{"id":52204,"date":"2023-12-14T18:27:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T17:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=52204"},"modified":"2023-12-15T18:38:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T17:38:51","slug":"seeking-community-means-wanting-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/seeking-community-means-wanting-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Community Means Wanting Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a conversation with the organizers of the 2023 Goetheanum World Conference on Reshaping a World Movement, Wolfgang Held asked questions about their experiences and perspectives following the conference.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When did you start to feel, \u201cNow, we\u2019re on the way\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ueli Hurter <\/strong>Soon after the opening, when Claudy Jongstra\u2019s tapestry was lowered, and we stood together on the stage. There was a special energy just being there together with the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christiane Haid <\/strong>Yes, this energy surprised me, too. As the conference progressed, I wondered if the atmosphere would dissipate, but, actually, it increased all the way through to the end of the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurter<\/strong> I think we lost some of that concentration during the forum summaries. It was probably difficult for people to say what came out of five hours of work in only a few sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ueli Hurter, Andrea Valdinoci; Photo: W. Held<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

What was the highlight of your experience?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurter<\/strong> The concert! I felt it was like a big heart that beat as one. The title was \u201cAncient Tunes\u2014New Worlds,\u201d and \u201cnew worlds\u201d did somehow open up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Valdinoci<\/strong> The heart level, this common pulse\u2014it was so impressive for me that it wasn\u2019t easy to get to the level of thinking. I don\u2019t regret that, because I believe that we were able to meet on a soul level. That was necessary. And that\u2019s why I sometimes experienced it more as a celebration than a conference! Sitting in the hall, I thought, \u201cYes, this is what the world movement could look like. In such a collaborative mood, we could achieve a lot.\u201d I also heard that in individual conversations\u2014it was often about this heart level and the observation that strength and inspiration arise there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johannes Kronenberg<\/strong> I would add that we had two movements at the beginning: rooting ourselves in the substance of anthroposophy and spreading our wings into the open heights of the world. Christine Gruwez added a third, horizontal level of encounter. When these three dimensions were in the room together and became collaborative, I felt it was a wonderful moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constanza Kaliks<\/strong> I was very touched when Gilad Allon, who had the workshop on peace, said, \u201cThere are a lot of experienced people here; there are people here who know what they\u2019re doing.\u201d That really touched me. People came here with their experiences, and the Goetheanum is a place where those with experience meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valdinoci<\/strong> Yes, and all this experience was expressed in the forums and, perhaps, throughout the whole conference. I never actually heard \u201cone should, one ought to.\u201d So, a quality of listening and mutual perception was able to arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurter<\/strong> One person wrote to thank the Goetheanum for building social spaces, without occupying them itself, which then made communication possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haid<\/strong> That was also quite striking at our panel discussion on art. There were 120 participants. We started each day with two short contributions of ten minutes each. Then, we asked questions and discussed them in pairs and then in larger groups. At the end, we summarized the results in one sentence. Every day, we collected this harvest. It was a very lively process with great results.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Johannes Kronenberg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

What was surprising for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliks<\/strong> That something like this happened at all! We had been working on it for a long time. And then\u2014now there was a packed hall with people from all over the world! It\u2019s easy for a meeting to turn into an atmosphere of criticism. There were one thousand people who felt a connection with one another\u2014without being of one mind\u2014but with one question in common: What will become of this anthroposophical movement in the years to come?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haid<\/strong> In the afternoon, there were discussion groups on the anthroposophical world movement. We shared ideas about how we first met anthroposophy. These conversations were deeply moving. It became clear that in every biography, many years before the outward encounter with anthroposophy, a thread was formed under the surface that, at some point, allowed the Goetheanum to appear on the horizon. People came from all directions, and then, there arose a common experience! One participant, who founded a therapeutic center and participated in a Waldorf school as a parent, said he was not an anthroposophist. Someone asked him, \u201cWhat do you mean when you say \u2018anthroposophist\u2019?\u201d The father replied, \u201cLike you all, sitting here in this circle.\u201d \u201cBut you\u2019re sitting here, too!\u201d someone from the group said. He then shared that he had cried when he came to the Goetheanum because he felt he was coming home. Not belonging and coming home were contradictory feelings. There wasn\u2019t a single person in the group who could not empathize with that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurter<\/strong> I think this is a paradigmatic experience. We all know it, and Rudolf Steiner probably knew it, too. I can\u2019t just \u201chave\u201d anthroposophy; I have to achieve it again and again. Christine Gruwez poignantly described this in her lecture on vulnerability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kronenberg<\/strong> The Corona-crisis and Russia\u2019s war against the Ukraine coincided with the preparations for the conference. With such dramatic world events, a conference like this cannot just be about beautiful ideas. These events brought us even more clearly into the reality of the present.