NORTH AMERICAN SEMINARY NEWSLETTER FALL 2017
Left to right: Front row: Bastiaan Baan (director), Jeana Lee, Victoria Capon, Sarah Ammon, Jong-Won Choi, Patrick Kennedy (director).
Back row: Flora Ingenhousz, Cheryl Prigg, Gail Ritscher.
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Friends of the Seminary,
Where are the places the human soul can go to wholly and dedicatedly give themselves to the search for the highest truths of existence?
In the academies of the West, this search has been declared a lost cause: There is no, as is said, capital “T” truth. There are only useful truths; information useful for commerce, technology or the other “industries.” The human heart, however, dies without access to the truths that are eternal. What is the true nature of my own being, the purpose of life and the nature of God? These questions won’t go away just because some declare the quest for them to be fruitless. Indeed, we will die on the inside without this higher meaning, for we “do not live by bread alone.”
Seven students are at our seminary right now, pursuing this quest with earnestness and depth. They have left their lives, their families, their jobs to be here. And they have absolutely no guarantee that pursuing this quest will prove “useful” in any way in the outer world. No promise of a job lies at the end of these studies. They have truly left the shore, the solid land, and risked the journey across the water towards a land they sense in their hearts is there, but their outer eyes cannot see it. This risk for the sake of the quest makes the journey holy.
But it is not just any quest. We join the wise ones from the East who looked up to the heavens for the eternal truths that can lead us to a very specific “place,” a very specific experience. We are following the “Christ-Star” that leads us to our true humanity and that can fill us with the warmth of his loving grace. That we might return from our journey, having given our gifts to the one we found, ready to give the gifts to the world that we receive from Him.
The seminary would be such a place where the quest continues, where true seekers of truth can become selfless servants of Christ in our time. Through your gifts, dear supporter of our seminary, this place can continue to fulfill its mission.
Great changes lie in store for this “place.” We have now heard from Homeland Security officials that the VISA for the Baans will only be extended until January 4, 2019. This means that in a year’s time they will need to move back to Holland, and I will have to step into the shoes of full director for the Seminary in North America. That gives us at least a year to celebrate together the incalculable gifts that Aeola and Bastiaan have bestowed upon the life of this seminary and the life of the Chris-tian Community in North America. Working with Bastiaan these past two years has been nothing less than a gift from the angels, who always bring us exactly what we need to make us into the servants we are meant to become.
How, exactly, the further future of the seminary will look and be shaped is still incubating within the work of the leadership team of Jonah Evans, Julia Polter and myself. We hope, over the next months, to be able to share the fruits of this work with all the friends and members in North America. For now, continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we may attract those souls who feel the call to serve in the building up of Christ’s body on earth.
— With blessings, Patrick Kennedy, Seminary Director
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The International Whitsun Conference – Playing with Fire — VICTORIA CAPON, SECOND YEAR
In early June 2017, over 1400 of us converged in the Netherlands: youth, young adults, seminarians, congregants, friends and priests. We came from over 30 countries all over the world, speaking many different languages, but united in the language of love for the spirit.
Gathering in a conference center in the small city of Den Bosch, we created a truly cosmopolitan community of fire starters! I was most impressed by the young people who built benches, couches, and tables out of old wooden pallets and gathered around them, lounging on one another, talking, and forming connec-tions. They were creating community from leftover storage materials. The young people had caught the spark and were sharing it!
One afternoon, I joined a group of jolly people with my plate of food. I had never met them before, but they welcomed me to their table. The majority of the conversation was in Dutch, and being translated into German. With me joining in, one of them began translating the conversation into English. We had such a warm and inspiring time getting to know each other and sharing experienc-es of the conference. This act of spontaneously gathering around a table and having three different languages spoken simultaneously, reminded me of the first Whitsun experience. The twelve apostles were sitting together in a room, when they heard a violent sound like strong wind and tongues of fire appeared above each of their heads. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other languages, which attracted a lot of attention. Everyone that gathered around to listen heard them speaking in their own mother tongue. We also had the Holy Spirit in our midst; we were each lit from within by the fire of brother- and sisterhood throughout our meal.
