December Articles

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IN GRATITUDE

by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger

It is with deep gratitude that we can look back on the year 2012. Our community has experienced many highlights and nurturing events. Wonder rises up when we see how some things became possible which seemed impossible a year ago. This is thanks to selfless offerings from many individuals.

A look also at our finances shows the effort and loyalty of those who keep the daily needs of maintaining properties and staff in their heart, so that a cared-for space is provided for the sacraments and the life of our community. Thank you! This area tends to have great fluctuations, which makes planning sometimes difficult. A relief would be, if more could decide to make a regular financial contribution.

May God's blessings warm and strengthen you in this Christmastide. May we meet the coming year with anticipation and hope.

Advent Raffle draw

The Advent Raffle that ran from before the Advent Fair was drawn on Sunday, 2nd December, the first Sunday of Advent.

The winners are:
Richard Nosworthy
Henry Cuyler
Mikhail Wertheim-Aymes (who has donated the house to the Children's Camp)
Sonnya Holtz
Jane Abrahams

The Advent Fair income

by Martin Kuhlmann


The final income of the Advent Fair 2012 is not yet available. The post-Fair sales and raffle ticket sales must still be included. Here is a picture of how the Advent Fair did on the actual day of the Fair. It is a fantastic picture with the total income amounting to R83 907.
For photos of the Advent Fair click on the image alongside.

The Advent Fair

 by David Wertheim-Aymes

Common gaze

The Advent Fair took place on a beautiful day. Our senses were taken in by this beauty and all the attractions, directions, instructions, arrows, goodies, people known and unknown, and more. We bought our tickets, made choices, spoke to some, sidestepped others, looked after our bodily functions, listened, talked, and generally lived the Fair like this.

I set up the games stand that I have prepared and run through in my mind’s eye several times in the months, weeks and days leading up to the event. On the way to the fair we stopped at the SPAR and got the last things that we needed like apples, flour and wet wipes for the apple bob game. Having set the store up, I rested my body in my comfortable camping chair and waited for the action wondering what it would bring. Well, the day started slowly but the numbers revealed at the end of the day that we had about 260 individual games played at R5,00 each, giving as a revenue of about R1300 from the games store. On its own this seemed quite unbelievable to me. How could we have had so many games played?
Switching from sense to inner perception

During the day I had a chance to quickly walk the fair to see what else was on the go. Although my senses were taken in by the physical things placed before me, my inner gaze was drawn to the quality of consciousness and the inner gaze of the other people and their offerings at the Fair. There was the food, the live music, the puppet show, the crafts for sale, the copper beating, the cookie making, the Mother Goose, the metal beating, the book shop, and more. Each had a common quality to them that I will raise in a moment.

The simple reality is that the games store would never have sold games had I simply taken the games to a random street corner. It needed people around and passing the games area with their inner gaze directed towards the needs of their higher self. The parents needed to see the value of the games for their children. They all came interested. They all came open to what was new.

The visitors had been promised something by the quality and content of the inner gaze of all of those that participated in the inner acts of preparation and care for their own part in the Fair. This common thread of human inner activity is what drew the people to the Fair. This was the common quality referred to above. It is this spiritual activity that worked to make the Fair appear physically as it did, with the content that it had. More and more will recognise that this sort of experience is available to them at the Fair IF WE as individuals recognise this truth and maintain and improve the quality of our inner activity. It is our Community that has consciously or unconsciously striven to share something. To the extent that what we have formed in common in our inner lives, in moral thinking, we have produced the outward effect of the Advent Fair. If it were true that our common thinking was to make money, the games stand would not have been such a success as the visitors would have sensed the ‘money rules’ concept as the common quality of our inner thinking. This permeates modern life anyway and is not good for their higher life for which they came to the Fair.

Surely one can deduce from this that where there is healthy community, there will be interest from other human beings as their inner gaze falls on what we have been holding clear in our inner lives. Further, it must be safe to say that ‘seeing’ is easier for our inner eye where others have done the inner work for us. We are aided in connecting to higher objectives by the inner work of others. Our higher self is more than willing to give up material things for the sake of truths. We find it easier to part with money in the interest of supporting truth if only we could see what truth was. Those that have done the inner work and help us ‘see’ are dear to us and we support them and their initiatives. If we can focus on being those that take on their inner lives even more diligently, we will provide opportunities to those that are still shielded from truth. Our Community will grow.

Could we then not say that where there is healthy community, there is also enough money? (In common materialistic thinking the thought pattern is that if we have money we will have a healthy community. How could this sort of thinking possibly have so much credence today? Essentially it says that we need not engage our own inner lives as money will resolve matters for us. Such thinking is sin.)

The Earth

by Kerry Audouin

Over this last weekend, I watched a documentary film from National Geographic entitled “The Earth from Space” and I would like to share the experience.

For the first time in history, we as human beings have the opportunity to literally step back and see this world we live on, through the eyes of the satellites that cross and re-cross our world kilometres above us.

Scientists have now been able to collate all the data flowing back to earth from these eyes and see a whole picture of our Earth. All that we need to do is watch with awe and have it reaffirmed to us that this earth of ours is indeed one living organism, one being.

We can clearly see now how these ancient systems interlink with each other, each life giving, even to the point that if only one failed, life could not be sustained. We can see how the dust storms of the Sahara desert are related almost directly to there being oxygen in our atmosphere. That the ice that forms in the harsh winter of the Antarctic creates a reaction that allows the food chain at its most primitive to begin.

To see how the destruction of the wild fires that blaze out of control, which are just releasing the power of the sun stored up by the plant during its life time, brings new life after the flames have died down.

To see that even in the absolute devastation that is wreaked upon those living in their paths, hurricanes restore balance, by cooling the rising temperatures of the seas.

And it becomes apparent that this is the aim of these ancient systems, for they seem to be ever striving to bring balance to the earth. They harness the suns energy, and then release it to aid the nurturing of life.

This is only a simple description of all that passes during a day on our world. Words cannot adequately convey the majesty of the Earth as depicted in these images.

Seeing this, as a human being, I can stand with wonder and understand that these ancient beings are striving for my sake, to give me the opportunity to learn and grow in my humanity. How humbling a thought and how much perspective does that give to life? We live on this earth and it was created for us and to be able to witness this and see it for what it is, brings clearly to light that this earth is indeed one organism, one being.

November Articles

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The Advent Fair – Come Discover

by John-Peter Gernaat

Saturday, 3 November! Yes, this newsletter is getting to you just in time to remind you of the Advent Fair. Come Discover what is new this year.

The Advent Fair is the biggest community-building event on our calendar and also our main fund-raiser. We ask that you plan your Saturday around the Advent Fair and come and support us with a generous heart and a generous pocket.

Two of the initiatives that arose from the three-fold process are a Church Booth where anyone wanting more information about our church will find knowledgeable assistance, and a vibrant youth area where young families will find reasons to bring their children and then, through our warm-hearted encouragement, may join our congregation.

What can you look forward to?

The Advent Fair will be opened with a ceremony at 9.30am. We are planning the closure of Dover Street for pedestrian safety. Entrance to the Windmill Property parking will be on Pine Avenue. The entrance to the Advent Fair will be through the new blue gate near the East Manse property and every family will be asked to sign in. 

Because of the new entrance, you will be guided by YELLOW arrows around the entire Advent Fair. The children’s crafts, including the iron forges and copper beating, the Hansel & Gretel House and the Mother Goose will be located in the East Manse. We have introduced a toddler minding service in the East Manse. The Advent Gardens and the Lights Boats will be in the usual places.

Food will be on sale for most of the day with egg and bacon rolls for breakfast, German sausage rolls through the day, delicious warm meals for lunch and a special vegan salad counter. The new Community Garden is looking good after the early rains and while you relax in its cool shade you will be treated to music concerts from 11am onwards with a varied programme of choral and instrumental music including the privilege of listening to South American folk music played on traditional instruments.

The youth area will host the sale of pancakes, ice-lollies and popcorn, candle dipping and information on the Children’s Summer Camp and youth activities.

The hand-made crafts and deli stall as well as stained glass work will be on sale in the Community Room and a selection of new books in the library, while White Elephant and second-hand books for the bargain hunters are selling under the lean-to and Wake Room-to-be.

This is an event for young and old. Children enjoy a wholesome experience while leaving with an assortment of items they crafted themselves. John-Peter Gernaat

Farewell to Hugh – A Michaelmas moment

Making a life commitment to priesthood, seems to be a tremendous altruistic ideal.

Moreover, when a new priest says YES to a Sending because there is a need, into a community in a different continent, country and culture (which he knows nothing about) one has to wonder WHY?

Listening to Rev. Hugh Thornton introduce himself almost 2 years ago, I was concerned about all the challenges he would be facing in our congregation. I wondered what he based this life-altering decision on. Was this a naive idealist or was there some other viewpoint which he lived by that I did not understand or even wish to understand?

