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Michael, Cosmopolitanism, and Christ
The Spirit of Whitsun & the Mission of Group Work, by David Lenker
On Whitsunday 2009, friends and members gathered in Hershey, PA for the Susquehanna Corps de Michael’s 16th annual Whitsun Festival. Our theme celebrated two new members who are natives of South Korea and Ghana, Africa. Saetbyul Ryu and Kofi Nsiah found their way to the Corps de Michael branch of the Anthroposophical Society in Hershey through recent outreach activities: a Corps de Michael booth at the Susquehanna Waldorf School’s winter fair, and a Holy Night celebration at the home of a member in Red Lion (suburban York, PA). Due to the volunteer nature of these outreach activities, the global economic downturn has had zero effect on our branch membership. Reflecting the cosmopolitan spirit of the Age of Michael, our roster of active members continues to grow…and currently includes natives of four continents!
The festival opened with a vocal solo by Lisa Hildreth, “Love Is Come Again.” This heavenly melody, celebrating spring’s rebirth and the resurrection of Christ, was followed by multilingual readings describing the moving events of the first Whitsunday (Acts 2:1-11). A cosmopolitan note was struck as we heard the rhythms and intonations of English, South Korean, a native Ghanaian language, German, French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek.
Fifty days after Easter, the disciples gather together in a house, dazed and confused. They had lost their great teacher: first, through the Crucifixion and second, through the Ascension. As the disciples gathered on the first Whitsun, they had not grasped what Rudolf Steiner calls “the most difficult of all mysteries to understand,” the mystery of birth, death, and resurrection, the Mystery of Golgotha. (“Michael, the Messenger of Christ,” London, 2 May 1913). Sitting together at the “first group meeting,” they are bereft. Then the spirit moves through the house. Flames of knowledge descend from the heavens and come to rest above the head of each disciple. The flames are not theoretical or abstract knowledge. They are knowledge inspired by Michael—the fiery Prince of Thought in the Universe. It is a knowledge that speaks to the soul and warms the heart. It is a knowledge that paves the way to a higher form of community, leading each soul out of one’s separate existence to the archetypal spirit of the universally human.
As word of the first Whitsun spreads, persons of many nations, races, ethnicities, and spiritual streams come to experience the flames of spirit-knowledge. The “first group meeting” offers a foreshadowing, a premonition of both Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love achieved in the sixth epoch as a metamorphosis of today’s anthroposophical group work, and the New Jerusalem. At Whitsun, the multitudes speak in different languages and yet each understands the other. They do not merely celebrate their differences as taught by diversity training, rather, in the cosmopolitan spirit of Michael, each ethnicity offers a particular revelation of the universally human:
Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), chapter 13, p. 143.
Following the multilingual readings, we heard the brotherly words of William Penn to the Susquehannock and Delaware Indians at Shackamaxson. In 1682, in a moment of world historic significance, Penn inaugurated his “Holy Experiment” by extending his hand in peace, brotherhood, and friendship to the Native Americans. Soon the persecuted of Europe flocked to the New World to practice the spiritual path of their choosing (a radical concept in the 17th century)! As persons of different ethnicities, races, and spiritual streams lived together, side by side in cosmopolitan, Michaelic harmony, the Holy Experiment became a spirit seed of American freedom—the Spirit of 1776. Moreover, as long as William Penn lived, not one drop of blood was shed between Native Americans and the colonists of the Holy Experiment, also known as Pennsylvania. Festivities included singing; a study of “Michael, the Messenger of Christ”; remarks on the risen etheric Christ by Scott Hicks; contemplation of flower art by anthroposophical artist Ymelda Hamann-Mentelberg; and a festive potluck on the west lawn of Stonehaven, home of the Corps de Michael.
Perhaps the highlight of the joyous festivities was remarks on the theme by our newest members, Saetbyul and Kofi. Each offered an inspiring vignette of their journey to the branch from their native lands.
