mind. It means a renewal. We can consciously connect to this message. It asks that we renew and reclaim that which makes us human before we can cross the threshold. The Gospel Reading for the first Sunday of Michaelmas may seem unusual. It is the parable of the King who prepares a feast for the wedding of his son and sends his servants to summon the guests to the feast. The guests do not respond but instead continue their daily business while others kill the servants. The story contains more violence as the king burns down the city. The parable ends with a man being thrown out of the wedding hall bound hand and foot. How can we recast this parable in terms of thinking? The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a human being. The renewal that John speaks of is so that the Kingdom can come about in us. We, humans, are the king. We can say: “I am like a king”. We are trying to call forth something in us, but it is not coming. ‘They are not willing to come.’ We must will our thinking. The guests have no will in their thinking regarding the invitation they receive. We can also read a lot into the meal that the king has prepared. Michaël Merle prefers a translation that is ‘the thick and full grain has been offered’. This very quickly allows us to connect the meal to the Eucharist. The invitation is an invitation to us to “come and work with me in my development” but they continue with their daily tasks. The fire that burns down the city is a purifying fire; it turns the city to ash. It purifies the willing. It is a reminder that thinking can become warped and degraded. The king then sends his servants into the roads. His invitation is now expanded to everyone wanting to come to the feast. He calls both the pain-ridden and the upright (Michaël Merle’s preferred translation). The three characteristics of the human being by the age of three are that it can stand upright, it can walk and it can talk. The man who is not dressed in his faculties – who has not developed himself – is speechless, he has nothing to say. The consequence of not thinking is the external dark existence of the “I am”. In our thinking we come to terms with the “I am” in us – this is the fourth stage of thinking that is still in the future. ‘Many are called but few are chosen to become Michaelic human beings.’ Mathematics helps us develop pure thinking. Mental pictures cannot form without the etheric “I”. Consciousness soul thinking is Michaelic thinking. This is spiritual thinking and requires that the “I” is active in the astral body. We can relate our thinking to the trials described by Rudolf Steiner in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, the trials by fire, water and air. The first trial allows us to get a truer vision. This is intellectual thinking. ‘How do I manage the daily trials of life?’ This is the trial by fire. Intellectual thinking allows us to act courageously and with conviction. Pure thinking can be related to the trial by water. Etheric form-forces describe a script of how things are. Pure thinking allows us to develop self-control. ‘I control my thinking.’ Self-moderation – I act moderately and modulate. The trial by air is a path of aloneness – ‘out of desert emptiness’. We recover our faculties out of desert aloneness. The things to stimulate us are non-existent. Something is revealed and I must grasp it. Revelation – Revealed reality in thinking. This centres on absolute presence of mind. We can rely on nothing – we are thrown back on ourselves. This thinking allows us to act wisely – Cosmic Wisdom. ‘I know this is the wise thing to do, but I cannot rationalise it.’ (This is what is missing for the man without the wedding garment.) Our teeth help us to speak (they are not very useful for digestion). Our teeth articulate and express. Gnashing of teeth is the inarticulate use of the teeth to speak. Therefore, a gnashing of teeth is a painful expression of undeveloped humanity. “Michael wishes in future times to take his seat in the hearts, in the souls of earthly human beings, and this is to begin in the present age. It is about a guidance of Christendom into more profound truths, inasmuch as Christ is meant to find more understanding among human beings; to live His way into humanity as a Sun-being through the Sun-spirit – Michael – who has always ruled over the intelligence, and who now can no longer administer it in the cosmos, but in the future wishes to administer it through the hearts of human beings!” (Rudolf Steiner, 21st August 1924) The new home of the Cosmic Intelligence is the human heart. We can only get to faith on the basis of reason. The Act of Consecration of Man asks us to engage our thinking in the liturgical experience. When I think, no one can convince me. (When I don’t think anyone can convince me. This is a political problem.) In conclusion after activities to stimulate thinking in three levels, Michaël Merle read the meditation Steiner gave to the teachers of the first Waldorf school already in September of 1919: “In shine of sense-world weaving There lives the spirit’s will, As wisdom’s light outpouring And inner power concealing In the “I” of