As time went on this viewpoint was gradually being revealed as we heard him speak, during the conference talks, sermons and his celebration of the Act of Consecration of Man.
  • His first talk on “Prayer and Meditation”; 
  • holding the 12 Holy Nights, with such concentrated focus as a single priest; 
  • and some personal highlights for me on “Temple Building”; 
  • the “Walking with Christ” weekend;
  • the Michaelmas conference in September, his last, with a significant message about witnessing the war in our souls, between good and evil, and the possibility to be motivated by love rather than fear -by not relying solely on one’s own strength but commanding oneself into the protection of St. Michael who knows the disguise of divine beings taking on the role of evil to enable man to develop new capacities.


I am therefore grateful to Hugh for his example, for honouring the unique freedom of the individual within their own limitations and the courage to speak from the Feeling of Truth. I am especially glad to have had the opportunity of his insights and bringing the cooler winds of spiritual psychology on an otherwise fierce heat of living relationships.

My wish for him and all of us, is that we notice more and more the habitual fears and pressures of our known viewpoint and that we open to, and nurture the delicate new possibilities under the guidance of Michael’s “Destiny Ordering Will”. 

Hello from Wuppertal Germany!

by Rev. Hugh Thornton

We are all nicely settled into our new home now, which is an apartment in an apartment building adjoining the church. We live about a minute’s walk from the Waldorf School and all the stores we would ever like to go to. What we are particularly grateful for, however, are the gardens and forests which are also just minute walks from our house. Suddenly we are walking through forests again, made up of trees that tower above us and now hold magnificent canopies of colour aloft.

I was inducted two days after my arrival and we were very warmly received. The following week I began to teach religion in the Waldorf School (to the 6th, 7th, 9th and 12th grades), and joined in with the youth group, which has decided to work intensively with drama. My first sermon in German and my first lessons in German are now behind me and although painfully humbling for me to live through have, nevertheless, so I am told, been well received. All and all it has been a very positive beginning here and we are feeling very much at home in our new, albeit, temporary home.

Owen continues to thrive; sleeps through the night and smiles at almost everything. Anne-Lise is happy. It was wonderful that we could come to a place together for the first time to which neither of us had ever been before.

I work with one other priest here Ralf Steinhoff. There are two retired priests connected with the congregation: Friederike Riedmuller who has become a “grandmother” to Owen and who we see every day because she lives in the same building with us and Christian Glasgow who keeps himself very busy replacing priests in many communities in this region.

The actual church is beautiful and well kept. The same goes for its gardens.

I’m thinking of you down there in Spring, and hoping all is well. 

Silver Vows

by Sophia Turner

The misty Cotswolds landscape rose on both sides of the narrow country road as we approached Stroud. Cows and sheep grazed lazily on lush green slopes, with little traffic to disturb their peace. The town was quiet on that Sunday morning, with heavy clouds low in the sky. The Christian Community church was easy to find on the main road and the car park was almost empty. A big marquee occupied the lawn; white covered tables decorated with bright flowers announced a festive occasion.

For the three of us in the car, 23 September 2012 was a very special date. On that day, my age was exactly double that of my elder daughter, Danielle. Remarkably, 75 years before, my own parents married on that very same day. And now, having come from South Africa to see my 1-year old granddaughter, Charlotte, I was here to celebrate Rev. Aaron and Judy Mirkin’s silver wedding anniversary.*

We entered the church and there was Aaron, greeting me as if we only parted yesterday. Soon the Act of Consecration of Man began, the last Trinity Sunday before Michaelmas. The celebrant was Rev. Erhard Keller; his tall stature dominated the space between the high ceiling and the altar. Aaron delivered the sermon, asking a very pertinent question: If we were in charge of the world today, would we do better than what we are experiencing around us? Could the suffering and pain we see everywhere be a necessary ingredient of the unfolding future? How would we develop our compassion, and the will to help ourselves and others, if everything was ‘hunky-dory’?

After the Service we all gathered in the community room for a quick tea, while Judy and Aaron prepared for their marriage. It was a pleasant surprise to recognise some familiar faces. There was Rev. Peter Allan – the retired priest who had spent time in Johannesburg in the late 1990s when Rev. Peter van Breda was recuperating from an illness – and his wife Marianne. We chatted about the old times and he conveyed his greetings to our congregation, which he remembers very fondly. Then I found Nick Thomas and his wife Erma. Their recent visits to Johannesburg, and Nick’s insightful talks, are still fresh in many people’s minds.

We went back to the church, which quickly filled to capacity, with standing room only for the latecomers. The Marriage Sacrament when the vows are renewed is exactly the same as when they were taken for the first time. Aaron’s and Judy’s voices rang out clearly as they each said ‘Yes, I do’ and the rings were placed on their fingers. The two witnesses stood guard on either side, one of them being Aaron’s mother whom I had met previously in Johannesburg. The occasion was greatly enhanced by an ensemble of players with hand-held bells – wedding bells indeed!

After the ceremony we lined up to congratulate the ‘newly weds’ and I passed our community’s best wishes to the bride and groom. A superb lunch was then served by the youth of the congregation in the community room. Alas, the bright space under the marquee outside remained somewhat underutilised, as the skies poured out more and more rain.

When the guests had sampled the delicious fare, we moved back into the church for the cultural contributions. Many interesting, witty and humorous speeches were given, but for me the highlight was Judy’s own. She spoke movingly about the seriousness of the decision she had to make, and how the presence of Jessica, Samuel and Matthew made this vow much richer than the first time round. Highly artistic numbers followed, from classical music to folk songs and poems. Matthew and his friends displayed wonderful skills in a cappella singing that would not be out of place on a professional stage. There was thunderous applause from the delighted audience.

Back in the community room, Judy and Aaron cut their wedding cake while cameras flashed. A photo album from 25 years ago was passed around, and I wondered how many of us will be there in another 25 years to reminisce about this day. Then Judy tossed her bouquet in the air and one happy young woman caught it! Afterwards Aaron and I managed to chat for a while about our Johannesburg community, which is still very close to his heart. He and Judy send their warm greetings.

All too soon it was time for us to return to our hired cottage in the picturesque village of Amberley. There my younger daughter, Amanda, and her boyfriend, on their way back from Bristol to the Lake District, joined us together with Danielle’s husband Simon, in front of a roaring fire for a family supper. Thus ended a perfect day.  

*Aaron Mirkin worked as a priest in the Johannesburg congregation for seven years from 2001. He, his wife Judy and their three children lived in the East Manse.

October Articles



List of Articles

Farewell Johannesburg - Farewell to Rev. Hugh Thornton

by Rev. Hugh Thornton

A Goodbye to the Johannesburg Community.

Know that I will never forget this time in Joburg; that I have been irrevocably changed and that I will carry in my heart many African treasures wherever I go. I have seen the world from a completely different perspective, a perspective that is only possible from this part of the world.  I may not have had the opportunity to explore much of this great land but I have nevertheless been reached by it. A unique spirit of culture is rising up in South Africa and it has been a privilege and a honour to serve it, albeit, for a short time. I will never forget the feeling of deep devotion which I have felt radiating out from the congregation all those times, truly by the grace of God, that I have had the gift of standing in prayer at the altar in the Church of Lazarus. I will remember and carry with me your spirit of service, your commitment, your warmth and openness, your striving and your courage wherever I go. To have played a role in the life of this community has been a blessing for my life; and for all of this I thank you. 
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger

We bid farewell to Rev. Hugh Thornton and look back on a very special time together. In many ways he leaves his mark and we will treasure the contribution he has made to the life and working of our community. Best wishes and gratitude go with him from us as he takes up his new sending in Wuppertal, Germany.

That Such A Thing Exists!

(Ninety years ago, on 16th September 1922 in Switzerland, the first Act of Consecration of Man was celebrated, thereby marking the founding of The Christian Community.)
                        translated from: Die Menschen-Weihehandlung, was ist das? by Rev. Engelbert Fischer

The more time elapses, the greater the distance to the very first full Act of Consecration of Man, the more amazing it seems that it could even establish itself in our present world. For whoever encounters it for the first time will generally not experience that it is the answer to his deeper needs and inner searching, or that it offers fascinating spiritual experiences of God. He will also not find its language to be the language of the beginning of the third millennium, or that understanding has one light after the other ignited. For a few individuals this can surely occur, of course. Normally though, the Act of Consecration of Man is experienced very differently: namely strange, even estranging.

Back then, at the founding of The Christian Community, it wasn't any different. And that, even though the small group, which then wanted to become carriers of religious renewal, brought preconditions with them…:e.g. students of theology, practicing ministers, they wanted to work for a living Christianity and were determined to put their whole existence into this. They had met Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy. Through this they had experienced how culture-creating wellsprings are opened through scientifically founded spiritual research. The longing for an equally enlivening religious practice was burning in them. Yet what Rudolf Steiner, whom they asked for advice and help, then conveyed was more or less just as strange for them as it is for us today in a first encounter.  Of the enthusiastic group ready to implement a new reformation, only a quarter remained: forty-five personalities, who then became the first priesthood of The Christian Community.

