February News - Youth Section at the Goetheanum

Dear friends of the Youth Section,

Here in Dornach, we begin to feel a change in season approaching. Now that some of the Corona regulations have been suspended and the Goetheanum is open to all visitors again, we are expecting with joy to meet some of you in Dornach and elsewhere. At the same time, due to the current political developments in Eastern Europe, we are facing new challenges that intensify the Youth Section's core questions: what is essential during these times? Which qualities of human encounters do we want to foster? Which contents do we need to work with in order to shape reality together wherever we are?

In connection to these questions, we want to invite you to the events happening in the upcoming weeks here in Dornach and in other places connected to the Youth Section.

Between 3-6 March, we will host the Research School weekend, which you can join online and in-person now that the Goetheanum is again open without restrictions to visitors. We also look forward to the upcoming Worldwide Youth Gathering in Camphill from 3-6 June (Newton Dee, Scotland), which has been in the making for two years, and it is finally happening!

Additionally, The Youth Section is still rejoicing in the upcoming leadership transition and preparing together with Constanza Kaliks and Nathaniel Williams, the future of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum. We also welcome Jacinta Gorchs to the team.

Our friends and supporters are also blooming with initiatives at this time. We have compiled a fantastic array of opportunities and events you might be interested in attending in this newsletter.

We hope you find all that's coming of interest and, as always, we are happy to hear from you about what's living in you, your communities and your initiatives.

With our best thoughts from the Goetheanum,

Andrea de la Cruz, Gaia Termopoli, Ioana Viscrianu, Jacinta Gorchs and Johannes Kronenberg with Constanza Kaliks

Youth Section at the Goetheanum

It is an honour to be invited to become the next leader of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum. I have been able to work with Constanza Kaliks, Andrea de la Cruz, Ioana Viscrianu and Johannes Kronenberg in recent years and I am grateful to have them as partners for the transition, and hopefully as future collaborators.

I first walked into the Youth Section at the Goetheanum over 20 years ago. In that small building in Dornach, I met other young people from all over the world who were exploring their relationship with themselves, society, one another and anthroposophy. These meetings led me to participate and collaborate in projects in many countries and exercised a strong influence on the path of my life. Through these connections I have discovered, like so many others, impulses toward service and creativity as well as positive ways of facing challenges and crises.

As I have begun to navigate the transition from my current tasks in the USA I am looking toward the future, with my heart trained on the spirituality of young adults and new challenges of coming of age today. The life of the Goetheanum and the Anthroposophical Society find their justification by developing anthroposophical contemplative approaches to knowledge and action while fostering a network of authentic human connection, trust and appreciation. I am both humbled and excited to join this effort with colleagues at the Goetheanum and to work with the young adults who are building the international network of the Youth Section to serve this goal.

Nathaniel Williams

I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I attended the San Miguel Arcángel Waldorf School. Once I graduated in 2017, I decided to travel to Slovenia to ‘Connect Conference‘. Through this experience and some others I had while travelling on my year abroad, there was my first visit to the Goetheanum. I could observe how every time I met people related to the anthroposophical movement, I felt as if I was back home.

What is this ‘home‘ feeling that I have when I meet Anthroposophy no matter where or how? How can it make me feel at home even if I am so far away from what I know as ‘home’? With these questions, I went back to Argentina and started studying Social Work at the Public University of Buenos Aires. Before I left for my travels, I had already been part of a group of young people led by a priest at the Christian Community.

After coming back I found myself more related to what was living in the Youth Section group: a space in which each individual could bring their own initiative and build enriching experiences to share our little understanding of Anthroposophy and learn from one another.

The opportunity to come to Dornach arose, and together with my thirst for knowledge, I decided to do the International Study Year at the Goetheanum. After I finished, I enrolled at the Rudolf Steiner Painting School.

Now, the opportunity to work as a member of the team of the Youth Section here inspires me to be active in understanding the crazy times we are living in.

I have been living with the question if we, as young people, are able to comprehend and find the right context and time, to “call” with the right question, what can in each and every one of us awaken the human in humanity.

Jacinta Gorchs

Haus Maryon - a space to deepen Anthroposophy for young people and students

The General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheaum has opened the new rooms on the Edith Maryon floor in the lower Eurythmy House at the Goetheanum, adjacent to the Edith Maryon and Assja Turgenieff exhibition rooms, created many years ago with the support of the Edith Maryon Foundation (Basel). The inauguration took place to coincide with Edith Maryon's 150th birthday celebration.

