{"id":1948,"date":"2014-12-03T11:57:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asc.wdtest.info\/en\/2014\/12\/03\/conversations-about-our-purpose\/"},"modified":"2014-12-03T11:57:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T16:57:00","slug":"conversations-about-our-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/conversations-about-our-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations About Our Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\">&#8211; by Jean Balekian<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype coordsize=\"21600,21600\" o:spt=\"75\" o:preferrelative=\"t\"  path=\"m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe\" filled=\"f\" stroked=\"f\"> <v:stroke joinstyle=\"miter\"\/> <v:formulas>  <v:f eqn=\"if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"sum @0 1 0\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"sum 0 0 @1\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"prod @2 1 2\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"prod @3 21600 pixelWidth\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"prod @3 21600 pixelHeight\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"sum @0 0 1\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"prod @6 1 2\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"prod @7 21600 pixelWidth\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"sum @8 21600 0\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"prod @7 21600 pixelHeight\"\/>  <v:f eqn=\"sum @10 21600 0\"\/> <\/v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok=\"f\" gradientshapeok=\"t\" o:connecttype=\"rect\"\/> <o:lock v:ext=\"edit\" aspectratio=\"t\"\/><\/v:shapetype><v:shape id=\"Image_x0020_1\" o:sp type=\"#_x0000_t75\"  style='width:470.25pt;height:130.5pt;visibility:visible'> <v:imagedata src=\"file:\/\/\/C:UsersuserAppDataLocalTempmsohtmlclip1\u00001clip_image001.jpg\"   o:title=\"\"\/><\/v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><\/span><span lang=\"EN-CA\">Dear Friends,<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">At the beginning of October, we held our Council meeting in Nova Scotia, where we were welcomed with great warmth. In their article, my colleagues Dorothy LeBaron and Judith King will offer you a picture of the many anthroposophical activities taking place in this small community located in a magnificent natural setting.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Nova Scotia was the final stage of the conversation workshops on the Purpose of the ASC that we have been holding across Canada, starting with the 2013 AGM in Montreal and then continuing the workshops in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">In our review of these workshops, we recognized how the results fell into three distinct categories. The first, a deepening of our understanding of the human being both as a creature of the earth and as a spiritual entity; the second, a strengthening of the ties among members and links with the world at large; and finally, actively participating towards the evolution of society. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">As Council members, we devoted time to exploring this process in various ways. After first expressing it visually by means of a collective drawing, we exchanged thoughts on the theme using words or phrases. This conversation resulted in the following poem:<\/span><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>Walking together along the path<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>Following the footsteps of the angel.<o:p><\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>I bring darkness to your light,<\/i><\/span><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>You bring light to my darkness;<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>We make visible our true nature<o:p><\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>We can love each other<o:p><\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><i>And find the Christ-Sun.<o:p><\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">We have resolved to carry this poem with us into the Holy Nights in order to extract from its rich texture the two or three sentences that may best express the Purpose of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada. &nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Wishing you all a rich and warm Christmas season,<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Jean Balekian<\/span><\/span><span lang=\"FR-CA\" style=\"font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211; by Jean Balekian Dear Friends, At the beginning of October, we held our Council meeting in Nova Scotia, where we were welcomed with great warmth. In their article, my colleagues Dorothy LeBaron and Judith King will offer you a picture of the many anthroposophical&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-members-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthroposophy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}