When these priests began to celebrate the Act of Consecration of Man they had literally nothing but the radiant conviction of doing something which the world desperately needs. And it was also a time of adverse economic conditions. …They began in the most improvised manner. Despite this the Act of Consecration of Man began to unfold its power of building community. … Christian Community developed where Acts of Consecration happened. And so it is even today: Christian Community comes about, where the Act of Consecration of Man is celebrated. … Nothing (of its seemingly established appearance in the meantime) may distract from the fact: Christian Community doesn't exist, it is continually created, is always in becoming. What one initially meets is, speaking figuratively, only the shoreline, not the river. Without the living well-spring of the Act of Consecration of Man and the renewed sacraments which flow from it, only a dry riverbed would remain, in the best of instances.  This fact can also constitute a problem:        to be continued…

The Being of Anthroposophia

by Sophia Turner

Following the August screening of the excellent two-part film ‘The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner,’ we held a discussion after the Service on 9 September. Comments and questions were raised by the participants relating to the many gifts Steiner bestowed on the world, and how they were being handled and developed.

Is it right to selectively apply certain aspects of Rudolf Steiner’s legacy in a particular field, such as Waldorf education or biodynamic farming? Should all initiatives be faithful to the founding principles, and not be diluted or stretched beyond? A state-funded school in the UK and another in the USA are examples. Each school has a principal who is committed to gradually introducing many of Steiner’s ideas – often in very difficult circumstances – without being accredited as a Waldorf school. Is this a progressive sign or a distortion of Steiner’s intentions?

Several questions arose regarding the slow growth of anthroposophical activities in the world, and the closure or abandonment of many establishments that previously flourished. Financial difficulties are usually cited as contributing factors. Cresset House – a home for mentally disabled adults – was given as an example. There had been initiatives which in the beginning looked promising but then collapsed for all kinds of reasons. Someone commented that, unlike in the past, we no longer have any anthroposophical doctors in Johannesburg. Others wondered why The Christian Community and the Anthroposophical Society were not attracting more people, especially young ones.

It seemed at one point that the picture we were painting was becoming quite gloomy and depressing. Then Rev. Hugh Thornton quoted Rudolf Steiner’s saying that ‘Anthroposophy is a human being.’ Such a statement threw a whole new light onto our questions.

As a human being, Anthroposophy can only live in and among human beings. It is not a theory, a set of ideas or a text book. It stands or falls on what we do with it. The way we carry it into the world makes it grow and produce good or bad fruit. Others see and taste the fruit; then they either join us or keep their distance. Children are particularly susceptible to following our example.

Steiner never expected his listeners to simply accept what he said, but to go and test what they heard in their lives and then to live it. No amount of reading can be a substitute for real experience. With the experience comes the realisation of whether we are on the right path or not. A mistake is soon acknowledged as a valuable lesson. We have an inborn ability to recognise the truth.

There are many individuals in the world who carry the impulse of anthroposophy without much recognition or fanfare. Such work is nevertheless as valuable as anything done under a particular banner. We ought to refrain from judging a product by its label but look deeper, as it is not the sign above the door but the individuals engaged within that determine the outcome.

The film endeavours to bring a multitude of anthroposophical initiatives to the awareness of the general public, and in particular to the English speaking nations. The director of the film chose to show the results of practical applications of Rudolf Steiner’s ideas and avoided getting involved in esoteric speculations. Those interviewed often admitted to not really understanding the principles behind this or that approach, but they exuded joy and a sense of fulfilment at their achievements.

Many wonderful impulses are being born around the world which steadily lead us towards becoming conscious of our mission as human beings. Those who recognize the spirit in others and act accordingly are our fellow workers, regardless of whether or not they put a label on their endeavours. Anthroposophy is still very young but it is making great strides, as documented in this very special film.  Its future rests in our own hands.

September Articles

List of Articles

The Michaelmas Conference

Under the aegis of the Michaelmas Epistle which is spoken during The Act of Consecration of Man we will endeavour a confrontation with the dragon in the following way: we will take an in-depth look at three primary modern myths which give shape to our time. These are: “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894, Scotland), “Dracula,” published in 1897 by Bram Stoker (1847-1912, Ireland) and “Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus,” published in 1818 Mary Shelly (1797-1851, London). We will take these three modern myths and through them arrive at a perspective of evil.  We will continuously alternate our gaze between the menacing dragon and the beckoning hand of Michael who would show us the deeper mysteries of Golgotha.  It is our hope to experience how through our courageous confrontation with the dragon new forces are born in us needed to receive Michael’s mystery teachings.  The conference will be lead by Rev. Hugh Thornton.

Friday, 28th September                19h00 – 21h00
Saturday, 29th September           14h00 – 17h30 Tea at 15h30
Sunday, 30th September             11h30 – 12h30

Forgiveness and Grace Conference

These are the images I have taken with me after the conference of the weekend of 17 to 19 August entitled Forgiveness and Grace. 

In the blink of an I

If we could stand for a moment, this moment, the one now, what would we feel?

Would it be like standing in a river of time?  Could we feel the push and pull of the currents. The past's emotions rushing us headlong from now to then; or could we meet the resistance of the current coming
along towards us from the future, one that can lead us to a new direction?  Would we feel the pressure of water beneath us which carries us and symbolises by its very nature that support and nurturing of our humanly body? And the lightness above us that allows us the chance to lift ourselves up with our head in the sky, our feet on the ground and our hands free so that we can proclaim with great joy, "Yes, I am I".

We as human beings have been tasked with navigating this river and are expected to do this in our own unique way.  This is not as easy as one would suppose.  There are times that the weight of responsibility can feel too heavy and too hard, or fear can cause us to let go off our direction and our way. Sometimes it may be a hope that someone else can see our way clearer than we or even that our way might be forcibly taken from us, but once someone else takes over writing our life story we will be lost, swept away in the currents of the past.

But we as human beings have been given a precious gift, the ability to say “yes” or “no”. In that most simple of expression lives the "I", our truest self and where we meet Christ. That choice given to us is a way to halt the headlong rush of our pasts that we repeat over and over again, we can again take ownership of our direction, of our way and say: “yes I will do”, perhaps even when there is no clear way to do "yes" at that time.

With his life giving medicine, Christ stands in our "I" and if we can hold that within our grasp in our humanity to pull that through our lives like attaching a tow rope to the current of the future that can lead us out from the dark into the light. We find that connection each night as we sleep. In sleep we step from our past where we live every day and are met by our future.  Christ's impulse lives there in the dark of our sleep as we meet our higher being. For us to be able to draw down this impulse from our sleeping into our waking is still to come to humanity.

The blessing coming out of the dark towards us from Christ may be with us each time we even blink an eye, and if we follow that and despite all the terrors and hardships that this life gives to us, the grace of Christ can give us comfort and lead us to heal the hurt and forgive even ourselves and to live with the true meaning of the world. Kerry Audouin

Golden Reflections 

The Living Gold conference 2012 was the fifth gathering of The Christian Community for North and South America, and the first time it took place on Canadian soil, on Vancouver Island. Previous locations included Lima, Peru and San Francisco, USA. This is an event that happens once every 5 years so the preparation and build-up to its orchestration was tangible for all participating to appreciate. I was given the incredible opportunity to be one of the 190 attendees. I felt my humble spot there encouragingly affirmed as I went with an active consciousness of being a representative for our community here in Johannesburg, aka Egoli - the City of Gold, and to further polish off the nugget, my ancestry lies in Ghana, once known as the gold coast!

The title of the conference was a bit of a paradox as gold, being a mineral, is in fact dead.  However the influence this metal has had on humanity through the ages in the arenas of art, religion, medicine, economy, to name but a few, means that it is undoubtedly charged with a very living quality.  Gold demands attention. People and things have been beautified by its presence; people and things have also been corrupted by it, or perhaps not by 'it' as such, but by the false promise of ego-hood with which humans have bewitched the possession of it.  So gold has been used for noble purposes such as raising the aesthetics of the physical, but also for darker agendas in the service of fettering our morality. It was a real treat to contemplate such themes within the multitude of lectures and workshops presented. The leaders had evidently really studied and lived with their chosen subjects in an intense way and as a result imparted real food for thought to someone like me who hadn't really given the significance of gold a second thought before. I came away with impressive facts, perfect fodder for smart alec remarks at, say, a dinner-party:  "Did you know that 1g of gold can be stretched into a single wire 2km long?" (from a talk entitled 'The Heart of the Earth is Gold'), to heftier insights given to me which demand more serious contemplation: the re-enlivening of the Ascension festival is vital if human beings are to survive into the near future!  To expand a little on the latter - the marriage of gold and red at the altar in the form of the wine in the chalice is also represented in the colours of the chasuble at Ascension. So essentially this festival is always present in The Act of Consecration of Man. The gold represents steadfastness, integrity and new life that does not die.  It's important that the traditional picture of Christ disappearing upwards and out of sight, almost like the Wizard of Oz in a hot air balloon, is redeemed. The reality is that at Ascension, His being expanded and penetrated every corner and crevice of the earth, that everything including each of us humans is imbued with His presence. Certainly a golden thought to not just ponder but take strength from.

