Impressions from the AGM and Conference

by Dorothy LeBaron

I would like to thank each person who was present at the recent AGM and Conference in Thornhill. It was quite an extraordinary event. The group that gathered had a wealth of life experience and connections in the Anthroposophical movement. The conference presenters were an inspiring example of working together creatively, being able and willing to take a risk and find a creative way of interweaving artistic biography work with lecture content which led to a very lively afternoon and evening. Working with the theme “And the darkness becomes light” led to an experience of a deepened relating to one another.

In the conversation we had at the end of the conference, I noticed in particular two themes emerging that we as Council have previously heard from members across the country.

“Where are the young people?”

“The Anthroposophical Society is isolated from the world. Why are we not out there, doing more, connecting to the world?”

This time there were some interesting voices responding to these questions.

“What is at the root of the longing to have younger people here?”

“How do we become elders?”

“When we meet like this, we have an opportunity to nurture the soul in an environment that holds and supports us. We come together, then carry our moments of awakening into the world.”

“The Michaelic impulse is trying to find it’s way into human culture, everywhere in the world. How can I see and connect to it?”

“What if we were to serve Anthroposophical initiatives others bring forward with the question, “How can I help you?”

I had a sense in the room of something emerging, something showing itself. This something is about the Anthroposophical Society in Canada. That it does not need to be “fixed” and that there is not something wrong with it. That it does not need to be pushed and prodded more “into the world”. That in the course of the weekend, we together had co-created something that was an offering to the world, and that we are world.