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The Christian Community in Australia and New Zealand. .. . . . .. . . . . . . .SPECIAL INFORMATION FOR YOUTH & YOUNG ADULTS . . . . __.. _______________________________________ CAMPS - GROUPS - EXPEDITIONS RETREATS - JOURNEYS - CONFERENCES
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DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT WITH PICTURES >> HERE Summer Alpine adventure South Island - New Zealand , January 2008 ‘Advance' was the logo on the side of the hired bus and advance we did, largely thanks to our driver, Wendy who patiently conveyed us from Christchurch to the West Coast, Queenstown, the Rees-Dart track, Mt Cook, Arthurs' Pass and back to Christchurch . Alpine adventurists, we were 4 adults and 13 youth aged 15 to 29 out to explore Christianity as the love of Spirit for matter. And how we loved and lived it; brushing our teeth in front of mountains instead of mirrors, chasing waves on a wild and windy West Coast beach, the taste of 1000 year old glacial ice, brave Tobias' first cartwheels in front of everybody, Ian's quiet rave about artist Joseph Beuys and how he's been able to introduce Beuys' principles of social sculpture into his construction business, the Socrate's café where we voted for an evening's discussion on ‘What is the basis of social Our journey proper began in the natural limestone outcrop at Castle Hill, known to early Waitaha people as the Birthplace of the Gods. Here we were introduced to the idea that we belong to the whole cosmos. From the stars we bring to Earth at birth, our wairua or spirit and it is to the stars we return it again at death. Earth and Mind-Spirit exist in continual intimate communion with one another. Therefore Earth has something to do with our thinking; our thoughts are shaped by the world around us. If we lose Nature's forms or habitats prematurely, then as well as the senseless biocide we also extinguish part of our imaginative life of thought. Many scientists and psychologists suggest that the true ecological task is not only to repair the damage to the outer world but also to address the deep split in our psyches. Psychologically, we are rent apart by narrow, dualistic thinking (eg) the lack of common ground between science and religion that underpins our modern world-view. Some even suggest we cannot achieve a real caring for the earth without a radical reorientation – a form of at-one-ment with the world through sacrament and ritual whereby the boundaries between self and world are collapsed and we learn to experience ourselves as part of and one with Nature. We took time to sit alone among the stones and come ‘home' inwardly after travelling from Sydney , Canberra , Melbourne , Auckland and Hawkes Bay . We began to listen to a part of ourselves that is easily overlooked in contemporary life. Spirit is never without matter nor matter devoid of spirit. As we pressed our thumbprints into a ball of clay we each named a wish for the two weeks we would journey together. Thus we gave to the clay an outer form and a spiritual significance. Were it not for the fire risk, we would have fired it as well. Then it would have fully symbolised the uniting of human substance with Spirit – of clay joined with thought through the fire of love. Hartmut carried this journey stone for us in his pack, all the way to the end of the trip. Each day began with a spoken verse; The sphere of the Spirit is my soul's true home And I will surely reach it By walking in the path of honest thought, By choosing as my guide the fount of love implanted in my heart, By opening the eye of my soul to Nature's script Spread out before me through all the universe Telling the story of the Spirit In all that lives and thrives, In the silent spaciousness of lifeless things And in the stream of time, The process of becoming. ( from Rudolf Steiner's ‘Verses and Meditations') To find our feet in our boots, we climbed to the alpine gardens of Temple Basin .
Every horse thinks his own pack is the heaviest and trampers are no exception. Some of us had arrived with packs so small they couldn't possibly have carried anything to eat. Others tried to substitute a pillow for their share of the larder! But eventually we distributed the goods and could leave Glenorchy for the 5-6 day walk around Mt. Earnslaw – up the Rees Valley , across Rees Saddle and down the Dart Valley . The first night's camp was a grassy terrace above the river, among beech trees and stars. Enormous boulders surrounded our tents, shrugged off the mountain's shoulder some long time past. The rain came and we planned to sit it out but when the weather didn't pack up as forecast, we did. Heading for the Pass in a comfortable drizzle, we stopped often to appreciate the misty vista. ‘In the parting of the mists do the gods reveal their greatest treasures'. (Song of Waitaha) Pausing for a breather, we perched on boulders while Ian related the story of Parzifal and the impulse behind Joseph Beuys' art. Later he made us a Beuysian ‘Fettecce' or fat corner by pressing some of our precious butter into one corner of the tail end of a cracker carton. As the fat slowly spreads through the cardboard, one recalls how warmth can enable deeds to flow into and transform the world of substance. Over the top! And there was the Snowy River – we revelled in the downhill path and in the sights and sounds and sense of wilderness. A kea eyes us quizzically from atop a cairn of shining quartz. So what do you experience when looking at an ice-clad summit compared with a vegetated peak? One suggests cold, reflecting intellect that throws us back on ourselves; the other speaks of light and warmth fostering plant growth and animal life – it draws us to its breast. One day all day, we sat listening to the turbulent river roar and watching damp grey sheets limply curtain the hut windows…the agony of hut-fever. Fortunately, muttering mutineers were enthralled by Hartmut's insightful account of Gandhi's suffering and striving. Misery evaporated and by dawn the sun was shining. Several of us took off early for a look at Dart Glacier and Cascade Saddle and by day's end had walked a distance of 26 kms. beneath our footsteps Earth walks slowly while time stands still at a distance.