And so the conference was filled with these moments for me, moments that I am still assimilating and digesting weeks afterwards. Those eight days were far from being solely about feeding my thinking forces though; there was a great buoyancy about the occasion too. I engaged in many a light-hearted conversation with people from every continent, exchanging stories of our journeys to The Christian Community amongst other things. A real highlight for me was the fun that was had in the staging of Goethe's play “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” during one of the cultural evenings. The Cascadia Camphill Community (of whose entourage I was part) were the hosts for the production, but other delegates from the conference were also roped into joining the cast.  Feelings of doubt and unease were quite strong as for most of us involved it was rather last-minute – I began learning my lines only days before!  But that in itself added to the spirit of adventure which accompanied the performance.
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I emerged from the conference undoubtedly stronger in many respects.  Asides from the new knowledge acquired during the presentations, having the chance to attend The Act of Consecration of Man and Close of Day services almost every day for a full week could not help but inject much needed manna into my body and soul, and I still feel it now.

It was a golden opportunity that I will never forget. Lisa Yiadom ​

August Articles

List of Articles

The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner 

Picture
Whether you wish to find out more about the work of the great Austrian thinker and how his ideas are becoming increasingly more relevant in our century, or want to see an extremely well made documentary film by an award winning British film maker, this is a film that is easy to follow and understand.   

Sophia Turner

Forgiveness and Grace

Weekend Conference 17th - 19th August

What happens with my wrong-doings, my sins? When I confess in front of a court, then I have acquitted my wrong through the penalty of the jail sentence. Then I am free of sin. Or not? What about my sin toward God? If I have done wrong against the laws of Humanity and if I want my inner peace back, then I go to a priest and confess. Can it really be so simple? (from a conversation with a person in jail)

Failure, indebtedness and wrong-doing are part of human life. Were everything to achieve perfection and there be no space for failure and shortcoming, how would life be then? What would not be able to happen in our lives?

What is this unique Christian inspiration of forgiveness about?

 When it occurs, forgiveness is something exceptional and momentous. Behind it we come upon a dynamic which allows insight into great depths of our human existence. It is here where we encounter mercy, without which forgiveness is not possible. In this place we can experience with amazement that we—and sometimes only with God’s help—grow beyond ourselves and can take steps we never imagined possible. Maybe this is grace: an attitude, an action, a gesture, an inner shift; made possible through an act of freedom, of selfless giving called forgiving.  Grace seems to be about relationship, a gesture of connection between me and you, between God and Man.  Rev. Reingard Knausenberger

Golden Wedding and Farewell – George and Michelle Abawat

On Sunday, 22nd July George and Michelle Abawat celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary one day after the event 50 years earlier in what was then Salisbury, Rhodesia with a renewal of their wedding vows. Reignard gave a full and elucidating explanation of the practice of renewing wedding vows in The Christian Community by celebrating the Sacrament of Marriage using the same words as for a couple getting married. Reingard holds a clear picture of what is required to turn a wedding into a lifetime relationship of marriage and she paints this picture so well for others.

The Sacrament was followed by a lunch at which we said farewell to George and Michelle who have relocated to Knysna in the Western Cape. There are a few photos of the lunch in the photo gallery . John-Peter Gernaat

July Articles

List of Articles

Community Forum of 3rd June 2012

For those members whom could not attend the last Community Forum held on the 3 June 2012, herewith a short summary of the event:
  • The first point on the Forum agenda was a feedback and overview of the “Wake Room” project and was delivered by Toni Fornali. Tony gave a real in-depth insight to the project as it stands at the moment, focusing on the fact that there is a shell structure already erected and that the next phase will start soon. Toni gave us professional drawings of what is to come and how the final project will possibly look. Keeping in mind Rudolf Steiner’s sketch drawing that inspired the shape of the Wake Room, the design of the Wake Room incorporates sufficient light, air conditioning and space to allow for a well thought out and functional building. We are now very excited to see the physical manifestation and how it will look. Hazel Fornali asked if she could address the community to appeal for members to start donating “bricks” in any form to the Wake Room projects as well as for the boundary wall of the East Manse property. Please can you start to bring at least one brick whenever you can – it would help the church greatly.

  • Next on the agenda was a report back from Karyn Cardoso on the Advent Fair, or as it is now known as the Church of Lazarus Advent Family Fair. Karyn gave us all an in-depth understanding of the processes she and John-Peter Gernaat are working towards as well as feedback on their three meetings held to date. The meetings have been well attended and very insightful. As the Advent Fair moves into a more mature stage, both Karyn and John-Peter have been looking at the various spiritual aspects touching on the grounded functionality of various focus bubbles. They are still looking for members to get involved and help carry this very important festival of the church, so a big appeal is made to all.

  • Hugh Thornton then gave feedback on the “Whitsun” programme held over three days with a dinner as a closing gesture. The theme of Whitsun this year was the “Chalice” and how the bowl of the chalice represents the will into spirituality and sacraments, whilst the stem of the Chalice represents the community.

  • With the Whitsun chalice as the backdrop to the next agenda, Martin Sanne gave feedback on the latest process in which the Trustees have embarked to re look at the “Pillar Process”. In the first meeting held by the Trustees, a new approach was identified being the “Chalice”. Ironically there was no influence by any priests and interestingly enough connected itself with the Whitsun theme! In short, the new Chalice Process will look at the bowl representing the spiritual and sacramental aspect of the church, the inverse to that is the “stem” of the Chalice which obviously represents the community. Where the bowl and the stem meet, is where the priests offer the sacramental connection and guidance, whilst the base of the Chalice represents the earthly and grounded functionality such as admin, spaces, finance, etc. The Trustees will be meeting again soon to take this initiative further.
Martin Kuhlmann

Meeting others; and learning

When one goes to a talk or lecture or reads an article by another who has really mastered their subject and who is able to share this with others through the way it is presented, one lives into their world. What they are describing becomes visible to us, comprehendible. For example, if they are talking about the bonds that form between substances like carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, we can follow the logic and see into this world through the consciousness of the one who has mastered this. We perceive the appropriate laws that apply to this part of chemistry. When we are then asked in an exam to explain this, we no longer find it as simple to do. What we perceived while listening to the master is no longer visible to us on our own unless we have also mastered it out of our own inner activity of grasping the concepts. In a sense, the light cast by the consciousness of the master illuminates a world for us the listeners and gives us orientation into this new world we can see appearing as we are guided through the obstacles with the light of the master. When the master’s consciousness - and light - withdraws, we have the memory of where things were and feel confident that we can navigate ourselves through the terrain in the dark. Once we have bumped into an obstacle that we thought we were to the right or left of, we lose our confidence of where we are and lose our orientation. What we do then is go back to the article or ask question of the Chemistry Professor so that we can re-orientate ourselves. 

In a social sense this phenomenon is a reality too. We have people meeting each other all the time. Each one of us brings our consciousness to meet that of others. In the scenario sketched in the paragraph above there are certain predispositions present in the participants. In the presenter there is a desire to communicate clearly and in the listeners there is an interest to follow. Do these predispositions exist when we meet socially? Sometimes they are there but often not. It may help to slow down our social meetings and allow the above predispositions to be present so that we can learn and understand others. In this way we may be able to shift from lamppost to lamppost and find our way illuminated and illuminating. David Wertheim Aymes

June Articles

List of Articles
Congratulations to Hugh Thornton and Anne-Lise on the birth of their son Owen Gabriel on 18 June. 

Celebrating Ascension

For just ten days we celebrate the Christian festival of Ascension.

Although by the time this is published Whitsun will be upon us we don’t want Ascension to pass by unnoticed.

For the celebration of Ascension the Chasuble is adorned with gold.

The chasuble: that outer most vestment which is lowered down upon the shoulders of the priest for the celebration of our sacrament, is for Ascension adorned with gold. In the place where during Easter there was a brilliant green colour now there is gold. The Easter red, however, remains.

When writing an icon, which is how it is described in the Russian tradition because it’s not really an art of painting as much as it is an art of transcribing the sacred word, there will always be at the very least a boarder of pure inlaid gold leaf. More often than not the entire background of the scene will consist of gold.  In some Icons Christ will himself consist of pure gold upon which are then painted the details of his figure. 
The presence of gold in the icon is both a symbol for and a real demonstration of the light. Light should not shine directly upon an icon, when they are properly lit the light comes from behind and slightly from the side and the effect is that the gold appears to shine from out of the icon itself and this is extraordinarily beautiful to look upon. This visual experience reveals the living truth of what is to be read within the icon itself, namely, the transforming of creation through the working of the divine. In each icon a different aspect of this divine working reveals itself.  With icons the form and medium of expression and the truth which it expresses are harmoniously united. The same thing could also be said of the sacrament. Indeed it is by no means a stretch to say that in the celebration of the Act of Consecration of Man we are engaged in the co-creation of a living icon.  So how does this Ascension icon look like?

We have already taken the path leading to the death on the cross and we have entered the grave and we have risen to Easter.  Now he has ascended and like the gold adorning the vestment he has enveloped the world with his body of light. And its not just his body, the body of Jesus, his human earthly vehicle, which he resurrects, but now it’s the entire body of the earth which he is transfiguring.

The transubstantiation of Easter continues through him both from the centre of the earth outward and from the periphery towards the centre.

The substance of his body and his blood which descended into the centre of the earth transforms the earth from the centre outwards.

