Council meeting Huronia Branch in Barrie, Feb. 6, 2016 – Can we see each other as colleagues?

30 Mar Council meeting Huronia Branch in Barrie, Feb. 6, 2016 – Can we see each other as colleagues?

Council members are asking: How are we connecting with members and initiatives in Canada, is it the best way to serve the Society and Anthroposophy? We are aware that some members feel a separation between themselves and the council, also between themselves and the Society, and the Goetheanum. We are trying to find ways to make connections which will help us feel that we are all colleagues working together for anthroposophy – locally, across Canada and in the US, and in the world. We are trying to find new ways to work together when we meet as members.

On February 6^th, we had the opportunity to visit Barrie and meet members and friends. We felt so warmly and kindly received! As you can read in Janine’s report from the Huronia Branch, we had the most wonderful pot luck lunch before our afternoon meeting.

A question came from the Barrie members to Council prior to the meeting: ‘We are especially interested in the integrity and survival of anthroposophy in Central Ontario, and it would be interesting to hear your concerns and strategies in regards to this in the Toronto area, and, indeed, all across Canada’. Council took a new, rather experimental approach to working with the question, beginning with a meditative process around the theme of the year. After the meditative reading, members formed three smaller groups, to have conversation around the question: ‘What do we intend to create together?’

Coming back into the larger group, here are some of the contributions, that hopefully addressed in some way, the question we started with, about the integrity and survival of anthroposophy in Canada. You can see for yourself……

Practise deep listening with interest for others; encourage each other in trust in the spiritual world; be of good cheer; humour; take action together in initiatives between young and old; we should not be looking for authority; be aware of what lives in others, often ‘disguised’; anthroposophical movement very much alive, what about the Society?

As we reflect on our meeting, and also the different expectations and perspectives carried by the Council and the Huronia members, what stands out is the warmth and encouragement (definitely not to forget the humour!) that was generated and felt between us in the circle. We wonder if this is the most important connection we need to be making with members and initiatives. Does the meditative approach help those of us who met, towards the aim of working as colleagues, in our good intentions for the Anthroposophical Society and what it stands for? It certainly felt ‘right’ to us – helpful, alive, encouraging, inspiring – in all best human ways possible, giving a positive supporting foundation to all the action it will lead to in the future!

Judith King, with Council members