That night during my rose cross meditation, I had a powerful experience of unconditional love for all of humanity, present and future. As we parted ways after the conference, saying goodbye to new friends and old, we carried within us seeds planted in a garden of joy, love and possibility. Coming toward us from the future was the potential fruit of the fertile ground that we had just planted, if we continue tending it. b
Playing with Fire, the International Whitsun Conference
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Living with Questions— SARAH AMMON, SECOND YEAR
We began this seminary year with Rev. Nora Minassian, who turned our minds gently and profoundly to the theme of the questioning soul. To begin we thought back into our own childhoods to see whether we remembered any questions that had lived in us for years working to shape our lives. Everyone was able to look back and see that they had questions working as an under-current deep beneath the surface of their destinies. Even when these were forgotten for many years, they later resurfaced to play crucial roles. It seemed that there is a mysterious force living in questioning and that ns
To speak further of identity, if we look into the Bible it is the serpent who voices the first question, asking Eve, “Did God say, you shall not eat from ANY tree in the garden?” After the ensuing conversation, Eve succumbs to the power of the question. Or does she? Is it not rather the power of the serpent himself, the essential being (or identity) of the one with the forked tongue entering her guileless heart through the doorway of the question? We come to recog-nize how important it can be to know who it is asking the question. Here the question is a tool for deception.
We looked also at how questioning appears in the presence of Christ. Often questions asked of Him open up vast teachings that draw us upwards like rays of sunlight towards the eternal Spirit. Or they can be a vehicle for faith that makes it possible for God’s healing grace to flow. They bear this quality of seeking that makes a relationship possible.
And we are those who want to make such a relationship possible. To do this we have to “walk with Christ.” We have to begin to walk a path of becoming. This path of becoming, like any path, can only be seen in part. The rest is unknown. On a path of becoming there is always an aspect of living with questions.
To close I would like to bring to mind the question that Christ asked of Peter (John 21:15-18), repeating it three times over. I think of these words as words of fire, that fashion a dwelling place for the divine in Peter’s heart.
“Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” b
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Listening for the Angel of the Congregation— MATTHIAS GILES, THIRD YEAR
Every year in the seminary, at each new stage of the training, a threshold is crossed. With each crossing, I have found that my understanding of the meaning of this renewing movement and the role of the priest deepens, and intensifies. Each year, we students step out a little further, first moving from the classroom into the wider community through talks and storytelling. Now, as interns in the third year, we move farther afield into the deeper fabric of congregations across the country.
With these steps has come a corresponding widening of my religious think-ing. Like a slow blossoming, my conscious interest has grown beyond my own relationship with God to the working of the divine in ever-larger circles. I marveled during an Open Course how, over a few days, a Community emerged out of the working of individuals. It was clearly perceptible that through the united pursuit of a group grounded in the sacrament, a new spiritual being was able, briefly, to work into the world.
One of the great tasks of an ordained priest is to form a close relationship to the angel of the congregation that they serve. It is true that each of us has a relation-ship to the angel of the congregation to which we are connected as well as the mighty beings that stand behind the sacraments and this movement as a whole. But what does it mean to take up this relationship consciously?
As an angel, from the Greek αγγελος meaning “messenger” the being of each congregation bears a message that serves the “good message,” the Gospel. Yet, as we can glean from the messages to the congregations found in the book
of Revelation of John (chapters 1-3), each message is uniquely fitted to the community it serves. As members of a congregation, aspiring to serve Christ, we have the opportunity to listen for something new, for a message that is not just for us as individuals but as a community within a larger movement. What is this revelation today? Imagine if we heard the message of the angel of our own congregation among those to Sardis and Philadelphia. What would we hear? What is our congregation’s role in the unfolding of Christ’s work in the world? b
Matthias with Rev. Emma Heirman, Colorado
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A Contemplation on Luke 24:13-32 (The Walk to Emmaus) — JONG-WON CHOI, FIRST YEAR
Instead of mastering the art of concentration, having mastered the art of daydreaming, I can make a quick trip to another world in a few seconds and come back. That being said, there may be a few holes in my memory regarding how the following scene was brought during our opening evening. Nevertheless, it was the very first thing I heard on the very first day of my seminary training, and it made a strong impression on me. It was as though I heard a prelude of the journey that I was just about to embark upon. The scene was “The walk to Emmaus” from Luke 24:13-32.
