Dear Members and Friends of The Christian Community in Christchurch,

as the enclosed letter states, Hartmut is enjoying a longer break until 1st October in order
to recover his heath more fully. He has asked me, and I have agreed to take on the next
two visits to you. As I have given up my planned sailing trips to the Solomon Islands, I do
hope you can support this change too! Hartmut will be back with you in October to
celebrate the 21st birthday of the Christian Community in this country.

In these two visits I would like to explore new ground, which Hartmut in his recent talk ploughed through here in Auckland. He experienced 10 days of the work of Joseph Beuys and his followers,
and was very enthusiastic about it to make it part of the work of the Christian Community.

As I was fortunate to meet Joseph Beuys in my days in Bochum, Germany, I was intrigued too by his approach to social questions and successful attempts to bring about change in society through SOCIAL SCULPTURE, as he called it. I heard about the impact the social sculpture in your Cathedral
Square had and still has, the pyramid of stumbling stones, assembled by many hands and supported by even more hearts within the city. Well done courageous people in Christchurch.

Such an artistic and social event was just what Joseph Beuys instigated with many people between the 1960s and ‘80s in Europe. He was one of the founding fathers of the first Green Party in
Germany. But he always maintained his independence as well. A genius, preparing a new way to work with society’s issues, whenever his conscience moved him.

Why do I think his impulse is connected with us in the Christian Community? At St. John's tide, which we are still celebrating till the end of this month, we focus also on the conscience of the whole world, which St. John embodied.“Change your hearts and minds”, was his call, and is still today and will always be. And this power of conscience would like to grow and change according to the issues in our society. An artistic expression could be used instead of an angry, frustrated one, to challenge
governments and councils and institutions, when they are unable to fulfill their serving task, and fall into the one or other trap like the power trap or ‘no funds’ excuse, etc.

How can we express in an artistic way, what needs to be renewed, changed, or thought about anew?
What is the artist in us doing? Can he/she be awakened, stirred, roused into action? Can we move the world around us, not only out of ourselves but with the help from the spirit of our time? What does he want of us today? Where are we going? Can we - being a small group- make a difference? Often our conscience is silenced by many excuses, which of course are all valid. But would it not be nice to listen once together to it and give it a voice, creating an artistic action that will make a difference to
the world around us?

On Friday evening as well as the time after the Sunday service we will do two steps in the process of forming a social sculpture. And we hope to continue this process during the next visit in August. So please, you might know someone, who is concerned but feels disempowered to contribute, invite them along to this new happening, as I would call it rather than a talk. This is religion in practice, never mind about the doubter in our head or heart. Let us all overcome the winter blues by awakening our social conscience and doing something artistic about it. Thereby following in the footsteps of St. John. It will be a group process, so let’s see what we all can achieve together.

Looking forward to meet you all again, (and don't forget to invite someone to come along as well),