LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE
Society for the Preservation of the General Anthroposophical Society of 1923 and 1925
Our society LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE (GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG), Society for the Preservation of the General Anthroposophical Society of 1923 and 1925, was founded on December 28, 2003, in Horgen near Zurich by individuals who see the social impulse Rudolf Steiner inaugurated during the Christmas Conference 1923/24 as the focus of their anthroposophical striving.
The founding members of LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE (GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG) have been learning and striving to live the Christmas Conference impulse for years and in some cases, even decades. We have been particularly moved by a seminal passage from Rudolf Steiner's Arnheim lectures of July 1924 about “The karma of the Anthroposophical Society and the substance of the Anthroposophical movement”. Early on in the first of the three lectures Rudolf Steiner states that during the Christmas Conference, particularly since he himself took on the leadership of the newly-founded General Anthroposophical Society, the anthroposophical movement (a spiritual stream that has existed for millennia) was fused with the General Anthroposophical Society. The Being of Anthroposophy put on the General Anthroposophical Society as its earthly body. Rudolf Steiner's exact words: “And ever since the Christmas Conference in Dornach, quite the opposite is true: We must no longer distinguish between the Anthroposophical Movement and the Anthroposophical Society; they are now ONE”.
It has become our path to learn to understand and live these words.
This path by its nature made us feel more and more responsible for what is currently happening in the Anthroposophical Society. In trying to understand and take over this responsibility, we have been privileged to feel an ever stronger connection with Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophy and the Anthroposophical Society must not be severed. They cannot live one without the other. Anthroposophy will only be able to develop its full power in complete unity with the Anthroposophical Society. This reality has become a deep experience for us, and the more it deepens, the more it enables us to encounter Rudolf Steiner.
Two recent events within the General Anthroposophical Society were deeply shocking to us. At the members’ meeting of December 28 and 29, 2002, a deluded membership gave in to persuasions that the Principles (Rudolf Steiner’s Christmas Conference statutes for the General Anthroposophical Society) must be changed and voted for these changes, which robbed these Principles of their original intention and their ability to lead us into the future. The second incident, even more painful than the first, took place on November 15, 2003. On this dark day the general members’ meeting of Rudolf Steiner’s General Anthroposophical Society voted to dissolve the Society.
In the weeks following this event, we were deeply moved by serious questions. During the Holy Nights, on the 80th anniversary of the Christmas Conference, the answers we received led us to found a society to preserve the General Anthroposophical Society. A few weeks later, we named this impulse the
LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE (GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG).
Werner Jordan
Michaela Jordan
Bernhard Ruchti
The Board of Directors of the LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE
Advent Tide 2004
Contact:
The central society comprises three national societies:
the Swiss National Society
the German National Society
the Austrian National Society
In addition, we have a representative in the United States of America.
Central Society
GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG
Gesellschaft zur Bewahrung der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft 1923/25
Bockenweg 31
CH - 8810 Horgen
Fax ++41 (0)44 725 80 15
Representative in the United States of America
LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE
Society for the Preservation of the General Anthroposophical Society of 1923 and 1925
P.O.Box 237
Copake Falls, NY 12517, USA
> About the American Correspondent of GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG (LIVING THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE)
Swiss National Society
GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG
Gesellschaft zur Bewahrung der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft 1923/25
Landesgesellschaft Schweiz
Kirchackerstrasse 14
CH - 8608 Bubikon
Fax ++41 (0)55 243 24 12
German National Society
GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG
Gesellschaft zur Bewahrung der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft 1923/25
Landesgesellschaft Deutschland
Schellingstrasse 27
D - 80799 München
Fax ++49 (0)89 289 86 100
Austrian National Society
GELEBTE WEIHNACHTSTAGUNG
Gesellschaft zur Bewahrung der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft 1923/25
Landesgesellschaft Österreich
Wolf-Dietrich-Strasse 10/5
A - 5020 Salzburg
Fax ++43 (0)662 87 15 89