Two disciples were conversing as they walked toward Emmaus about things that had happened to Jesus of Nazareth. The Risen One came near and accompa-nied them on the way, asking questions, and teaching them. But they did not recognize Him. When they arrived at their destination, they invited Him to stay with them. It was only when He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. But then He vanished from their sight. And they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the way and opened the meaning of the scriptures to us?”
Here is my contemplation on this scene, which has more questions than discov-eries. Obviously, the disciples were searching for the truth whole-heartedly. They even paused their walking in sadness when they were asked what they were talking about. The fact that they were two, instead of one, shows the picture of searching together, of human companionship in our striving. They also actively invited Him in, which eventually led them to the recognition of the companion-ship of Christ. In our journey of searching together, we may find Christ accom-panying us. How can we notice His presence when He quietly joins our walk? Has He already been accompanying us without our noticing it? In His teaching, He explained everything in their language so that they could understand the meaning; what is our language in our time? Are our hearts already burning? How can we quicken and open our hearts to fully grasp the mystery of Golgotha?
So, for your enjoyment, here is another quick daydreaming and return: the trans-formation of the Beast into the prince is also the transformation process of the Beauty, a journey toward “becoming love” accompanied by Christ. b
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Emmaus by Manfred Wetzel
Meeting Saint Paul: Reflections on the Open CourseSaint Paul – Christian Thinking — FLORA INGENHOUSZ, FIRST YEAR
Our typical reaction to physical and emotional pain is just like Paul’s when he has a thorn in his body and asks God, not once or twice, but three times to remove the thorn. Paul’s prayer is answered with Christ’s words: “Be content with the grace that flows to you from me.” Those words console and nourish my own soul, and simultaneously challenge me to use my will to remember these words when part of me might think: “I should not have to suffer this.”
For Paul, a Greek-speaking Jew and citizen of the Roman Empire, pain became a doorway through which to connect not only with Christ’s suffering and death, but also his resurrection. He came to appreciate the thorn as a gift, a constant reminder to not get carried away by pride. The thorn kept him humble.
In this open course, Patrick Kennedy and Jonah Evans brought Paul alive. They co-created a space in which Paul’s spirit became present. As one of the open
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Participants in the Open Course with Rev. Jonah Evans and Rev. Patrick Kennedy
course participants said, it became not only an intellectual but an experiential journey, which ended in a morning where insights and new understandings were flying like holy sparks.
Paul was a radical who, through his letters to budding Christian communities, challenges us to put on Christ’s mind. Paul proclaimed “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me.”
I invite you, as we were invited, to ingest the words in the Act of Consecration in which we pray: “May my thinking live in the life of the Holy Spirit” and: “Take this into your thinking.”
My experience of the course was further enhanced by the class called: The Art of Seeing. Aeola Baan gave each of the 25 participants seeds from a maple tree to observe. I became awed by these butterfly-like beings. Beings that swivel down to the ground on almost transparent wings. Wings with shades of color varying from mint green to deep pink. Wings that lovingly envelop seeds that are tough as nuts.
Patrick and Jonah sowed innumerable seeds, some of which landed in fertile soil. For the seeds that were tough as nuts, my work is clear: to continue to prepare the soil of my soul, so that more seeds may bear fruit. This course made me hungry to read Paul’s letters. Without Paul we would not have The Christian Community, let alone the seminary. b
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“The Art of Seeing” with Aeola Baan — CHERYL PRIGG, SECOND YEAR
“All human enquiry must proceed from wonder! …[If] the soul wants to penetrate to the truth … the soul must stand before the universe in a mood of wonder and marveling. After the mood of wonder must follow the mood of veneration, of reverence. Any thinking that does not hold a reverent manner will not be able to penetrate to reality.”
Rudolf Steiner, The World of the Senses and the World of the Spirit, Lecture 1.
There is so much that we take for granted in the world around us, yet further, it is possible to say that even when we do look, often we do not see. We rely on our past experiences and preconceptions, which is entirely understandable and mostly necessary. Who has the time, patience or ability for that matter, to stop and see everything that we pass, and look at all that is in the world as if we have never seen it before?
The pace of the world does not often allow us to slow down and pay close attention to the wonders that surround us, which makes the “Art of Seeing” class so delightfully relaxing and rejuvenating. Each week, we pause, closely look, and begin to really see something of nature in its finest, most delicate detail, in its most intimate intricacy. We are given the time to develop new eyes, a wondering gaze, a sharpened perception that is more sensitive to the beauty, the life, the being of nature.