my own being There shines the human will, As thinking’s revelation By its own power supported. And my own power, With light of cosmic wisdom Mightfully united, To selfhood shapes me, I, who turn myself to high divinity Seeking powers of illumination. Michael as Leader of Humanity and Time Spirit of Today – Sunday, 11th OctoberWe often omit that the Archangel Michael is also the leader of humanity. He fulfils this role even when is not the Time Spirit. Michael is in charge of the Cosmic Intelligence and he has been able to administer it in the Cosmos until now. But for the future he will be able to administer it only through human hearts. “Michael wishes in future times to take his seat in the hearts, in the souls of earthly human beings, and this is to begin in the present age. It is about a guidance of Christendom into more profound truths, inasmuch as Christ is meant to find more understanding among human beings; to live His way into humanity as a Sun-being through the Sun-spirit – Michael – who has always ruled over the intelligence, and who now can no longer administer it in the cosmos, but in the future wishes to administer it through the hearts of human beings!” (Rudolf Steiner, 21st August 1924) Michaël Merle returned to the painting by Francesco Botticini commonly known as Tobias and the Three Angels. Tobias is on a threshold. It is apt that in this painting he is portrayed as being on the threshold between childhood and youth. He is on the threshold of youth at a soul level. (The book of Tobit is available on our website (Editor)). The Archangel Raphael who accompanies Tobias on his journey introduces himself to Tobit, the father, as Azarias, son of the great Ananias, one of your relatives”. The name Azarias means ‘God helps’. Tobias walks with God’s help. Raphael means ‘God heals’ (it can also mean ‘God has healed’). He later introduced himself as “I am one of the seven Great Spirits who stand before the Throne”. Botticini decided to add two more archangels in his painting of Tobias’ journey: Michael with the upright sword and Gabriel recognisable by the lily he carries. Gabriel means ‘God is my strength’. The name Michael is a question: ‘Who is like God?’ In the painting Gabriel is barefoot, Raphael is wearing sandals and Michael is shod in red shoes. This in itself represents a progression from childhood to adulthood. The three angels also represent the three soul faculties of Tobias: willing, feeling and thinking. This same picture (of being accompanied by one’s soul faculties) was put onto the big screen by Hollywood in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” based on the earlier 20th century novel by L. Frank Baum. Dorothy’s dog Toto is significant. In the Book of Tobit the dog that accompanies Tobias does not have a name and is often referred to as ‘Toby dog’ which morphed to Toto in “The Wizard of Oz”. In Zarathustrian tradition the dog is the companion of the dead across the threshold. Dogs sat upright along the bridge that crosses the threshold after death. The dog is therefore also connected with Michael, who leads us across the threshold. The three companions Dorothy collects along the way are:
The three angels in Botticini’s painting become the soul expressions for Tobias.
Today our thinking must be strongly aligned with our willing. We hear this expressed in the Act of Consecration of Man. We have already developed our feeling. We need to experience the companionship of thinking and willing. The relationship between thinking and willing, between Gabriel and Michael, is the theme of this Michaelmas Conference. Michael is the Leader of Humanity. He was seen as the leader of the Jewish nation who in their turn led humanity in religious renewal. The early Christians, many of whom were Jews, adopted Michael as the leaders of Christians. Now he is understood as the “Countenance of Christ”. First, he was the countenance of Yahweh as a representative of the Father God. Now as the countenance of Christ he stands as representative of the full Trinity. Michael is mentioned in the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 10 Michael helps the angel Gabriel defeat the Persians. In Daniel 12 Michael is described as the angel who will span the time of human destiny. He will be there at the end of time. Michael therefore spans the full evolution of humanity. In Daniel we read of three young men who were the friends of Daniel. They enter the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon. They had Aramaic names and after arriving in Babylon their names are changed to Babylonian names. The Aramaic names meant:
These three young men are sent into the fiery furnace but they do not burn. When Nebuchadnezzar looks into the furnace there is a fourth person in the furnace, a mighty angel. We may certainly view this angel as Michael who leads the young soul forces of humanity to maturity. Michael has protected humanity. Now he is also the Time Spirit. Now he is able to exercise the greatest influence on what is developed for the future. This Byzantine icon of Michael represents the future of his mission. There are three main types of icons of Michael:
