Conversations About Our Purpose

- 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 activities taking place in this small community located in a magnificent natural setting.

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.

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.

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:

Walking together along the path

Following the footsteps of the angel.

I bring darkness to your light,
You bring light to my darkness;

We make visible our true nature

We can love each other

And find the Christ-Sun.

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.  

Wishing you all a rich and warm Christmas season,

Jean Balekian