Camphill Correspondence September/October 2003

September/October 2003 CAMPHILL CORRESPONDENCE Tribute to Rev. Taco Bay on his 70th birthday Julian Sleigh, Camphill Village, South Africa Dear Taco, We are far away from each other : you and caring . You could even share our dif- in the heart of Germany and myself at the ferent approach with those who belonged southern tip of Africa . But I would like to to other streams . I remember you telling address you personally, as though we were me about a discussion on death with together and I could speak to you out of many of your Samaritan colleagues, in my heart . which you put forward the challenging We have been friends for some fifty idea that we live in order to die! years-since the early 1950s-and your . .Your term as the leader of The Chris- friendship has meant a great deal to me . flan Community began, and over the It has always had in it an element of guid- years your forces of heart and your deep ance, in spite of my being six years older: feeling for the realities of life - your love many times, in those early years at of humanity and your ability to devote Camphill in Scotland, our conversations yourself fully to the task in hand - have gave me guide-lines for a deeper connec- shaped your service . Outstanding has tion to Camphill, to anthroposophy and been your way of supporting new candi- to Christianity . In our backgrounds, our dates and leading them through the personalities and our stature we were very different threshold of the Ordination, which you have done with from each other, but just that has led over the years to full authority-exousia . .You have encouraged priests an enriching of our friendship, and Lenkers to be upright and clear in their personal You will recall the formative years of our belonging lives and to be social in their attitudes, to develop the to the 'Thursday Group', in which we also had quality of empathy. This you have done, not so much Friedwart, the son of Emil Bock, Mark, the son of Lothar by writing homilies and articles, but by the way you Gartner the developer of the lyre, and Renate, the have spoken at synods, and above all in personal con- daughter of Dr König. Of course there was also Suze, versations with your colleagues . People have recog- who later became Ita Bay, and I well remember the nized in you a true counsellor, and they have turned festivities at your wedding . Indeed we did many things to you, in spite of your high office, as a priest they together, including the running of social gatherings for could trust and a friend who enabled them to open the whole of Camphill in Scotland . their hearts . And then came our parting, when you had the call Now you are seventy, and maybe the time will soon to the priesthood . I followed your progress, and vis- come when your designated successor can take over ited you in Edinburgh when you took up work in the the task that you have carried for so long . May your congregation there together with Adam Bittleston . You health and stamina then give opportunity for you to were an exemplary congregational priest : I know this pursue your more personal interests, and bring to from many reports . You put everything you had into fulfillment much that you have had to lay aside . And caring for the youth ; the young married couples, the may these remaining years be a time of fostering your families, and the older people . Moreover, you reached many progressive impulses . out and connected with the Samaritans, and in this The full text of this letter appears in the work you developed your skills in counselling and your September-November 2003 issue of Perspectives, openness to the many other streams of religious life the journal of The Christian Community. Cover Picture : front cover : The loss of innocence, the burning of the mother, the death of the sun, the resurrection of the flame and the journeys of Fable, David Newbatt back cover : Artaban : The journey to the ruined temple, David Newbatt Contents The Michael Imagination Baruch Urieli 1 Building Inclusive Communities Address by Karl König at the presentation of the Raymond Friskney 2 / Crafts, Community and Tutzinger Star 12 Society Aonghus Gordon 3 I 'Doing the sparks' The Karl König Archives - a Possible Future? . 