Ascension is the celebration of his dwelling now in the realm of the clouds and from there transfiguring the earth, transforming it from the periphery towards the centre. And we who are in the middle are also blessed because we are also the earth and receive the spiritual substance of his blessing through the doors of our senses.

With Ascension Easter continues, this time not resurrecting up from out of the earth as the new life but rather shining down upon us from out of the divine light. The red of the Easter Chasuble persists borne up first by brilliant green and then rained down from the golden light. Rev. Hugh Thornton

Gratitude to Guy and Rosselke

Over the last weeks our community has received many useful and beautiful donations from Guy Wertheim Aymes. Guy is the founder of Pharma Natura and the off-spring company Opti-Life, which he developed after he turned 70 years and handed over the management of Pharma Natura to others. This company Opti-Life he now has also handed over to others and has been clearing up its offices. Can it be true that Guy is retiring? A pioneer and entrepreneur never retires. True to his nature, Guy already has his sights on new projects at the coast, where he plans to spend more time in his home in Plettenburg Bay. There are always initiatives to join and support, he says. Helping him clear the offices, not only has our paper recycling benefited with 2 tons, but we have received the much-needed metal storage cupboards for our archives as well as many smaller useful things for the office. But most welcome of all was the gift of 20 padded chairs and 39 plastic chairs for the community in KwaZulu-Natal. They had a desperate need for solid chairs in their church space. The smaller tables and desks are also bringing relief to improvised spaces.

From a simultaneous clean-up at his home in Sandton, Rosselke Wertheim Aymes has given us a beautiful painting she made in colour of Durer’s woodcut print of Apocalypse 12, Michael fighting the dragon. This will certainly find an appropriate space at Michaelmas in our community room. She has also donated her complete library of the German GA, Rudolf Steiner’s complete works, to the community in Windhoek. This is an incredible gift to have available to all who work with Anthroposophy in southern Africa.

Thank you, Guy and Rosselke!
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CHOIR REHEARSAL 



We are all a little less
than we would like to be
in our workaday clothes
cumbered with bags and spectacles
with thermos flasks.
We shuffle our scores
we cough and chat, dispute
pronunciation...

            but as the lovely arpeggios climb
            soar, and resolve themselves
            in shining cadences
            we are more than we are
            we are avatars -
            we are singing up there with the seraphim
            with the ranked choirs of angels.

We are more than ourselves
until the blessed requiem
dies away in peace
the last notes fall
and are stilled
under your serene hand.

©Jane Abrahams
March 2011

Could this be? A kind of transformation

Many of us became accustomed to the Weleda medicines. These medicines were developed by Dr Steiner and Dr Ita Wegmann together in the early 1900’s. At the time there was an openness in human hearts to ideas behind the Weleda medicines. Anthroposophy was new and many people were carried along by the concepts and the results. Real human interest was awakened. Some human interest went into growing the plants using the biodynamic methods, other human interest went into how to make the product available, and still other went into the training of Doctors. So, the difference between 1900 say and 1980 as regards Anthroposophical medicine was that in 1900 there was very little human interest and effort, while in 1980, there was significant human consciousness around these medicines. By this time, many patients had been treated, many children benefitted, many mothers had spoken from their hearts about them and their experiences with these medicines. Many text books had been written and read. The concepts were being transformed from concept into reality through sincere human effort. The Weleda and Wala brands were becoming very well-known and accepted. Relative fame and power followed those involved. The original seed of interest was being tested by the thought of power and money. The shareholders of the Weleda continued to trust in the leadership of the Weleda without reserve. As an offshoot of this, money became a bigger part in measuring the role of the Weleda than it used to. The Weleda Body Care products were taken up in large volumes at their launch by the loyal Weleda customers; in Europe mainly. These Body Care products made lots of money but did not require the kind of deep human inner effort and awareness that the medicines did. The Body Care products are really just very pure natural products but exclude the spiritual nature of the natural ingredients as they are not potentised. The Body Care products sold on the back of the medicines because of the deep sincerity and interest in Anthroposophical medicine. However, the consequence was that much of the thinking of the people at Weleda went into marketing the Body Care, growing more materials more effectively for them, and producing and distributing them. They have become by far the biggest part of the Weleda’s revenue. As a consequence Doctors are unable to get the full range of medicines, they are not supported as much, and so the Anthroposophical Medical initiative is under pressure to survive and the value that the market finds in the Body Care products loses its support base. The marketers will have to find a way to sell these using only ‘natural’ as fact. Many other initiatives can rightly claim to be ‘natural’ too. So what is the future of the Body Care products?

The purpose of writing the above is simply to show that as human consciousness investigates and shifts, either consciously or unconsciously, the things that we see happening in the outside world change too. We can see the transformation of an idea (spiritual) into substance through the inner activity of human beings. In this case, the idea was Anthroposophical medicine. The medicines arrived. As the clarity of the idea was neglected, there were consequences and we see the decline of the Anthroposophical medical impulse. The Weleda and the Wala seem to have deserted us. Where must the human inner activity come from to bring Anthroposophical medicine back to us?

(The facts would not be complete without this short addition for completeness’ sake. While this was all going on, the drug companies were starting to notice the success of natural medicines. They had damaged many thousands of people with their drugs. Legislation was required to protect the public from this sort of consequence. They in turn were having to increase their prices and do more tests and comply with more laws. The natural medicine movement was not. The thinking was growing that all medicines should be subject to the same tests. The natural medicine movement was not prepared for this. Their failure to see this coming forced them to turn around and face this dragon, also at significant cost in time and human effort spent on the wrong things. The purpose of the article was not to deal with the specifics of the drug world, but rather to highlight the power of human inner activity and how visible it is.) David Wertheim Aymes

May Articles

List of Articles

Two important meeting cycles

A healthy body has sufficient blood - a healthy community has sufficient money  

- investigating this concept in a participative group. The current group is now closed.

At the AGM in March I made the point that the general paradigm around money is that one must have it before one can do anything. From an Angelic or truth point of view I think that this paradigm is false. I said that just as a healthy human body has enough blood, so too a healthy community will find enough money. What else can explain some of the excess of net income in actual terms versus the budgeted loss for the last few years?

Having said this at the meeting and wondering how we could have a different insight completely by the next AGM as regards this ‘trying to get the Community to commit to making up a large deficit as predicted by a budget’, I felt that the only contribution I could make in this regard would be to facilitate a research group wishing to investigate the reality of the paradigm that I presented very briefly at the AGM. I wished to raise this possibility under the section allowed for motions at the AGM but felt it inappropriate as people were tired and feeling the pressure of time. I decided to propose it now instead.

I would see it working along the following lines. If there is an interest in this, then I would facilitate a one and a half hour meeting every second week at 11h00 on Saturdays, starting on 12th May to investigate how we can actually see that money for a Community results from a healthy Community. We will attempt to discover what the focus of our thinking must be if we wish to allow money to seep into our well. It may just be discovered that we should in fact not worry about the well at all but rather that we need to worry about planting trees and meeting our neighbours in a certain way that yields water in our well, or ‘blood for our bodies’. My intention would be that as soon as we feel that we have traction in the concepts to be considered, that we then reduce the meetings to once per month. I would ask that only people that want to run the process through for some time attend as I will not be able to go back each time to catch up. We will be building a thought or conceptual framework that will be the building blocks for the inner eyes that we require to be able to see the connection between a healthy Community and the money that comes to it. I must add that I am not sure of the exact outcome of what we will discover, but I am sure that the process will be very thorough. The more that the participants make the inner effort themselves at these sessions the greater will be their benefit.

The current group is now closed. Please contact David Wertheim Aymes directly with queries at [email protected] or on 011 310-1176. 
David Wertheim Aymes

The Advent Fair 2012

The annual Advent Fair is the biggest social occasion on our calendar each year. It is an event in which almost everyone, rightfully, in the congregation participates in one way or another.
  • The Advent Fair is a spiritual event in that we work together as a community creating something that is greater than ourselves. 
  • The Advent Fair is a social and cultural event: it brings the congregation together, it brings back people year after year who yearn for what we have to offer, it exhibits our values to the greater Johannesburg community, it offers children activities that leave a deep impression and are therapeutic in a holistic way. 
  • Finally, the Advent Fair generates funds for our congregation. Ideally, the nature of this money has a quality that asks to be used for community development and growth projects, but in reality this money is usually required to keep the church going for just another year. 
The Advent Fair has over the last few years and the last three in particular developed to a certain maturity where it cries out to develop to a new level. It also means that the pioneering days are over; systems have been put in place that have demonstrated that they work. Also it means that the pioneering days of a die-hard core of one or two people carrying the event are over. Eight areas have been clearly identified that need to be carried to make this event work. Having eight people carry one area each will mean greater focus and the possibility to taking each area to the ‘next level’.

