Community Letter

August 2008

 

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

Dag Hammarskjold

 

 

Dear members and friends of the Christian Community,

the coldest and darkest part of the year is over and everyone is looking forward to more warmth, sun and signs of spring. The many landslides that the heavy rainfalls have caused will sooner or later be overgrown by fresh green. This is the yearly miracle of the healing forces of nature in cooperation with the increasing power of the sun. In our human relationships there may be landslides as well, where our well-composed soul has lost its inner beauty and wholeness through anger and unreliability, deceiving trust, talking badly and critisism. After we have given in to weaknesses we look like a landscape hit by storm and flooding. And our relationships are equally wounded and scarred. It may seem as if things can never become whole again. But if the warming power of forgiveness reaches us from those who have suffered from our weaknesses, then the miracle of healing happens. Even though our “landslide” is, underneath, still there, we are somehow restored and feel encouraged to become better and guard ourselves in future against bad temper. And, even more importantly, the violated relationships are being healed and reconnected. Forgiveness is indeed an inner sun-power which can bring healing Springtime to all human beings and communities.

At the beginning of the month the National Council of our Movement had its meetings in Hastings and our community was able to share with them perspectives on how the future of our congregation in the Hawke's Bay may be pursued. Hartmut Borries once more explained the planned new orientation of the work in New Zealand where all available priests work together in one place ( Auckland ). It is the hope that through this a rich community life can come about, with daily services, youth work, study groups, social and religious festivals. This will in turn make it more inviting for other people to draw nearer, those who at present feel too exposed in the usually small gatherings at our centers. But for this new hopeful impuls to be realized, other centres, especially Hastings , will have to suffer loss. The council and the priests expressed how they felt for Hastings and assured us of their lasting support. Is is intendet that Hastings will be regularly visited by priests and all local endeavours to continue with weekly work will be supported and were strongly encouraged. However, Hartmut was not yet able to announce a successor for myself and until he/she is found and has arrived in Auckland nothing quite certain can be said. It was fully agreed by all present that “Rangimarie” is a valuable base for our future work in the Bay. The initiative of Peter Volker and others to possibly errect some housing units for retired people in the back of the property was welcomed and encouraged. A good and warmhearted meeting came to a close with a strong evening service celebrated by Kevin Coffey.

As the main work of the Christian Community in New Zealand will in future be concentrated in Auckland, it will for the rest of the country be all the more important to have, besides the ongoing work in their communities, a number of national events , where people from many centres can come together in the spirit of renewed Christianity. So there is a possibility that this year's national conference on “Prayer” at Te Ra will not remain a one-off event but might be followed up with a new theme at another place. As this is still open, three other such inter-regional events are already in full planning. Please take note of the announced Retreat in Otaki at 19 -22 October where we will endeavour to discover more about the lofty being of St Michael and his guidance in modern religious practise (brochure at church). If you have difficulty in financing your participation please do not be shy and apply for a concession. At Labour Weekend, 24 – 27 October, Hartmut Borries and I will invite all youth of the last two years confirmations to meet for a first Youth-bush-camp in southern Hawke's Bay. - Furthermore, we are very happy to announce our next Summer-family-camp “Mountain Times”, from 9 – 14 January 2009, which will again take place in Camp Mangatepopo at the Tongariro National Park . Both Hartmut Borries and myself will be able to contribute. Please find the brochure with registration form in Rangimarie or at our web-site – and, if possible, register soon.

Back here in our own community we will continue with the further discovery of fairy tales. They are not only very enjoyable to listen to but bring through their pictures pure images of our inner soul-struggles and quests. We are very grateful that Robyn Hewetson has joined this work and - through her wonderful presentation of the tale - makes the evenings a real soul-warming experience.

In the programme you can read about a special servers meeting in order to prepare for “changes in the service”. These changes will in our region come into effect at the 28 th of September and regard certain aspects of the language of our rituals. In principle, our rituals are unchangable and sacrosanct in all their elements. However, as they were originally received only in German, the later “translations” into other languages do not altogether hold the same totally unquestionable dignity that they couldn't be, from time to time, carefully reconsidered. After many years of pondering the international priests-circle has now decided to renew some of the wordings of our English rituals: we realize that the Old-english: “Thou, Thee, Thine”, “hast, doest, orderest” etc are rapidly getting out of use. We want to take the courage to in future address the divine Father as well as Christ with the common, but also much more immediate and intimate “You”. Also, the word “men” is nowadays less and less understood as representing all human beings. It will be replaced by “human beings”, “human”, or still other words. Furthermore, the old “yeah” will in future become a clear, affirmative english “Yes”. We are aware that these changes might for some at first be experienced as quite painful and might appeare to be forced while others will welcome them spontaneously. We very much hope that, with good will and after some time of getting used to them, everyone will eventually fully embrace and appreciate our rituals in their renewed language. Please help with your good thoughts and loving devotion that the essence of our services can be lifted out of the old and be newly incarnated into this slightly altered wordbody. Please also see the attached letter of our Lenker Hartmut Borries about these forthcoming changes.

I am delighted to announce that there will be a wedding in our community. Astrid Anderson and Julian Pook will receive the sacrament of marriage at the 5 th of October at 12.00 noon. As our chapel would be too small for the many expected guests, the ceremony will take place in Duart House in Havelock North. After the Sunday service in Rangimarie, everyone in our community is invited to drive up to Havelock and be witness to the solemn and joyous moment when the pair will join for life and receive the sacramental blessing for their bond. Please contribute a tasty dish for the festive reception afterwards.

This wedding will already take place in Michaelmastide when the mighty scales will again be seen in our chapel and, on 12 October, we want to celebrate once more the childrens festival: “Michaels sword and Michaels scales”. One day later many of us will be on our way to Otaki, where we - together with friends from the whole country - will hold our three day's retreat on the mystery of Michael.

So there is much to come and you are warmly invited to make full use of the few remaining months with a resident priest in the Bay.

With warmest greetings, yours,

Martin