After careful beholding, imagining and perhaps even glimpsing the being that weaves behind nature, we draw as accurately as possible - not really as an artistic endeavor - but a chance to see again, with our hands and heart what this being of nature is revealing to us. Drawing then becomes a meditation, a conversation, an exploration into the forces and nodes points of growth, the gesture of a leaf, or a seedpod or a flower.
“The Art of Seeing” weaves our deep interest and careful observation into a living thinking and a heightened sense for the beauty and intelligence that waits to reveal itself to us, through various exercises that include drawing and sculp-ture. Recently, the bright green pods, innumerable fairy-like seeds and the fact that it is such an important host-plant for the magnificent Monarch Butterfly: the milkweed plant was the inspiration for this short story for little children.
THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY AND THE FATHER GOD
Not long after the world had begun, the Monarch butterfly went to the Father God and asked, “Dear Father God, I need a safe place to lay my eggs. A place where they can be and grow and find healthy food.”
“Yes,” said the Father God, “the perfect place has been created for your eggs dear butterfly, come and see. This is the Milkweed plant little butterfly.” “Milkweed?” echoed the butterfly. “Look closely little one, not only is the sap of
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Milkweed at the Seminary
the stem milky goodness, these great green pods hide and protect the cocoon while your mystery of transformation occurs within it.”
“Thank you very much dear Father God,” said the Monarch, “there is one more thing.” “Anything beautiful one, ask away.” “How will our eggs survive next year?” “Ah, this is the most wonderful part of all,” said the Father God as he opened an older pod… “See in here, so many seeds are waiting for the perfect time to fly off into the world so more Milkweed plants can be sown for your eggs for evermore.”
“Is there anything else little one?” “Not one thing at all,” said the butterfly as it danced away on the wind with the seeds. b
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Impressions of My Internship— ZOE SCOULOS
This year I am at the Christian Community in the Greater Washington-Baltimore Area for my internship. I am living in a friend’s home about 10 minutes from the parish house. My room looks out into a well-tend-ed flower garden with a fountain and small pond. The trees are filled with sparrows and robins and squirrels that have plenty to eat of the seeds and insects. The days have been warm enough to keep my windows open to hear the birds singing and bathing in the birdbaths.
After Tuesday and Thursday services, I stay and eat breakfast with members of the church and listen to their stories of their encounters with life. Many times our stories are connected to the day’s gospel reading and we discuss its impor-tance. We try to help each other understand the gospel reading using Rudolf Steiner’s lectures. What I find most significant about listening to each other’s stories is how Rev. Carol Kelly weaves Christ’s teachings into the discussion. I find these conversations highly intimate and sacred. In this way, we get to know and understand each other.
I recently had the opportunity to have dinner with the youth and the confir-mands at the parish house with Rev. Carol Kelly. I told the story of George Richie’s death experience in an army hospital, in which he came back to life after nine minutes. All the children were quiet and stared at me as I told the story. Afterwards, I asked them to draw protective shields in their main lesson book with symbols that represented to them courage when they faced their fears in life. The very next day on Sunday, I gave my first religious story to the children and their parents. It was Michael and the Hermit. As I told the story, the children were looking at me with intensity and I grew more into the story. I found that we were all involved in this medieval tale together. I grew closer to the understanding of who this mighty angel Michael has become for human-ity. I realize how much more I am connecting to Christ and the Father God by telling these amazing stories.
Who said that sacred relationships with one another can’t be great fun?! b
Zoe with Rev. Carol Kelly, Maryland
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“Because You Said So”— GAIL RITSCHER, SECOND YEAR
When my husband was diagnosed with cancer in December 2013, I retired. Everyone, including my husband, thought I was being hasty, but I knew with unshakeable certainty that my job with the government had run its course. Something new was coming, whether Pieter ultimately overcame his cancer or not. Eighteen months later, he was gone, and 14 months after that I had found people to take care of my house, garden, and pets, and I was at the seminary. I had never even gotten to the “What am I going to do with my life now??” stage! Things move fast when destiny takes the wheel. The only thing I knew in September 2016 was that Pieter and I were going to the seminary—yes, he definitely came with me, and that my goal was to study and grow for a year, not to be a priest.