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Constanza Kaliks<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Did English play a new role as a language at the conference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kronenberg<\/strong> It was a conscious decision on our part to place English and German as equal languages in the context of a world conference. Then, English simply became the main language without us planning that. Nevertheless, there were also German-language contributions in the presentations by Peter Selg, Christine Gruwez, Christiane Haid, and Wolfgang Tomaschitz. This created a balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliks<\/strong> I think the gesture of entering into the English language, into the cosmopolitan, is very important; that\u2019s why the Goetheanum was founded. Marie Steiner added poetry in the languages of the host countries to the eurythmy performances on their tours. The cosmopolitan mission is inscribed in the mission of this house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To what extent were younger participants involved in the conference?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kronenberg<\/strong> Last weekend, I was at an event in Germany attended by a few young people who had also attended the World Conference. They told the other young people about the conference with great enthusiasm. I would estimate there were about 200 participants under the age of 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haid<\/strong> I got the feeling from the workshops and from the atmosphere at the conference that this is the Anthroposophical Society of the future. Because there was such a sense of destiny. I thought, \u201cWe can\u2019t wait another seven years until we hold another conference like this. We have come together from all walks of life!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can we learn from such an event?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haid<\/strong> Well, we didn\u2019t come to this form [Gestalt<\/em>] as a result of the last conference in 2016, but at the time, we asked ourselves, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d And so, I think, each time can\u2019t be the same. It will be different people at the next conference, with their own perspectives. Looking back, I would put more emphasis on reports like the one by Nana G\u00f6bel on the World School Movement, where we were also able to take a critical look at ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliks<\/strong> If the conference were to start again today, it would probably already be different. We have a different situation today, with regard to the war in Palestine, for example. I believe that what is becoming much stronger, and was already here in the beginning, is this reality of the anthroposophical movement as part of a societal movement, freely connected by association, not organized as a unified cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurter<\/strong> The Goetheanum World Conference event is not the end of a process. We have had the preparation, the realization, and now comes an important third step. Now, we want to find out, \u201cWhat orientations, points of crystallization, or lines of work do are available now for the next seven years? What does \u201creshaping a world movement\u201d mean?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Christiane Haid<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Valdinoci<\/strong> I was surprised at how interactive the conference became. We received 600 letters in advance, which were incorporated into the concept for the conference, and now we have received perhaps another 200 follow-up responses. I believe we can and should take further steps in collaboration with all those interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haid<\/strong> The aim now is to organize the results of the twelve forums and see which groups want to continue working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kronenberg<\/strong> The forums\u2019 themes are already a result of the world movement. They show us the direction of our work and what is relevant at this time. These themes were extracted from the 600 letters over the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haid<\/strong> What we have been formulating since 2011 as a trinity of Goetheanum, School of Spiritual Science, and Anthroposophical Society has now taken on a more concrete life. I believe that the future of the Anthroposophical Society has to do with manifesting this unified entity, all intertwined together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurter<\/strong> If we want to be collaborative, we need to tolerate and even further develop our diversity. This is not a new idea, but it was confirmed at the conference. What does \u201creshaping\u201d mean? At the moment, I see three areas of reshaping. As an inner aspect, it seems to me to be what Christine Gruwez and Constanza Kaliks described as \u201cthe unfinished,\u201d the vulnerable. I think the identity of this part of culture is important for the coming years. We should listen to it. As some kind of outer form, I imagine that we could form a World Council, where the anthroposophical movement, represented by its representatives from the Anthroposophical Society, come together with the leaders of the large anthroposophical associations and companies. Then, there is a middle area, which is about our approach, our attitude. What is sometimes deplored as \u201cdiluting\u201d or \u201closing ourselves to the world,\u201d could we rather see this as, perhaps, a giving to and within the world? In other words, could this be an area where our work merges with the world? That seems to me to be the area of inner attunement, of an attitude and presence, and of social organization. This is the direction in which I believe we are now heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Translation<\/strong> Joshua Kelberman
Title image <\/strong>Ueli Hurter; Alle photos: W. Held<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a conversation with the organizers of the 2023 Goetheanum World Conference on Reshaping a World Movement, Wolfgang Held asked questions about their experiences and perspectives following the conference. When did you start to feel, \u201cNow, we\u2019re on the way\u201d? Ueli Hurter Soon after the opening, when Claudy Jongstra\u2019s tapestry was lowered, and we stood together on the stage. There was a special energy just being there together with the audience. Christiane Haid Yes, this energy surprised me, too. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9317,"featured_media":51905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8797,11354],"tags":[11402,8814],"class_list":["post-52204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversation-en","category-weltkonferenz-en","tag-2023-48-en","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}