The 14th century Byzantian icon housed in the museum of Athens has no dragon or sword present. Michael bears the sceptre representing the upright nature of humanity and an orb made of pure transparent crystal. The orb represents the kingdom and it being transparent crystal means that one can fully see the kingdom, it is an open secret. The sceptre is the rod with which he commands. This makes Michael a king. He is the ruler over the fullness of the kingdom. In Christian times the orb bore a cross to represent that the kingdom is granted to the king by Christ (see the coronation of QEII). On the orb are the symbols X Δ K The iconographer is not creating a portrait or an image, his task is to open a window for us to look into the spiritual world, or more accurately, a window through which the spiritual world can look on us. “We are held in the sight of Michael”. The block of wood on which the icon is to be painted is prepared very carefully. Then it is covered completely in white. This is the light of God. Thereafter it is completely covered in gold leaf. The paint is painted onto the gold leaf and gold leaf alone remains for the halo. The iconographer would have fasted and prayed before and during the creation of the icon. His tears shed during prayer would have become mixed into the paint that is washed onto the gold leaf. Returning to the symbols. X is shorthand for Christ. Chi Rho is the symbol for Christ that can legitimately be shortened to X. Δ is capital delta and is Greek for righteous (dikarios). K symbolises kristes or judge. Criticise is derived from this. XΔK means Christ the Righteous Judge. This comes from the Gospel of John: “Judge not appearance but judge correctly”. Michael rules in the judgement of Christ, he does not rule in his own right. The other words on the icon are “The Prince Michael, The Great Commander”. Prince signifies that he is of the Principalities or Archai or Time Spirits. This means: “The Principality that is Michael Who Commands the destiny of Man”. His mission is to implant the Cosmic Intelligence into the hearts of humanity. This is his aim as the Time Spirit in the Christian Age. This is what it means to live in Michaelic times. Turning to Ephesians 6 we hear that we are fighting Principalities who are not aligned with Michael. There are of the Archai who believe that humanity is a failed experiment and that it would be better to start afresh creating the 10th Hierarchy of Heaven. Michael is committed to administer the Cosmic Intelligence from the hearts of human beings. We must help him in this time when he is the Time spirit because not all of the Spiritual Worlds are helping him. Our real task is to become a Michaelic being. Michael is the countenance of Christ and we are meant to reflect the creative force of Christ for each other. by Robyn de Klerk
The original poem: After perception and thought With perception and thought Behold what lies Behind your mind Michaël’s edit: After perception and concept With perception and conception Behold what lies Within your mind: Thought Perhaps the best fusion: After percept and concept With perception and conception Behold what lies Within your mind Which still sounds a bit too scientific so maybe: After experience and reflection With interest and consideration Behold what lies Within your mind I feel the second version answers the question immediately and abstractly whereas the others are a call to activate oneself inwardly, with the first and last being the more poetic. The value of the riddle lies in the pondering... by Robyn de Klerk
I imagine that "this year" is a first for our planet and our solar system. As the multitude of far-reaching effects continue to develop around the world it has never been more important to think in a new way. If we are to evolve we need to imagine ways of doing things differently. And in order for these to bear fruit they need to be held within a meaningful context - a context that includes both time and space, and the boundless and eternal. Having passed from our image-imbued connection with the spiritual worlds to our ability to be self-aware and think clearly as individual beings we have attained the possibility of freedom. The purpose of this Freedom is to develop Love. While we are here upon our Earth for our life of time we are given a precious opportunity: a chance to do something that, as I understand it, we can only do here: Change. Aside from the times, I am inspired to mention this through a number of experiences in this community that I wish to share with us. Firstly, from remembering Steffen's talk given last September on the theme of Imagining the picture of Michael as a guide to fulfilling our task in modern life. In this talk he spoke about the importance of Imagination to balance the past and create the future. One of the references in this talk was to a book written by Michael Ende called The Neverending Story. In this tale the young hero has to fight and pass through the great Nothing and by doing so discovers that he has the seeds to create a new world. I found a copy of the book for Sophia, who wished to read it, and have since found a copy