When we were away a theme started to grow within me, and carried on after my arrival home. This was the same theme discussed in the Gandhi biography; the theme of truth. Of course the theme of truth is something I have always thought about, talked about and read about, but never have I experienced it in the way that I did from this trip. Being away from the normal surroundings of society and living in the mountains, we see nature and life in an untouched way. It is not a man-made world, with lies or masks. The mountains will only ever tell you of truth. Also being in a group of new faces, we do not carry a title or past. We are who we present ourselves to be and there is truth in this. Two weeks together makes it hard for anyone to hide their weaknesses and strengths, especially when conditions and situations become difficult. Working together to climb mountain after mountain, we see this. Each person is tested in many different ways and for everyone else to see. This is not a competitive test though, because the group needs to work together and if one falls, we all fall. We cannot move on to our next destination until everyone is ready to do so. How true to life this is. A nother blue-sky-day and we wander up the Hooker Valley beneath an icy glare from New Zealand 's highest mountain, Aoraki-Mt Cook. Each of us draws an alpine plant using intellect, imagination, inspiration and intuition in an elemental (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) way of ‘seeing' to extend what our primary senses perceive. Next day a dusty, back country road between Rakaia Gorge and Lake Lyndon brings us full circle back to Arthurs' Pass and the underworld of Cave Stream. Navigating by torchlight through the bat-black world of stream-sculpted limestone, we wade upstream for 40 minutes before clambering out a ladder beside a small waterfall. What is special about being in Earth's dark deepness, where light's mystery whispers, a sung note lingers and rock forms like dense cream… we walk inside Earth's skeleton. Her blood pulses rhythmically beneath the light of our torches as her vertebral column arcs overhead. Here we're in her pelvis; there we trip over her phalanges. And afterwards we return to the Birthplace of the Gods. Once upon a time this was a place for leading young people toward the higher mysteries of the Mind Guided by wise elders and seers, young people used to be challenged mentally and physically by initiation rituals to awaken them to realms of Mind or Spirit. Today, the birthplace of the Gods must be discovered within us. What, in former times took place outwardly in Nature, must now be transformed into inner experience. The modern initiation journey is travelled by self-awakened individuals who take responsibility for their own learning. For this reason, the historical Jesus emerges as an important figure. He was the first individual to awaken to full human consciousness, the experience and creative possibilities of God within Man. It was he who introduced humankind to its new task. Now it is up to us individually, rather than through tribal or group-ritual, to learn to become co-creators with this Universal Being we call God. A modern initiation ritual can be found in The Act of Consecration of Man. It offers us the possibility to find our own way of ‘beginning' to enter into conscious spiritual communion with the Being of Life. We are everywhere in the inner being of Nature. Nothing is within her, nothing is outside her; That which is within is without, and that which is without is within. Only ask yourself which you are, Whether the kernel; or the husk. Goethe A final circle and the gifting of pounamu, the Stone of Peace. May it keep alive in each of our hearts, the bond of community that we forged on our summer sojourn. The Youth Full Life Summer Alpine Adventure acknowledges the generous support of Caversham Foundation, Dunedin in contributing toward bus hire costs, Boulevard L'Epi Organic Bakery, Auckland who supply day-old bread that TCC distributes in exchange for a koha on behalf of the Youth Fund and busking duo, Ron Cameron and Hartmut Borries whose weekly music-for-the-streets is also expanding the possibility for further Youth events.
Elisabeth Alington Feb 2008
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ "What is a friend? - A single soul in two bodies." "A true friend stabs you in the front." "My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me." "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."
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The South Island Alpine Trek was a great success. Here is a report and some images from the journey ...
harmony?', Goethe's and Gandhi's lives vividly recounted by Hartmut, Lis requiring that we look at plants more closely, and all those many moments when we celebrated our new friends in conversation – which, according to Goethe is more precious than anything else, even gold and light.
Native mountain parrots or Kea, with their curious penchant for removing rubber from car windows, entertained us at the Otira viaduct lookout. In Greymouth's Jade Boulder Gallery we viewed the permanent exhibition of pounamu-greenstone, a form of jade unique to these mountains. Then to the Fox Glacier – the only place in the world where it's possible to step off a glacier into a rainforest.
At last appears the bus that drives away weary feet and raises blistered spirits with the promise of a hot shower. But wait – what's been left behind? For 6 days we have walked in the wilderness together, becoming more and more real to each other because we've had to depend on one another. Now we're set suddenly adrift in a Queenstown mall. We try the listening exercise but find it impossible to ‘hear' anything. It requires more inner effort than we can muster right now; the spirit is willing but the body is weary.
Song. We too have come to listen for the song in these stones. Again, we draw a few conclusions on paper before climbing to the ridge that honours the Peace Child born of the god of peace, Rongo Marae Roa and the Earth Mother. We listen as Hartmut speaks of initiation. The word means ‘beginning' but the beginning of what?