Over the next few incredibly rich and inspiring weeks, I fell in love with the notion of priesthood for a bit. It is hard not to when you wake up every morning with joy in your heart and a “yes!” on your lips, but by January 2017 I had returned to planet Earth and reaffirmed that no, I really did not want to be a priest, but I wanted to be something for the church, and I yearned to stay at the seminary for a second year. I had finally reached the “What am I going to do with my life now??” stage.
So off I trotted to Patrick (as in the Rev. Patrick Kennedy) and wailed, “I wish there was something between being a priest and being a congregation member!” “There is,” he replied calmly. I sat up straight. “There is??” “Yes,” he said, “there is, because you said so.” Hmmm….I had no idea what to make of that answer. Eventually, however, it came out that my heart’s desire had coincided with a growing conviction within the Christian Community that the church needed a deacon-type role and that, by expressing my desire, I had essentially kick-started the process of beginning to turn that conviction into a reality. All that remained was the mechanics of making it happen, and it helped that I woke up one morning with the idea of a hybrid second seminary year, or what I consider a Mary/Martha year: half study, half practical training for a role we decided to call “Ministries Coordinator.” It’s perfect for me, and it’s all because I said so. b
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Circles Within Circles— LUIS GONZALES, THIRD YEAR
I began my internship in Toronto two months ago, as part of my third year at the Seminary. Moving from the classroom and into Community was a most significant change. The schooling now takes place in a much wider space of relationships: encountering people’s lives and destinies and how they weave their relationship with the Christ, learning from their experiences of how to create Community, the work of the Priest in relation to the Community, the inner life, etc. The living questions from the classroom reappear again, through encountering the world. It is also an interesting experience to live at the location of the Community, where all kinds of activities take place. My life is shaped by the regular rhythms and the extraordinary events that take place.
In the month of October, we had 10 days of special gatherings: a weekend of meetings for the future Directors of the Seminary, the Priests’ Synod and the meeting of the Regional Board. We had the visit of Rev. Christward Kroner (the Oberlenker linked to North America), Rev. Oliver Steinrueck (Lenker of North America), most of the Priests from North America and Members of the different communities that participate in the Regional Board.
Circles Within Circles by Robert Delaunay
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Thinking is Christ in us.
This may sound strange, so let us consider these terms more closely. When I say “thinking,” I mean what Rudolf Steiner calls “living thinking,” a thinking that has the characteristics of an organism, like varying repetition, polarity, enhance-ment, etc. (For more, see Goethe’s work on plants.) I have come to realize that what I once considered thought was actually just memory or language. As a math teacher, an example that clearly shows me the difference between “dead” and “living” thinking is the following: Picture a triangle. It may be equilateral, it may be isosceles, it may be acute, or obtuse, or right-angled. These are all examples of the triangle. But none of them are the thought, the concept, triangle. They are dead. Now, picture your triangle again, imagine it drawn on a chalkboard. Imagine the three corners are movable, and they are connected with some kind of elastic string. Picture the corners moving. The triangle is bigger, smaller, elongated, becoming at some moment every possible triangle (that fits onto the chalkboard!) This moving triangle is a living thought. I have to be inwardly active the whole time I am thinking it.
My senses perceive the world as a tapestry of undifferentiated, disconnected chaos. Only when concepts are linked to my perceptions through thinking activ-ity can I experience reality.
Thinking Is Christ in Us— JEANA LEE, FIRST YEAR
It was amazing to see all the goodwill in the community as they came together to create and prepare the space to host all these groups and look after their needs during their stay. One of the organizers said, and I quote, “We are creat-ing a Festival of Love!”
Once the activity was over, what came to my mind was a painting of Robert Delaunay’s that I have often seen and pondered over, at the MOMA: circles that dissolve and move into other circles. It reminded me of the dynamics of what I had been observing over the past days, a principle that sustains the Christian Community, people forming circles of responsibility. Each of them holds in their consciousness the different perspectives that they work and live from, wheth-er it is the congregation, the Lenkers, the Circle of Seven or the Priests, and all of them support each other. I imagine that in the spiritual dimension, this is mirrored by beings who are interpenetrating, working and weaving in and through us… circles within circles. Delaunay’s painting is circular in shape within a circular frame and everything is bathed in a gentle, all embracing light – the one that can unite us.