We call on the congregation to stand behind this annual event. It is time to begin the preparation for this year’s Advent Fair. The process of starting off will take place over three distinct meetings:
  1. The first meeting will deal only with FACTS relating to the Advent Fair, e.g. the eight areas, how things are at present. 
  2. The second meeting will deal with our ATTITUDES and CONNECTION to the Advent Fair, what it means and how we carry it, fleshing out the facts that were looked at in the first meeting. 
  3. The third meeting will allow everyone to bring what has inspired them by living with the facts (thinking) and feeling we have unveiled in the first two meetings. 
One of the facts that is a required outcome of the first meeting is that 6 people must step forward to join Karyn Cardoso and John-Peter Gernaat to carry one area each in the organisation and planning of the Advent Fair. Should our congregation not be able to come up with six additional willing organisers then another approach to this years Advent Fair is called upon, through someone else’s initiative, as both Karyn and John-Peter will help arrange this year’s Advent Fair only as part of a team of eight. Karyn Cardoso and John-Peter Gernaat

The minutes of these meeting are available from our projects page.

​The African Seminary in Hogsback, April 2012

PictureClick on the image for more photos in our photo galleries.
"Do you know exactly what we're going to be doing here this week?" I asked my travel buddy and fellow seminary participant, Cornelius, as we entered the village of Hogsback. "Not at all." he replied, and that was the end of that. We really were entering into the unknown, a real adventure on all levels beckoned us. And that was exactly the spirit which made my time in Hogsback one of the best weeks I've had so far here in South Africa. It was a SUPER sensory experience in the truest meaning of the term! 

We pulled up at Starways Arts Centre, the event location, to be greeted by a real cold snap. Admittedly this dampened my mood somewhat as I've become accustomed to the balmy Joburg Summer temperatures which so far has never failed to give me anything but a feeling of well-being. As I entered the grounds though my attention shifted away from my very British pre-occupation with the weather to the sheer beauty and ingenuity of the plot. The centre is composed of cabins and hut-like buildings within a forest. It does not stand alone, it has very much been constructed into the matrix of nature that exists there. A perfect location for fructifying the ponderings and discussions about life and spirituality that were to emerge. We grappled with questions such as do we really have free will? What is true thinking? What does Christianity really mean in our world today? These were certainly heavy-weight topics, and we only really made a beginning, but I was nevertheless left with real food for thought at the end of each conversation. What particuarly made an impression on me was a session we had with Rev. Knausenberger about the developement of ‘The I’ in the individual and within the context of human evolution. I was left with a strong sense that the incarnation we are each currently living is of pivotal significance – we have to make a decision about what we truly stand for as it may well not be so easy in future eras.  Are we brave enough to make a conscious decision to work for and with The Light or are we content to serve the more malevolent powers, unconsciously or otherwise  It made me question what exactly my own personal creed is. What do I honestly stand for and what am I willing to do about it?  

Anton and Gwyneth, our hosts and founders of Starways, are real examples of how one can contribute to humanity in a most creative and healing way. They have a small open-air theatre, a pottery studio and an art gallery exhibiting their work to the public, and our seminary experience included opportunities to partake in their crafts. We worked with clay, sculpting pots and other forms, and this culminated in a morning of Raku-firing where we got to glaze and fire our amateur works of art in a powerful kiln exceeding 1000 degrees Celcius.  There we really were confronted with what transpired to be the theme of the week – Transformation and Transubstantiation. The same too with our singing meetings – we were taught specific exercises which engage our whole body to aid, indeed enhance, the voice. We rejoiced when witnessing how each of our voices elevated in quality and integrity upon executing Gwyneth's exercises which are inspired by the Alexander Technique.

It undoubtedly was a rich experience in every way and one which I can only encourage others to participate in when the next opportunity arises. My hope is that the seeds of an African Seminary have not just been planted but are now surely beginning to sprout. Lisa Yiadom London, community helper in Johannesburg
The second semester of the African Seminary was held at Starways Art Centre in Hogsback in the Eastern Cape.

For more information click on the image below to access the Starways website.
Picture
Gaika Kop - a painting by Anton van der Merwe
Two more reports on the recent semester of the African Seminary written by Samuel Mirkin, studies politics, philosophy, economics and history at Rhodes University, Grahamstown and Cornelius Schubert, German volunteer in Johannesburg may be found on the page of the African Seminary.
Picture
The Seminarists against one of the magnificent mountain vistas. L-to-R: Lisa Yiadom, Samuel Mirkin, Jason Higgins, Cornelius Schubert, Rapheala Linders, and Robyn Perros

Message from Vienna

Each month I look forward to reading the Contemplation in the newsletter.  It is a little bit like a lifeline, an umbilical cord through which I draw nourishment from the large fountain from which I drank when I lived there. I really do miss the wisdom and sustaining spiritual life of the Johannesburg community.  Vienna is also lively and full. I have been in Vienna for nearly 6 years and want Vienna to be my home for the next phase of my life. There is much work for me here experimenting with and establishing Living Movement theatre as a pedagogical tool. It is a good time to 'cut the cord' with Johannesburg. My house in Venus Street has been sold. The transfer will be finalised in April, exactly 16 years to the month that I bought it. I will visit once more during the year to pack up what is left of my belongings and move these to Vienna.

My life carried an important influence because of the Christian Community in Johannesburg.   I loved being there.  And I drew much strength from all who brought their gifts. I will take these many gifts with me – they will continue to nourish me all my life. These are not just 'words'. It is my reality. I am deeply grateful to all the priests and trustees and community members for enriching my lifetime. No matter where I am in the world, my inner eye will always glance back and hold a picture of the community somewhere in the corner of its gaze. And who knows.... maybe one day I will be back? I will certainly visit from time to time!  Bernadine Schneider

The Strivings of this Life

Each of us is born without anything material as a possession. In today's World we gather during our lives a lot of possessions. Considerable amounts of our consciousness are devoted to this. Our Earthly needs speak to us clearly through our senses that are so well wired to our consciousness. We tune in to the calls for more comforts and more things that may help others see us. We do tattoos, branded clothes and cars, the right places, travel all over the World to get the T-shirt, and so on. Judging others, and offering them all sorts of things that they may not need, is done in the name of survival. In the end, we die from the physical plane and are born into the spirit. We leave the Executor of our Estate and our relatives to fight over the scraps. What do we have with us when we arrive on the other side? Generally at our funerals, two or three points of real character can be filtered out of our whole life's strivings and shared with those present.

There are those that discover their talents. They recognise that within themselves, there lies a seed, perhaps their talents. They plant this seed, water it, give it air and light, through the activities of veneration for the truth, associating with others that also know themselves (through Christ), cherishing their own destinies, practicing self-review, and simply never giving up. Their consciousness spends some time in each of these places to give their growth a chance. They try to bring these together at the same way as is required for an ordinary seed that needs air, water, the Sun and the Earth.

Inwardly they feel the growing of their seed while they also notice their responsibilities to everyday life. They have given time to nurturing their soul and spirit life. They have been guided therefore not so much to the 'high-life' but to people and initiatives that recognise their spiritual reality as well as their need to be in a physical body. They feel the fruit of their efforts. In their birth into the spiritual world at death, they have so much now to assist them.

Several such initiatives, founded on veneration for the truth, give us the ingredient that we can find only with great difficulty, namely 'others that know themselves (through Christ)'. Without these, our inner development would be stunted. A plant in bad soil will show just such a scenario. While on Earth we have to create our own circumstances for our spiritual growth. One such ingredient is these initiatives that bring us to others who know themselves.

Our choice in practical terms is to die with things we did not really need or having done things that were not motivated by veneration for the truth, or to allocate more of our earthly winnings to the ingredients that give us food for our souls, food that, transformed, is our eyes and ears in the spiritual world. David Wertheim Aymes

THE DESPOILED

after a visit to Fountains Abbey


Grass
an immense ruined shell
and ancient fear.

In the nave
a startled rabbit
flees into a blind alley
crouches
with its face to the wall.

Over centuries it touches me:
            the patient work
            of stone on stone
            the lifting of archway and span
            pillar and corbel
            higher and higher
            to the glory of God
            and the hubris of Man.

I can still see the vanished wings
the grave saints who graced
niche and pediment
their mute spaces
sighing into the wind, the bitter wind
that blows through history
bearing threads of plainsong
and the cries of the beaten and banished

shrunk now
to a pigeon's croon
and the thud
of a terrified rabbit's foot.


©Jane Abrahams
May 2011

WORLD-WIDE COMMUNITY - Priest Ordinations in USA

A lot of preparation, thought and organization goes into creating a festival. When the festive moment finally arrives there is a vessel ready which frees souls to lift themselves up to receive what is 'not of this world', but much needed in this world. These are times when we experience that we are not only who we are by what has been given to us passively by the world, but that we can grow beyond our limited selves when we engage actively to participate with others.