Their intention for this place, in these special rooms, is to create a small study centre of the spiritual-scientific work of Rudolf Steiner for students at the Goetheanum - in collaboration with "Study and Continuing Education" and the Youth Section. Anthroposophical and philosophical colloquia for young people will also be held on a regular basis. A great many people came to the opening and it was a real sunny celebration day with a joyful future.

For more information, get in touch with the Youth Section or the General Anthroposophical Section's team.

Changes to our website
Our website is going through some maintenance work at the moment.

You may have noticed that some links were broken earlier this month, and strange content appeared on youthsection.org! It was due to a hack, and now we are working to fix it. However, we decided to turn this into an opportunity to refresh our site, and we look forward to presenting you with a new website soon.

For the time being, if you have any questions or need details about a project or initiative, you can be in touch via email. Thank you for your understanding!

RESEARCH SCHOOL WEEKEND (3-6 MARCH)
Goetheanum & Online

A colloquium for young people interested in developing research out of Anthroposophy.
How does living with questions shape us and the world? And what are the basic characteristics of anthroposophy's approach to scientific inquiry? This event is for anyone who wishes to deepen their experience of Anthroposophy as a path of knowledge. Contributors include Constanza Kaliks, Nathaniel Williams, Peter Selg (General Anthroposophical Section / Ita Wegman Institute), Joao Felipe Toni and Carolin Schurer (Natural Sciences Section), Nicolas Criblez (General Anthroposophical Section) and Elizabeth Sanders (Camphill Research Network).

Some places are still available at the Goetheanum. Registration for online participation is still open. Just email us!

From our friends and network

Our friends from the Elinor Network, Youth Initiative Program (Sweden), Ökologie des Bewusstseins (Germany), Theatre of the Sea (UK), Camphill Village Kimberton Hills (USA) and Evidenz Foundation have upcoming events and opportunities that you might be interested in.

Elinor has launched an initiative to support refugees from Ukrania by offering accommodation in our different lands. Applications for YIP 2022-23 are open until March. Ökologie des Bewusstseins "Regeneration Training" is underway and one can sign up for courses throughout the upcoming months. The friends at Theatre of the Sea have one last event of their series "The Crown of Grassroots", which aims to explore ideas of civil society, basic income, direct democracy and the disentanglement of political structures as suggested by Rudolf Steiner.

Camphill Village Kimberton Hills is looking for nurses and physicians who want to work grounded on Threefolding in the USA-based community, and Evidenz Foundation has an upcoming symposium on "Education and the Economy of the Future - School as a Workshop of Change" (in German).

For more information on any of these opportunities, just click the corresponding images below and you will be taken to the right places!

We hope you enjoy these!

The International Youth Initiative Program (YIP) is a holistic educational program based in Järna, Sweden. A group of 34 young people live and study together on the beautiful campus, focusing on developing skills in social entrepreneurship, to take the personal and collective initiative against the current global issues facing our communities today.

As part of the learning block "Community and Collaboration", this year's participants (YIP14) will go to 9 different countries to volunteer at different organisations which focus on biodynamic agriculture, social change, community building, education and movement. In order to fundraise for these learning placements, we have set up a gofundme page, which you can find here. There is also a Little Video message from us to you :)

Additionally, some of the YIP students have created a recipe book called "Food for the Soul: an intercontinental cookbook". With over 70 recipes, the e-recipe book encapsulates the diversity of YIP14, with the aim to connect supporters to the YIP group through the sacred act of eating and sharing food. We have provided a link to purchase this e-recipe book and thank anyone who wishes to support the group on their upcoming placements.

Here is the link with instructions on how to support the recipe book and the participants' objective of encouraging positive social change in our communities: recipe book

SUPPORT THE YOUTH SECTION

In 1924 Rudolf Steiner made a call to the youth of his time with the words ‘stick together with an iron will’. This was in order to overcome the great differences in perspectives and because, in Steiner’s words,

“Sticking together is what is most necessary if we hope to accomplish anything today with regards to life’s great issues. […] Eventually, you may realise that the greatest of your youth was knowing how to stay together. (R. Steiner, 1924, GA217a)

In this spirit, we would like to invite you, dear reader, to support young people to come together despite these difficult times. All donations will go towards scholarships and basic infrastructure to initiate projects by and for young people who are seeking to meet one another and share their spiritual striving.

We thank all our donors and supporters, and especially all the members of the Anthroposophical Society who make our work possible today and always.