of another one of his books called Momo (also known as The Grey Gentlemen). Please let me know if you would like to borrow either of them. They are both good adventures. Another inspiration came from re-reading Ulrich and Brigitte's farewell poem to us where they speak of how spiritual beings offer up their substance so that the world can continue to exist. Awareness of this - which requires the work of Imagination - can lead to a deep sense of gratitude and awaken in us the impulse to treat our fellow humans and all beings with love and generosity. Through doing this we can bring joy to these beings who make our life possible. Also, in our explorations through the discourses of Michaël Merle, contemplations from Reingard and our most recent community gathering the importance and potential of exercising and strengthening this creative capacity for Imagination has been gently and earnestly present. Imagination becomes Revelation - a place where something can come to meet us from the future. And, finally, a particular inspiration comes from Eileen Tippett. I did not know her well but she was in my periphery for a good while. I planted some of the snapdragon seeds handed out at her funeral and being a longterm budding gardener it's always a bit of a gamble on what will actually come up. A snapdragon plant did rise out of the ground and despite some plumbing work and the area being dug up, it survived and continued to grow throughout the whole of winter. It is still going. One long stem, over a metre tall, with blooms that have turned to seedpods lower down, continues to flower and strive towards the sky. A good imagination for right now. At her funeral I was particularly drawn to a prayer by Adam Bittleston which was printed on the last page of her funeral booklet. It was taken from her diary and I have since written it in at the back of mine - which is how I came across it recently as we are nearly at the end of "this year". I share it here: When we go out into the world as we have made it, Everywhere there speaks to us forgetfulness of the Spirit. If human work were to be without love The Earth would become a bleak and barren desert. Through forgetfulness of the Spirit Love ebbs away. Bring to mind in us, O Christ, Inspirer of true human love, How we have come to the Earth From the fields of light, From the heights of the Spirit. May remembrance of God Grow strong in our souls, Overcoming the mists Which hide from us the purpose In the work of each day. (by Adam Bittleston from Meditative Prayers for Today) by Andreas van Breda A group of children at the Moonlight Market in Bryanston were comparing notes of their future career ambitions. I was one of them and remember giving my answer with the same certainty as the other children. My answer, however, seemed to rouse a more curious response then the ones before. "I will be a priest!" is, I suppose, an audacious aim for a 6 year old. Well, I had to forget that statement for a few years and went through school, university and the school-of-life before engaging with it again. I have lived with the question of the Priesthood for most of my adult life. Whilst living in London, I attended the North America Seminary (in Chicago then) as an exploratory trip. It was a long-weekend program, open to anybody, with a particular theme and allowed the participants a glimpse into Seminary life. It was a wonderfully enriching time but for whatever reason the experience did not drive me to action. Nonetheless, looking back, I realise how a door was opened and with the passing of time has remained so. As time went on, a little more life experience and the gift of parenthood, I began to look at the world more earnestly and the question of the priesthood appeared again, more strongly. I had ruminated on it for a long time and finally started a conversation with Richard, then Reingard and finally Vicke von Behr. These conversations evolved and it became clear that it was a path I had the intention of following and felt blessed to have the support of the regional Synod as well as Tanya (my wife). How this was going to be possible needed careful thought and I am grateful to the leadership of The Christian Community for supporting my somewhat unconventional program which began about a year and a half ago. Of course Michaël Merle has set something of a precedent, but my personal circumstances were different to his and I am enormously appreciative that it has been possible to begin my training and studies. It has been and IS a wonderfully inspiring process, with a few nerves and unknowns thrown in for good measure. I feel 'engaged' on this path and committed to preparing myself for Ordination, whilst cognisant that that is not my sole decision. I have been touched and humbled by the support and care which so many people have expressed in a myriad of ways and appreciate the warm encouragement from our Communities in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Windhoek. I am underway, with much more to come and look forward to the next steps on this path. With thanks and gratitude. Andreas van Breda
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