Such an uplifting, rejuvenating experience embraced the more than 300 people who were able to attend the priest ordinations held over three days on 16th, 17th and 18th March.  This was only the second time ordinations were celebrated in the USA. Therefore an effort was made to make them available to as many people as possible. Between 22-28 priests gathered around these as well, coming from across the US with representatives from England, Australia, South Africa and Germany. Darryl James Coonan from Australia was ordained in Hillsdale, upstate New York. A beautiful chapel in the middle of forest and meadow, recently built by the widespread community as its centre. We then all trooped further south to Spring Valley, a true anthroposophical centre with training centers, Waldorf School, farm and a unique 'fellowship' for senior citizens. Here a chapel has also been built not so long ago. Our Erzoberlenker Vicke von Behr held two more ordinations here for Paul Newton, who speaks of himself as a 'British American', and for Ann Burfeind from the USA. There was quite a program around these festivals, talks and a lively presentation by the six priest seminarists with skits and the best raps you will ever hear. They drew attention to the most recent addition to the greater Spring Valley community: the priest seminary. Most impressive was the music during the ceremonies, not only the special choirs and instrumentalists who were first-class, but especially the singing of the community themselves. Something to strive for hereabouts in Joburg. If they can do it, we can do it! And not to forget, all the conversations and meeting up with friends, one didn't know one had. A festival like this tangibly strengthens us all! Rev. Reingard Knausenberger

April Articles

List of articles

Holy Week theme: 'Stations of A New Confession and A New Faith'

There is a tendency to feel, when we pray or gather at the altar, that it is about our confession to God, our faith. This is important, but particularly Holy Week and Easter renew another gesture: the one of God towards mankind. 

We can feel that our confession and faith are but a response to God's confession and faith in us. While we contemplate the classic 'stations of the cross' this year, we will find they lead us to Christ's deed on Golgotha as the wellspring for a new dimension in the act of God's confession to mankind, God's faith in humanity. 

Holy  Week is also the time when we as a community have the opportunity to take 'into our midst' the confirmands of this year. They will be participating for the first time with the adult community in the evening contemplations and experiencing that their spiritual home here has real people that acknowledge them and care about them. At the same time, they go through the archetypal path of the soul that leads through darkness to light, hopelessness to faith, death to new life. And that, although we all need to go our own specific path in life, we are not alone, but have companions. 

On Palm Sunday the confirmands and their parents are offering Easter craft-making for the younger children during The Act of  Consecration of Man and the talk. After the talk which introduces the theme for the Holy Week evenings, they invite the community to a festive lunch (ca. 12h45). The lunch is a gift from the confirmation group to the community and donations for the church are appreciated.

On Easter Sunday at 17h00 is a talk in preparation of the actual confirmation service and its meaning. Easter Monday at 10h00 begins the sacrament of Confirmation itself and The Act of Consecration of Man with the first communion for the confirmees. Not only parents and relatives are invited to support these seven young people, but everyone in the wider community who possibly can come! It is the strongest, most positive 'send-off into life' that we can give a young person as a reference point, especially for the stormy teenage years. Rev. Reingard Knausenberger

Spiritual Psychology
by Rev. Hugh Thornton

Instead of attempting the impossible task of summarising the lecture and workshop I held at the church in January and February 2012 I thought that it might be more interesting to offer some of the basic ideas of spiritual psychology, albeit in a greatly reduced form.

Spiritual psychology is a psychology of the mental picture and the life it leads within the soul.  But before we can understand anything about that we have to understand how the mental picture comes into being.  To do this we have to first understand the two processes of the soul: 1. desiring; loving and hating originating out of soul willing and 2.  the soul process of judging.  How can we see the working of the two soul processes confined by the body and the spirit?

Its fairly easy to have an initial understanding of what is here meant as soul willing, desiring; loving and hating but this other soul process, judging, is much more difficult to understand.  Thinking is something that we as adults have the tendency to consider as being a faculty of our soul life that lies more or less within the jurisdiction of our autonomous selves.  When we think, however, of the developing child who is taken hold of by language in the first years of life we can observe that this faculty called here ‘judging’ precedes the awakening of the autonomous self within the life of the soul.  A toddler, first learning to speak, is already quite busy with the creation of mental pictures before the momentous event of the child’s use of the personal pronoun “I” transpires.  With the creation of the mental picture of ‘the self’ the life of memory begins.  From then on it is no longer a matter of the creation of one mental picture after another, but now the organising thread of the self is woven into the creation of each new mental picture as ‘the experiencer.’ It’s no longer just a mental picture of the ‘chair’  but now it is the mental picture of ‘me’ as the experiencer in the mental picture of the ‘chair.’  I am introduced as a new element in the make up of each new mental picture.

But how are mental pictures created?  And how does the soul perceive? Think of the small child and the openness with which she faces the world, how impressionable she is.  The world comes streaming through the doors of our perception and is met with the soul’s desiring.  This desiring becomes the soul’s experience of sensation at the boundary of the portals of the senses where it is impressed.  Sensing the blue sky is a pure experience of blueness.  Judging is added to this when the following event takes place: ‘That is blue,’ or ‘The sky is blue,’ or when simply ‘blue’ is judged by the soul.  And this is the event which is so easily passed by unobserved.  This judging has been active before our arriving on the scene and we forget this in our identification with it as indeed it is a faculty of the self. 

Often we think that in the case of trauma feelings and emotions become repressed and that the healing from trauma is a process of ‘going back’ and releasing those repressed feelings and emotions.  But this whole therapeutic idea is based on a false conception of the nature of the life of feeling.  Feelings can only be felt in the present and they themselves always have an orientation towards the future.  It is true that we may not always know in any given moment exactly how we feel.  This is similar to the condition of not knowing exactly what one is desiring.  Desiring, like feeling always orients itself towards the future; we can not want something in the past.  The mystery of trauma is that it itself is a mental picture which like all mental pictures live independent lives within the soul.  Mental pictures are independent beings living their lives within our soul life.  They have their own agendas.  They strive to propagate themselves and because all mental pictures within our souls have a connection to all others they have the possibility to convert other mental pictures to their own nature.  Mental pictures are the products of the working of the two processes of the soul: desiring and judging.  Mental pictures live in the past, they are the living record of our soul’s life.  Imagine feeling, emotion and willing as streaming towards us from out of the future, this is not easy to do but when carried out as an exercise it reveals their true nature.  The future is coming towards us but we can’t remember it, its just not possible.  So the future becomes ‘reflected’ upon the surfaces of the mental pictures it automatically conjures forth.  This is a certain type of automatic memory which takes place as the future collides with the past.  Imagine listening to some one telling you a story and think how immediately you will remember similar experiences of your own which relate to the story you are hearing.  This is an example of automatic memory, i.e., the exercise of tact, and experience  that each new moment calls out of us and is very helpful.  But not so in the case of trauma.  Here mental pictures have been created which have an evil, selfish character.

Such mental pictures have the power to steer the direction of entire lives, or to more or less dramatically influence the course of events in isolated circumstances.  Imagine you are having a conversation with someone and you suddenly become very upset.  The mental picture that roams within your soul that could be generically named as ‘betrayal’ has been automatically remembered, conjured up to consciousness and now becomes the receiving vessel for this present moment.  The only thing is that this present moment is different and although provides the link to this past mental picture it is in no way helped by it.
This is not an example of tact or experience.  Then a reaction ensues of feeling and emotion.  It is the present moment distorted by the influence of the mental picture ‘betrayal’ to which our feelings and emotions are directed.  The emotion is just as present and alive as it would ever be but it has been awoken by a distorted picture of the moment.  Feelings and emotions are infallible, they relate to the world in accordance with a perfect lawfulness (at first).  It is into our life of mental picturing where the possibility of error has crept in and where our attempts of healing first lie.

Healing
The process of healing begins where we can have the most autonomous influence over our life of our soul, namely, in our mental picturing, that is, in the life of our thinking. Our hope in bringing about the healing of our souls lies in our having a gradual positive influence over the parasitic mental images which haunt and roam independently through our souls. House cleaning is certainly a much easier task than ‘soul-cleaning’ but one of the original meanings of the word ‘psychology’ was ‘house cleaning’ and a relationship can easily be seen between the two ideas. The difficulty in soul cleaning lies in the fact that we simply can not conjure before our consciousness the sum total of all the mental pictures which we have acquired during the course of our lives. No, most of the time, (unless we practice biographical memory exercises), we have to wait until a moment arises in real life that conjures a certain response from us that makes us aware, if we are attentive, to the fact that we are indeed, under some odd convictions about the world.  Afterwards it’s possible for us to say to ourselves, “I never realised that I thought that.”  It is strange that we don’t know what we think but perhaps not so strange when we call to mind that a great many of our original thoughts occurred to us during our childhoods. These mental pictures live in our souls to this day and are conjured up whenever a moment arises that allows for their automatic recalling. In just such a moment, or more realistically some time afterwards, we can ask ourselves, “Why did I react in that way?” This is one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves and is the door which leads to the healing of our souls. This moment and our reaction to it provide us the link, like a gift from life, to the original moment in our lives which gave birth to the certain mental picture which now abides in our souls and is most likely inseparable in appearance from our own identity. This mental picture we can then cradle in the warmth of our attention and permeate it with our loving consideration. (This is not easy and not always comfortable and we may need to do it in the presence of another caring individual or a professional.) With repeated efforts the mental picture does change, transforms itself into something new and bares more genuinely the mark of our own name. Automatic feeling and emotional responses can no longer be solicited by this rogue faction in our soul. Thus we act more out of our true selves. 

Inspired by the Community Forum

Human relationships today seem to be more fragile and shallow than seems healthy. There appear to be all sorts of different anchors that we use to determine how we orientate ourselves towards each other. For example, we are encouraged to look up to the rich by the forces of capitalism. Our boss expects us to have respect for his position. Many managers ask for a title before they feel comfortable in guiding people. The title seems to make the difference for them. Many staff will also only do what their manager says for fear of retribution, rather than what they know is correct.

