[Dialogue] Report on Fox's trip to Germany

[LAURELCG@aol.com]

This was sent by Jim Garrison, president of Wisdom University.  Forwarded by 
Jann McGuire, D.Min.  Did any of you in Europe hear any of the news reports?



Dear Students,


Matt and I are just back from our trip, which went very 

successfully.  Full details are available on Matt's blog at 

www.WisdomUniversity.org. What I want to share here is a few 

thoughts about what transpired and what lies ahead as we seek to 

build a global institution based not only on granting degrees but on 

training a new generation of leaders in the arts of mystical 

activism. 


We began in the small village of Bad Herrenalb in the Black Forest 

about one hundred miles south of Frankfurt.  Post card beautiful and 

very serene with birds chirping in the forest all day. We were hosted 

by a group called Forderkreis (Fellowship), founded by Walter 

Lechler, a doctor who brought Alcoholics Anonymous to Germany forty 

years ago and who for the past thirty two years has brought together 

that community plus a growing group of individuals seeking deeper 

connectedness.  Pentecost weekend is their largest gathering.  Matt 

spoke there and was very well received.  


Walter is about the same age as Josef Ratzinger, a bit older, and he 

told us stories of participating in the Hitler Youth and then the 

German Army, just like Ratzinger did.  Like Ratzinger, he did not 

speak out, a fact that continues to plague him to the present day. We 

had dinner with him for the three evenings we were there and spoke 

mostly about the Nazis, the many similarities between then and now, 

and the urgent necessity of developing a training program that will 

empower people to speak out from an unmovable spiritual grounding.  

We agreed to work together to develop a Wisdom University presence in 

Germany.


>From Bad Herrenalb, we took the train to Erfurt in what used to be 

East Germany, where Meister Eckhardt served for six years as Head of 

the Dominican Priory there.  The Church in which he gave some of the 

sermons Matt translated for his book on Eckhardt is still there as is 

the choir stall in which he sat and the small refectory in which he 

spoke to the students.  After a tour provided by the current Pastor, 

Matt spent some time there alone meditating.  Very moving and very 

powerful.  Jan Hus, the famous Czech reformer who was burnt at the 

stake in 1415, is buried there. 


>From Erfurt, we drove with Peter Shipton, one of our DMIN students to 

Wittenberg where Martin Luther nailed his ninety five theses to the 

church door in 1517 and spent most of his life.  Our action there was 

a classic exercise in post modern theater.  The church authorities 

would not let us attach anything to the Church doors so we 

constructed an A-frame from two planks Peter bought at a local 

hardware store. Before a very small group of people assembled just in 

front of the church doors, Matt spoke, nailed his ninety five theses 

to the A-frame, and spoke to the media.  


The event, comprised of less than a dozen people, was covered by the 

largest German newspaper (with a circulation of ten million), German 

television (which is seen by tens of millions), the main newspaper in 

mid-Germany (with a circulation of several million), plus the local 

newspaper in Erfurt carried a full page story of his visit to 

Eckhardt's church.  A very small event was broadcast to an entire 

nation, reminding both of us of the awesome power of the media and 

how inventive theatre can use it to carry a powerful message far 

beyond the confines of the action itself. 


Perhaps the most important long term result of the trip was a series 

of contacts, mostly German and including Peter, who are interested in 

working with us to develop a sustained European presence for Wisdom 

University.  We will be organizing a pilgrimage with Matt to Germany 

to the sites associated with Eckhardt and Hildegard of Bingen.  This 

will be very similar to the one coming up in September to France with 

Andrew Harvey and Apela Colorado to visit the Mary Magdalen and Black 

Madonna sites.  We are also developing a strategic partnership with 

ForderKreis to develop MA and DMIN intensives with our current 

faculty and well known teachers from Europe.  


So Wisdom University took deeper root in Europe even as Matt's 

proclamation of a new Reformation took the message about the need for 

spiritual renewal to a nation.  People were excited by the notion of 

a university dedicated to mystical activism and eager to establish 

partnerships that will allow the light communities of Europe and 

America to collaborate during these dark times. 


I urge you to check out Matt's blog and to consider seriously the 

pilgrimage to France with Andrew and Apela.  There is something about 

being there, about being where the great mystics lived and taught and 

died, that inculcates what one reads and appreciates with the mind, 

but which the pilgrimage enables one to take in with the heart and at 

a cellular level so that the body as well as the intellect know the 

truth of what the mystics personified.  This trip turned out to be a 

transformative pilgrimage for both of us, and I recommend it to all 

of you.


Warm Regards,


Jim