13 Lana Chanarin 4 I 'Camphill' outside Camphill : Obituaries is it possible? Stephan Linsenhoff 5 /Visions Sophia Victoria Berger 14 / Further tributes to, from over the boundaries Ian Dollery 6 / The and memories of, Marie Korach 15 ghosts still breathe Neil Maclean 7 News from the Movement . .and beyond 7 Teachers Conference Beaver Run Toni Russell 16 Foodwise / Rudolf Steiner's lectures to Hausenhof Camphill Village Johannes M. Surkamp workmen / A Diary : Life and Work During the 18 / Round the Camphill Movement in 18 months Building / of The First Goetheanum / A Child in Jane Luxford 18 / 25 Years Corbenic Camphill Community / Vienna My Home Community Michael Phillips 19 / From the Camp- John Canning is 80 10 hill Eurythmy School Chas Bamford & Rita Kort 19 The Michael Imagination a key to the understanding of Rudolf Steiner's Last Address Baruch L . Urieli, Camphill Kyle, Republic of Ireland The meditant working with Rudolf Steiner's'Michael Im- agination' may become aware that it cannot be understood unless one is well acquainted with his description of the working of the archangel Uriel in the lectures of 12th and 13th October, 1923 (GA229)* .There he describes the process of the sun and its radiant spirit powers out of which Uriel weaves the garment of Michael . This is de- scribed very clearly in the first verse of the Michael Im- agination . In the second verse the meditant is made aware that Michael, whose garment Uriel is weaving, is the messenger of Christ . The messages of what Stei ner calls U riel's 'historic conscience', the messages of moral and karmic judgement out of which Uriel weaves the garment of Michael, thus reveal themselves as messages of Christ to the human individual . Realizing this, the meditant can learn that this second verse of the Michael Imagination points to the fact that, in the course of the 20th century, Christ not only opened the sphere of the etheric to the striving human individual but He also became the Lord of Karma . Until then, the deeds of each human individual were put on the scales and judged, strict account kept of what was good or bad in the individual's life and the karmic account presented to every individual . This has now changed . Through the working of Christ as the Lord of Destiny even a mistake or failure can become a gateway to a new creative step in the development of an individual destiny. The harm done will eventually have to be made good or transformed but it loses its power to Parcival eats with Condwiramur, David Newbatt hold man in a debtor's prison . (see note on page 11) The third verse of the Michael Imagination can teach the meditant that Michael, the messenger of Christ who Only when this path has been walked for a good while, can now bring the Christ-endowed message of Uriel to can an attempt be made to turn to the riddle contained the individual, thereby leads her or him into that cosmic in the wording of the LastAddress . time-space where the true aim of one's incarnation can It is well known that many a reader of the LastAddress be beheld . Thereby the individual can decide in free- has been perplexed by the fact that Steiner speaks of dom what are the next steps he or she has to take in Lazarus John as being the reincarnation of Elijah . Rudolf order to fulfil their destiny i n harmony with the choir of Steiner always spoke of John the Baptist as being the hierarchies . reincarnation of Elijah the prophet and furthermore John The final verse of the Michael Imagination calls the the Baptist was a contemporary of Lazurus John! How meditating individual to become aware of the Michaelic can this be understood? Dr. Ludwig Noll, one of the two guidance which is endowed by Christ's power of love . physicians who attended to Rudolf Steiner in that year Led by it, the individual can walk towards the ultimate went to him after his address and asked him for an ex- goal which a human soul can strive for. planation . Steiner replied that John the Baptist, who had been since his death the overshadowing spirit of the dis- Springing from powers of the Sun, ciples, penetrated from above into Lazarus as far as his Radiant spirit-powers, blessing all worlds! consciousness soul . However, this answer does not yet For Michael's garment of rays explain the connection of the Baptist to Raphael and • are predestined by thought divine. nor does it explain why Steiner never spoke of He, the Christ messenger, revealeth in you Novalis, Bearing mankind aloft-the sacred will of worlds . a further incarnation of the Baptist . Ye, the radiant beings of ether worlds, Rudolf Steiner said at the time that he hoped to com- Bear the Christ word to Man . plete this short address at a future time when his strength Thus shall the herald of Christ appear would allow it. However this was not to be . • the thirstily waiting souls, Thus the reader of the Last Address is left with a di- • whom your word of light shines forth lemma! What would Steiner have said if destiny had al- In cosmic age of Spirit Man .

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