Then there is another source of orientation for us in our relationships. This is political association. Some people, once they have the political insignia on them in the form of clothing, or simply being in amongst a crowd, orientate themselves to this political party and become the political party. They lose their own identity in many respects. Then there is still another source of orientation, another anchor that we use to determine who we are and how we should conduct ourselves towards others; this is ones race. There are many more, like one’s educational standard achieved. Lawyers, accountants and medical doctors can feel elevated above the rest because of their academic achievements. There are many more sources of orientation that we find if we look for them.

If we look within our own environment to see what orientation we are adopting towards each other and why we choose this orientation there are several different orientations adopted stemming probably from our own personal needs for security, our own prejudice, our need for power, or other. With this diverse positioning of people within a group, relationships are bound to be fragile; the source of our values is widely different. So, is there a correct orientation and if there is, what is it?

St. Paul writes more than once in his letters to the various congregations in the New Testament about this orientation. In his letter to the Colossians Chapter 3 verses 22 to 25 he says the following; ‘You servants, be obedient in all things to those who are your earthly masters, not merely in appearance as do those who want to please men, but out of a true heart and in reverence before the highest Lord. Whatever you do, do it whole-heartedly, knowing that thereby you serve the Lord and not men. You may be certain that in return you will receive the inheritance of the Spirit from the Lord. Serve Christ the Lord. Whoever does wrong will draw to himself the wrong he has done. Before this law, all differences in personal status become irrelevant. You masters, give your servants what is their due in justice and in fairness. Be mindful that you also have a master, namely in heaven.’

Surely therefore if we orient ourselves to the Lord before whom ‘we all stand revealed completely’, we will find a quality of relationship, a community, in which we have the same objective.

We have so many challenges in a very dynamic, changing and uncertain world. We have to try to meet these as best we can as a community. If we all strive to do what we do knowing that our only real judge is God, even though we are being continuously challenged by the confused and impure efforts of others, we will have in common that that we are trying to be pure even though we know that we each fail. The Christ gives us the chance of redemption despite our failings if we are sincere in our efforts. Let us all strive to be pure before the eye of God rather than powerful before the eye of the hunger of our earthly needs. With this to orient us, we will have a firmer foundation from which to work together with a common purpose. David Wertheim Aymes
I speak these thoughts very much out of the lessons I have had to learn.  It is always much easier to blame external factors for the events occurring in one’s own life.  This would apply equally to an individual and to a community.  

As a community we have experienced in the recent past transience within the Priesthood willing to come to us, not one has been able to commit in the long term.  One is forced to ask the question, is this because of a lack of commitment within the Priests themselves or does the reason lie within the attitude of the Community.

I suggest that the challenge may lie within the community itself. It may be that the community as a community has been unable to form a clear picture of the Priest(s) it needs or wishes for.  Most of us know from experience that when one is clear about a wish, opportunities occur in one’s life to allow the fulfilment of this wish.  Perhaps it is time that the community met together to go through a process of clarifying its wish for a Priest . 

The financial implications to the Community can only be considered and worked with once a call has been put out and clearly answered, otherwise the community runs the risk of continuing to accept Priests out of a desperation rather than a clear insight into the Communities own needs and wishes.  The consequences of which we have already experienced. Chandre Wertheim Aymes

A review of the 2012 Annual General Meeting

AGM – the beginning we create

There are different kinds of beginnings. The Christian Year begins with the 1st Advent Sunday and leads us on an inner path of soul development and connection to the central Deed of mankind from festival to festival. The calendar year begins 1 January and has its own flow. A year of community work must receive its beginning and direction from us. Therefore an Annual General Meeting. It is an event in the life of a community where it makes a difference who is there and wants to be there, being part of the awareness-building and course-setting. The year ahead of us clearly requires defined goals for our Christian Community. As outer changes announce themselves, the question is what inner changes and shifts do we perceive want to happen and how can they unfold in a good way? 

A common image used for growth is the development of a tree: is the tree of our community well grounded with strong and deep roots? Can its branches stretch out into every direction? Does its crown have enough light and air? Does the life-stream flow strong and unhindered from root to crown and crown to root that it can weather any storm?

As we set a new beginning for this year of community life on 24th March we rounded off our AGM with a surprise-box delicious picnic lunch in the shade of our garden trees, sharing community spirit and experiencing: where community gathers with common intent, it creates much more than can be counted and nourishes more than only the body.  Rev. R Knausenberger 

The Financial Year past and the budget for the next year

It all started off with the most unusual Community Forum in February – going "shopping", and under a tent – but in fact experiencing the subject of a budget in quite a different way. It definitely got the discussions going.

And some interesting amounts were mentioned for income and expenses of our congregation.

And then the Annual General Meeting on 24th March, the time to look back and most importantly, to also look forward.

The period March 2011 to February 2012 ended financially with a fantastic positive result: the predicted result had improved by an incredible R 334,416. GREAT fundraising, some investment returns, and a lot of savings (i.e. expenditure not incurred due to certain activities not having happened, and some very generous donations for maintenance).

It is said the year 2012 is the year of changes. Could this mean for the Johannesburg congregation that the fundraising will even be greater and even more exciting? And that we financially do not "make" it by not doing things, but that we grow by DOING more and new things?

To grow activities in the congregation, to clarify and grow our relationship to the Southern African Region, and to become more aware of the interdependence between the individual congregations and the whole of The Christian Community worldwide (i.e. The Foundation International).

The Budget presented for the period March 2012 to February 2013 considered all the above. It was accpeted with the proviso that projects will only be executed if the necessary funding is in place and that the Budget will carry notes indicating the assumptions on how to cover the budgeted shortfall (i.e. mainly increased fundraising, spend wisely and only what we got, working efficiently).

For the more financial-minded, this means that a regular monthly contribution of just under R 300 over a whole year, keeps the church open for one day.

Looking back over the result of several financial years, it becomes clear that there is a great force in the congregation that looks FORWARD and thereby has achieved great WOW! results. 

May this energy and enthusiasm persist over the coming months, that we all can look in March 2013 at another positive financial result. 

If you have any suggestions, questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact any of the trustees or myself. 

Deep appreciation is extended to all, whose efforts sustain the community and care for and nurture the earthly vessel through which the Spiritual World can work and be there for all who seek it. Michael Krösche

The AGM in Summary

The AGM this year was attended by 36 members of our community. The meeting was placed on a right footing by Reingard with her contemplation that is published above. This was followed by a reports from Reingard on the Sacraments of the past year and by each of the trustees who gave a report on their area of responsibility. These reports are available from the church office. The financial discussions are well represented in the article by Michael above. The budget was passed conditionally as described by Michael. The audited financial figures of the 2010/11 financial year were accepted and Amanda Roodt was voted to be our accounting officer for another year. The people who had made themselves available to serve on the Board of Trustees introduced themselves to the community and were accepted by the community to serve on the Board.

Hazel gave an overview of the finances of the Region and for what these finances are being held and will be allocated. She explained the Emergency Fund that is available to priets for emmergencies for which their stipend has not permitted them to make provision; the retirement fund for priests and the funding of the Lenker’s duties to the communities other than Johannesburg. Michael then presented his experience of the meetings he attended in Germany last year and tried to impress on everyone the central role of the Foundation International of The Christian Community. This body receives its funding largely from the communities and while it is tasked to help grow The Christian Community worldwide it is limited by its available resources. We were reminded that as a community that has benefitted substantially from the Foundation that we should strive to help support this organisation.

Reingard gave an overview of the priestly roles in Johannesburg and explained that the decisions that Hugh and his wife had taken had had an impact, as a family cannot live apart. Hugh has responsibilities on our programme until Michaelmas at which time we will be saing farewell to him. The Wijnberg’s had a very warm experience during their visit to our community in February and a possibility has opened that they may come to work as priests in Johannesburg.

In closing Reingard brought to our attention the ‘Living Gold’ conference taking place between 21st and 29th July in Vancouver, Canada, and encouraged someone to go and represent us and our city’s namesake –  Egoli – the city of Gold! John-Peter Gernaat

The Timour Hall Church Cottages - Cape Town

The Christian Community in Cape Town is offering a wonderful opportunity for retired members and friends of the church seeking a quiet retirement home. Building a community of like-minded retirees has been a vision of the Church for many years arising out of repeated requests. The generous apartments, pleasingly designed, are next to the church at 39 Timour Hall Rd, Plumstead and provide for an intimate community. Eight units are planned in four separate buildings.

Applicants must submit their personal details to establish their eligibility. The minimum age for purchasers is 65 years.

The Accommodation:
Approx. 75 Sq metres, Living/dining room (North facing), Kitchenette, Two bedrooms, Shower (wheelchair accessible), Off-street parking with automatic gate.
A full brochure is available on the Cape Town Congregation webpage.

More information has been emailed with this newsletter or is available from our church office, but all enquiries should be directed to: Richard Cox 021-789-1342; [email protected]; [email protected].
The opinions expressed on this page are those of the individual authors.