The Community of Toronto became an active vessel, in a visible way, surround-ing and making possible all these encounters. I am grateful for all that I have learned from them. b
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In my daily life, I feel separated from the world around me – I am in here and it is out there. I seem subjective and the world is objective. The separation results from the way I perceive what is out there and do not immediately know its nature in the intimate way I know my inner self. But thinking connects my individual perceptions with the universal concepts to which they belong, thus overcoming the separation of inner and outer world. Thinking transcends subject and object, which are themselves concepts, and only come about through thinking activity.
And what does Christ have to do with any of this?
Christ transcends duality, just as thinking does. Separation was the original meaning of sin, and Christ is the healer of this separation. He is the divine human being, both eternal and temporal, both universal and individual. In us, Christ is the power that unites matter and spirit, bringing wholeness to our being.
Through thinking, we can know the divine. We can recognize Christ in ourselves and in others. We have access to the means by which we can know ourselves, know the world, and know higher worlds as well. b
Another gift of the rose
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And now, my God, where should I travel to find you?Where do I enter? What mountain must I climb?If someone asks for you: where should I point?
—Rainier Maria Rilke
Carving out the time in one’s busy life in order to attend a seminary open course is a worthwhile endeavor. The extraordinary opportunity to renew and enrich the inner life through attending an open course is pregnant with possi-bilities. Fifty participants found their way to this extraordinary course that was presented by Bastiaan Baan and Patrick Kennedy.
It was interesting to speak with the participants and ask them why they came to this course. One participant was at a crossroads in life and was grateful to have such a rich atmosphere to breathe into during her transitional time. A Presbyterian minister came to receive inspired impulses into her work. As a teacher, each of the open courses that I have attended have filled me with a revitalizing force that deepens my work with the children in my care and in my own inner efforts. There is a quality in these open seminary courses that brings an awareness into one’s life that creates an intentional, awakening call towards the deepest purpose of our existence.
Each morning began by celebrating the Act of Consecration of Man. This healing activity set the mood for each day. The rich content of this sacramen-tal journey set the tone as the community gathered in prayer together.
Chartres: The School of Philosophy and the Cathedral - An Open Course— LAURIE CLARK
Chartres Open Course
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Bastiaan then generously shared with us his profound understanding of the Cathedral and School of Chartres. Historically and with his knowledge of esoteric Christianity, he provided a picture of the inception of the ‘Mother of all cathedrals.’ He brought his own personal experiences of his visits to Chartres which added a liveliness to the content.
The pictures of Chartres came alive as Bastiaan led us in singing together, the beautiful song of the Stella Splendens in Monte. This is a song the pilgrims sang as they walked to the Cathedral in the middle ages. We could imagine walking in the dark of night, by the sea, with a star radiating down to guide us towards this sanctified place that is dedicated to Mary Sophia and John.
We could almost step into the stunning colored light that the windows of the cathedral cast out as we viewed the photographs of Chartres on a large screen. We learned that the cathedral was built as a vessel for Mary. When entering such an exquisite, vaulted space, the soul of the human being is lifted up. We learned that temple building was considered the holiest work, shaping matter for spirit to enter in. This kind of building is an invitation into participating with what God does for each human being. The human being is a temple where the spirit lives in the heart of each of us.
From time to time, there comes an astonishing inspiration that has the ability to help us to gather up our lives in a new way. This week was definitely one of those times. I am deeply grateful for having had this experience and being able to share it in community.
We are all pilgrims
seeking the altar
one to many seeking
at the sanctuary of the heart
a sudden brilliance
enters the cave
and ashes of starlight
fall into the well of holy powers
The Virgin’s eyes are closed now
But she lifts her veil
And rises in her dreaming
Urging us on
Towards the reflection of our becoming b
Chartres Open Course
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Usually we say: “Coming events cast their shadows before.” However, looking ahead towards the future of our priest training here in North America, I recognize light. Although the future is always unpredictable and predictions usually have a high “cloud castles” factor, there are clear indicators of what will happen at the end of 2018: my wife and I will return to the Netherlands when our visas expire. Knowing that this moment would arrive, groundwork has been prepared during the previous year towards this transition.
A team of colleagues – Patrick Kennedy, Julia Polter and Jonah Evans – have worked together for over a year, to prepare for the future of the seminary. Not only has there been strong cooperation within this group but also a harmonious cooperation with the existing priest training.
Having worked here for five years, I feel only gratitude for what has been built-up during these years. My most important task was to realize a full priest train-ing: when I arrived in North America, only the first year and the beginning of a second year was offered after which, students had to continue their training in Germany.
Step by step we could realize this task. I say “we” because this would not have been possible without the never-ending help of my wife Æola and the colleagueship of Patrick Kennedy.
A transition is more than just a change from one moment to another. The Latin word “transitio” means a gradual change, in which each step prepares the next one. With the help and support of those who will step back, a metamorphosis takes place, while the “status quo” is still present. In fact, however, I never experienced any static situation during the years of my work in North America. Being near to “the city that never sleeps,” I often felt like running a marathon. The impression of constantly being en route from one task to the other was fortified by countless journeys than eventually resulted in the nickname: “The Flying Dutchman.”
Thinking back on these eventful years, I remember a hope-giving sign that reached the seminary after one of my visits to a congregation, where I held a lecture. A few days later, a check with a big number, written by a person who wanted to remain anonymous, came in the mail. On the check was a remark: “I see that the seminary is in good hands.” Exactly the same can be said when in the course of next year, the troika of three younger colleagues takes over the reins of the seminary. Coming directors cast their lights before!
Please help with your support and donations to keep our precious English-speaking priest training of The Christian Community - the only one in the entire world - healthy and alive. b
Coming Events Cast Their Lights Before— BASTIAAN BAAN, SEMINARY DIRECTOR
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Spring Semester - Main CoursesWeek of January 22 • Prayer and the Forces of the Heart with Rev. Bastiaan Baan
Week of January 29 • The Heart of Jesus with Rev. Patrick Kennedy
Week of February 5 • Parsifal and the Grail: The Opera by Richard Wagner OPEN COURSE with Rev. Bastiaan Baan
Week of February 12 • Awakening to the Heart of John’s Gospel with Laura Summer (Hillsdale) and Rev. Patrick Kennedy
Week of February 19 • Exploring the Calendar of the Soul Through the Year with Rev. Bastiaan Baan and Professor Hans van Delden (Zeist, the Netherlands)
Week of February 26 • Christ and the Sun with Rev. Jonah Evans (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Week of March 5 • Students work on projects
Week of March 12 • Rhythms of Human Life with Jennifer Brooks-Quinn (Spring Valley, NY)
Week of March 19 • From Lamentation to Joy - The Passiontide and Easter Liturgy with Rev. Oliver Steinrueck
Week of March 26 • Holy Week: Presentation of Projects
Week of April 2 • Easter Vacation
Week of April 9 • “Your Will Be Done” with Rev. Michael Brewer (Detroit, MI)
Week of April 16 • The Mystery of Evil - The Challenges of Our Time with Rev. Jim Hindes (Denver, CO)
Week of April 23 • Working Out of the Future - Developing Apocalyptic Vision OPEN COURSE with Rev. Bastiaan Baan and Rev. Patrick Kennedy
Week of April 30 • “Let Us Love the Trees” - Observing, Understanding, & Appreciating Them
with Rev. Peter Skaller (Hillsdale, NY)
Week of May 7 • The Future Mani-Intention and the Art of Small Steps with Christine Gruwez (Belgium)
Week of May 14 • “Working From Christ” with Rev. Bastiaan Baan and Rev. Patrick Kennedy
Week of June 4 • Course with Dr. Peter Selg in Dornach, Switzerland
Week of June 11 • Course at the Seminary in Stuttgart, Germany
845-356-0972www.christiancommunityseminary.orginfo@christiancommunityseminary.org
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Spring Semester begins January 21, 2018
Applications for the Fall Semester are due August 19, 2018
For application forms, visit www.christiancommunityseminary.org
Spring 2018 Open CoursesFebruary 5–9
Parsifal and the Grail - The Opera by Richard WagnerWith Rev. Bastiaan Baan
April 23–27Working Out of the Future - Developing Apocalyptic Vision
With Rev. Bastiaan Baan and Rev. Patrick Kennedy
For Open Course registration, visitwww.christiancommunityseminary.org
Page: Open Courses and retreats
